Walky number one

This year is the 35th anniversary of the HSV VL SS Group A SV, better known as the 'Walkinshaw' (or simply 'Walky’) after HSV co-founder Tom Walkinshaw.
It was the first post-Brock HDT Group A race homologation Holden model, and today they're rightly considered Grade A classics. There weren't many made - a minimum production of 500 cars was needed for Group A race homologation - by the then-new Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) and we were amazed to hear that the first one produced, #001, was given away as first prize in a 1988 competition run by Wheels magazine.
Readers could enter the competition by cutting coupons from the April to September issues and sticking them on an entry form published in the October edition. Can you imagine such a significant car being given away today?
The Wheels competition winner was Allen Riches, a dentist from Cairns, who kept the car for a few years before selling it. It had a few more owners before Carl Snelling, based in Charters Towers at the time, noticed a small classified ad in the Courier Mail newspaper in February, 2002.

Another Walky was given away as first prize in the 1988 Summernats Raffle. The winner Jim Laughlin was presented with the keys by Summernats promoter Chic Henry at Les Vagg Motors in Sydney.

The car listed for sale was listed as Walkinshaw #001, although Carl thought this must be a misprint. The seller lived in Brisbane, so he phoned him then drove 1500km there and back to check it out. He then contacted HSV to make sure it was the real deal before buying it. The original plaque on the car reads ‘SV #001.1988 SS Group A’.

This car is now owned by Chester Fernando who runs musclecarstables.com. He bought it from Carl Snelling in October 2007 and has since returned it to concours condition over a four to five year period.
This is the same car that was track-tested at Oran Park by Wheels magazine when it was fitted with Momo star wheels and the ‘rear window delete’ option.
Only the first four or five cars were fitted with this option – designed to improve airflow for Bathurst – before it was disallowed during the process of CAMS homologation.

Chester has returned the car to exactly how it looked during the Wheels track test, which includes the nose-cone badge placed straight, not at a 45-degree angle. He’s also fitted the special Larry Perkins hot cam. It’s rumoured that the first 10 cars all received Perkins engine upgrades.