Buying a neglected machine before realising it’s got serious provenance is a bit like winning the lottery; it’s hard to pull off and only happens to the lucky few. Tony Jaeger is one of those guys, with his Cameo Yellow Commodore wagon copping the sleeper treatment at HDT prior to delivery in 1983.
“I’d never actually owned a wagon before,” Tony starts. “But my youngest daughter was doing a lot of swimming comps at the time, and we were driving all over the state. I needed something cheap that was big enough for our gear.”
Amazingly, Tony didn’t even go far to find it, stumbling across the wagon at the back of a Barossa Valley car yard with a flat tyre and a flat battery.
“It was about 50 shades of yellow, but once they got it started and the whole back fence started vibrating, I said, ‘Hmm, yeah. I think we might take that one!’”
For the reasonable sum of $2700, Tony bought a four-speed manual, 5.0-litre V8 wagon with 16-inch Centra alloys and a HDT-built plate under the bonnet.
This was the early 2000s though, and when fuel prices spiked, he decided to trade it in. “I couldn’t get $500 for it!” he laughs. “So, I bought a Falcon wagon and stuck the Commodore in the shed.”
The shed was where the Cameo Commodore stayed for another 18 years until one day Tony opened the bonnet – he doesn’t recall why – and discovered rats nesting in the engine bay.
“I thought I’ve either got to sell this, or I’ve got to rebuild it,” he says. “That was 2018 and the rest is history.”
It’s an oft-used idiom, but there really is some history tied up in Tony’s wagon.
“The original owner was an Adelaide orthodontist, so I assume he was pretty cashed up. He sold it when he moved to Queensland and although I know his name, I’ve not tracked him down.
“He may have passed by now,” Tony concedes.
“I did manage to speak with Steve Ward, the salesman who sold the car. He worked at United Motors and remembers it well; he even went to HDT’s Leveson Street factory to oversee the mods.
“Steve told me that when the car came off the truck, Peter Brock himself was there, and he said, ‘Who in their right mind would want to build up a yellow wagon with a brown interior?’ before shrugging and setting to work.”
It might not be Group A levels of provenance, but it’s a cool story nevertheless; and there’s no reason to doubt it.
Of course, the very nature of the ADP, or Australian Dealer Pack, precluded HDT owner Peter Brock from having much of a say in what rolled in for treatment.
Until the ADP was made available, the VC-series HDT sedan was the only road car Brock’s outfit had waved a spanner over. That creation – with its fat body kit and lairy stripes – was carefully curated by Holden stylist Leo Pruneau, with options limited to three different Marlboro-themed colours: Palais White, Firethorn Red or Tuxedo Black, and a choice between auto or manual.
HDT had plans for the VH-series, but until the release of the SS ‘Group’ cars in mid-1982, dealers were screaming for product and HDT had nothing to sell.
The ADP gave buyers the chance to take home some genuine Brockness, and according to HDT’s website, they didn’t even need to visit a HDT dealer to do it, with orders accepted from any participating Holden dealership.
As reported in Motor Manual, August 1982, the cars had to be ordered in white or Maranello Red, but John Harvey, head of HDT’s Special Vehicles division, seems to have dropped this caveat almost immediately. By the time Tony’s wagon was ordered, it mattered not if the car was a base-model Commodore SL, mid-range Commodore SL/X or top-of-the-range Commodore SL/E, nor did the colour or engine; as long as it was a V8, of course.
Some were fitted with the full VC HDT body kit and 15-inch Irmscher alloys, while others, like the ‘Carringbush Special’ – the 1000th car built by HDT – cut a sleeker line in Tuxedo Black with chrome blackouts, a milder body kit and 16-inch Centra wheels; the option to sleeperfy your HDT being a direct response to buyer criticism of the VC-series, which was anything but. HDT club experts reckon that while no build numbers are known for the ADP, it’s believed only four wagons went through, making this a very rare machine.
In the case of Tony’s wagon, low-key was the vibe, despite the duco. Ordered as a 4.2-litre V8 manual, exterior options were limited to 15-inch Irmschers, colour-coded bumpers and a blackout grille, as it was up underneath that got all the goodies.
HDT installed a ‘high output’ 5.0-litre with a SS-spec big-valve heads, flowed inlet manifold, headers and some under-bonnet chrome bits, along with a 108-litre fuel tank to feed it all. Bilstein shocks were inserted all-round as were larger diameter sway bars, which surely means the lairy yellow longroof can handle as well as it can hustle.
Shout out to ‘Gavin’ and ‘Frank’ at HDT in 1983, as they fitted most of the bits, as well as the late Peter Brock who, despite his initial reservations, warmed to the car, the HDT paperwork scrawled with, “P.B okd. Good Rig”.
Upon its resurrection, Tony had the Cameo Yellow refreshed in two-pack, with the only rust repairs being one in the tailgate and the other in the right-rear guard; neither larger than a 10c piece. He also perused HDT’s catalogue to see what the orthodontist could have fitted but didn’t.
“I added a few bits like the bonnet scoop, side skirts and front air dam. If I was keeping it as an investment, I probably would have left it, but I’m never going to sell it. If I did, the kids would disown me.”
Vital Stats
1983 Holden VH Commodore SL/X HDT ADP
- Production run: 4 wagons, with total ADP production unknown
- Body: Steel, 5-door wagon
- Engine: 5044cc V8
- Power: 184kW at 4750 rpm (claimed)
- Torque: 418Nm at 3500 rpm (claimed)
- Gearbox: 4-speed manual, RWD
- Suspension: (f) MacPherson struts with coil sprints and anti-roll bar; (r) live axle with trailing arms and Panhard rod, coil springs and anti-roll bar
- Brakes: (f) 281 mm ventilated discs; (r) 281mm solid discs
- Wheels: 16×7 inch Aero alloys fitted (15×7 inch Irmscher whees std and 16×7 inch Centra wheels opt)
- Tyres: Uniroyal Wildcat ER60H15
- Performance: 0-100km/h – 7.5 seconds; 0-400m: 15.1 seconds (performance figures as tested by Wheels December 1982 using similarly specced VH Commodore SS Gropup 3)
Special thanks from Tony Jaeger:
- Vic Treloar for pulling the motor down and rebuilding it
- Jim Middleton
- Steve Ward, the original salesman who helped with some of the history
- Nick Baker for the bodywork
- Peter Bray for the carpet
- My girls who helped me out with parts because I’m useless on the internet
