PE 030RB took a dominant victory in the 1997 Primus 1000 in the hands of Perkins and co-driver Russell Ingall.
The Castrol-backed machine crushed the field, with the majority of its key opposition suffering mechanical issues in its wake.
This car was the last of the VN-VS generation of Commodores built by Perkins Engineering.
It carries the ‘RB’ tag for ‘rebuild’ as it was a replacement chassis for PE 030, which Perkins crashed at the pre-event media day.
PE 030RB was later raced in the 1998 Australian Touring Car Championship before filtering being sold on to privateer racers and eventually into the hands of collectors.
“It was restored nearly 20 years ago, but it’s back in original, mint condition, as it was in 1997,” explained Jack Perkins.
“It’s a credit to those involved in the restoration process, and my business, Perkins Engineering, in more recent times has been involved in the mechanical side of it.”
The car comes complete with its Bathurst-winning, Perkins-built Chevrolet V8-engine that Jack helped track down and has been recently reinstalled.
“When this car was restored at the start of the 2000s, it had another Perkins Engineering Chev engine – there were 198 race engines built over the 25 years of business,” explained Perkins..
“We set about the task of finding the actual 1997 race-winning engine. The Perkins Engineering archives and build sheets were able to tell us we needed engine 162.
“We found it in New Zealand of all places and were able to get it back over to Australia, rebuild it, and partner it back up with the car.”
Larry and Jack Perkins both drove the car for TV filming purposes at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2018, giving Jack a new appreciation for the iconic machine.
It’s being offered for sale with the 1997 Primus 1000 race trophy.
The auction is being run by Collecting Cars, with private bidding having opened on Monday.
This article first appeared on Speedcafe.com, a sister site to MotorRacing.com.
