Five Bathurst special editions

Since 1963’s Armstrong 500, the legendary 6.2km ribbon of tarmac set into Mount Panorama, Bathurst, has been considered hallowed.

Legends have been made and lives have been lost in pursuit of a Bathurst trophy, and the manufacturer’s marketing departments have always been keen to capitalise on the aura of The Mountain, and any success there -- hoping a win will translate to a sales floor splurge.

But not all Bathurst editions were created equal. As you’ll read below, some road-going Bathurst badged machines were tied directly to the racers, while others drew a longer bow.

Although it wasn’t the first homologation special designed to win the Armstrong 500, the Ford Cortina GT 500 was the first to actually achieve its goal -- taking victory in 1965 with Barry ‘Bo’ Seton (Glenn’s father) and Midge Bosworth at the wheel.

Evolved from the Cortina GT which had beaten Holden’s EH S4 (the first car seen as a Bathurst special) in 1963, the GT 500 was developed in consultation with the legendary Harry Firth, who’d vanquished the EHs in that earlier race.

Adopting a two-door Cortina body shell (at a time when the road-going GT was only available with four doors), Firth and Ford Australia added an impressive 77 litre fuel tank with twin fillers, a four-speed manual gearbox with a close ratio gearset from the British Lotus Cortina and a downdraft Weber carburettor.

Upping cylinder compression and adding a ‘lumpier’ Wade camshaft liberated an extra 11kW over the GT, taking total output to 71kW.

Other changes included alloy ducting to the front disc brakes and a specific suspension setup.

The GT500 duly delivered on the circuit, powering to a one-two finish, a lap ahead of the Mini Coopers.

From the 1991 James Hardie 12 Hour at Bathurst, the second-generation Toyota MR2 owned Class S, taking class wins in 1991, ’92 and ’93… The last also netting a sixth outright with Juan Manual Fangio II, journalist Peter McKay and rally star Rick Bates driving.

For 1994 the road-going MR2 range was expanded to two models: the well-appointed GT and the pared-back Bathurst, to celebrate.

Featuring the same mechanical specification (mid-engine, five-speed manual and a 129kW, 16-valve 2.0-litre four-pot), the Bathurst was around 35kg lighter and came as standard with manual steering; feelsome, but harder to live with than the GT. It also deleted antilock brakes from the standard specification.

On the track itself, the MR2 gained its best overall result in 1994, winning Class S again and finishing fourth and fifth outright, Fangio II joined by Rick Bates and ARC champion Neal on the driving roster.

Only 382 MR2 Bathurst road cars were completed, the last being delivered in 2000. That said, the initiative worked -- only 137 GTs were sold in the same time frame.

Okay, this one is a little left-field – in fact, in another hemisphere altogether.

A decade ago, Holden Special Vehicles had an export agreement with GM’s UK branch, Vauxhall. Demonstrating the international esteem our Great Race demands, the UK team decided to develop two models using the Bathurst nameplate: the Bathurst and Bathurst S.

The Bathurst S was all about grunt, a Walkinshaw Performance supercharger and other modifications boosting the LS3 6.2-litre V8 to 417kW and a stonking 715Nm.

Walkinshaw Performance also contributed a badged AP Racing brake kit, with six-pot front and four-piston rear calipers clamping huge slotted discs. Suspension was also to Walkinshaw’s designs, featuring ride height adjustment and coil-over dampers with 15 settings.

Exterior striping, Bathurst badging, an interior build plate and Walkinshaw Performance entry sills rounded out the package.

Interestingly, Holden registered to trademark the Bathurst name as local production was winding up, but withdrew the application for officially unspecified reasons. Instead, the car – based on the VF II SS Commodore – was badged Motorsport. The build plates started with ‘KOM’, for King Of (the) Mountain, perhaps indicating what the engineers really wanted to call it…

Another vehicle built to celebrate on-track success in production car racing, the Team Mitsubishi Ralliart-built Evolution X Bathurst Edition was sold through specialist Mitsubishi dealerships with full warranty intact.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions won the reborn Bathurst 12 Hour events in 2008 (in Evo IX form) and 2009, the latter entered by TMR Australia with Tony Longhurst, Rod Salmon and Damien White driving.

TMR Australia boss Alan Heaphy, developed the Bathurst Edition with some key upgrades, adding power while ensuring track day reliability.

Thanks to a remap and TMR exhaust, power rose from 217 to 247kW. The bigger jump, however, was in torque – out to 436Nm from 366, making the Bathurst Edition the most powerful official Evo X on sale at the time.

A 30mm ride height drop, TMR progressive-rate springs, a bespoke body kit with powder-coated wheels, specific badging and an interior build plate added further differentiation.
All up the TMR Bathurst Edition package added $8250 to the standard Evo X’s base price, and could be had in manual or twin-clutch form. But the fact you could walk into a dealer and have a full manufacturer warranty on the car was testament to its Bathurst-proven build.

The latest to engage in some Mountain Magic is Lotus Cars Australia.

With the Mount Panorama circuit forming the annual centrepiece of the brand’s Lotus-only track day calendar, LCA has built six Bathurst Edition Elise Cup 250 models to pay tribute.

For a brand steeped in motorsport history, Lotus and Mount Panorama have few stories to tell, the most significant being the 1993 Bathurst 12 Hour pole position achieved by Larry Perkins aboard a Lotus Esprit S4.

Perkins’ 2:32.89 qualifier was amazingly bettered in the race with a 2:31.71, a time which would also have taken pole in 1994.

Adding $,000 to the ‘base’ Elise Cup 250’s $107,990 MRLP, the Bathurst Edition reprises ‘Monaco White’ metallic paintwork, a hue not seen since James Bond’s aquatic Lotus Esprit back in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.

Black forged alloys, red wing uprights and Bathurst Cup 250 badging sets the exterior apart. Inside, there’s an individualised build plate, carbon race seats and red trims.

The best bit? Each of the owners that stump up for the Lotus, which has just gone on sale, will receive a fully paid entry into the 2020 LCA Bathurst track day.