Brock legacy headlines new display at The Bend
Historic touring cars unite at The Bend, celebrating Brock and Australian motorsport legends
Twenty years after the death of Peter Brock, two of the nine-time Bathurst winner’s famous race cars will take centre stage in a major celebration of Australian touring car history at The Bend.
The Touring Car Icons exhibition will be unveiled on Wednesday night ahead of this weekend’s AirTouch 500, bringing together 11 significant race cars valued collectively at more than $12 million.
Brock’s 1978 Holden Torana A9X and 1986 VK Commodore Group A will feature prominently, with the exhibition opening one day after the 20th anniversary of his death.
Perhaps the most poignant display pairs Brock’s 1978 Torana with Craig Lowndes’ 1998 Holden Commodore VT and the Peter Brock Trophy. Brock and Lowndes won their second Australian Touring Car Championships in the respective cars exactly 20 years apart.
Lowndes grew up idolising Brock before joining him at the Holden Racing Team in 1994, developing a close mentor-and-apprentice relationship. Following Brock’s death in 2006, Lowndes famously won the inaugural Peter Brock Trophy at Bathurst.
The exhibition extends well beyond Brock, with six stories told through pairings of some of Australian motorsport’s most recognisable machinery.
Mark Skaife’s Holden Racing Team Commodore and Russell Ingall’s Caltex Falcon from the infamous 2003 “Shriek at the Creek” incident will be reunited for the first time in more than 20 years.
Other highlights include the GIO Nissan Skyline GT-R that dominated the 1991 Sandown 500 and the ANZ Ford Sierra RS500 that recorded what was then Mount Panorama’s fastest qualifying lap.
The collection also contrasts Brock’s 1986 VK Commodore with Dick Johnson’s Ford Mustang from the same era, while Chaz Mostert’s first-winning 2013 Ford Falcon is paired with the Walkinshaw Mustang that carried him to the 2025 Supercars Championship.
Curator and The Bend Motorsport and Operations Manager, Adam Brook, said assembling the cars from private collections around Australia had taken months.
“We create the events we want to see, and pulling these cars together from private collections all around the country has taken months of work,” Brook said.
The exhibition will be available to Grandstand ticket holders and above during the AirTouch 500 at The Bend from September 11-13. The event opens the 2026 Ryco Enduro Cup, with the Top Ten Shootout on Saturday followed by Sunday’s 500km Supercars enduro.
