HSV Dealer Team races to rebuild Tander Commodore
13/4/2005 21:58 (Press Release) -
The Holden Special Vehicles Dealer Team has been burning the midnight oil to rebuild Garth Tander’s badly damaged Holden Commodore in readiness to make the ship for New Zealand next week.
Tander was devastated when his new VZ Commodore was shunted from behind by a lapped car at the recent Clipsal 500, sending it crashing into the concrete safety fence and doing more than $80,000 damage.
The car was loaded on to the HSV Dealer Team transporter immediately after the race and driven through the night from Adelaide to Melbourne, arriving at the team workshops at 4 am to begin the task of stripping away the damaged components, which basically included everything in front of the windscreen – and then some.
By 8 am, the car was ready to be trucked to Dencar, in nearby Dandenong, where repair experts set about cutting away and replacing irreparable body structures and straightening what could be salvaged using specialised jigs.
Four days later, on the Thursday before Easter, the perfectly straightened car was back at the Holden Special Vehicles Dealer Team workshops for painting and restoration of all the mechanical components. The work has continued since as technicians have completed a near-total mechanical rebuild.
Team Manager Rob Crawford said the team was pleased with the progress, which would restore the Commodore to its original specification in time to make the ship for Auckland and the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Pukekohe on April 15-17.
“The team has been putting in some long hours to have it ready and there is still plenty to do, but we are confident it will be 100 per cent by the time the ship sails,” he said.
Tander said the team and Dencar had done a brilliant job of restoring the #16 Commodore, which he said would be all set to roll out for the first practice session in Auckland.
“Thanks to a lot of hard work, the car is looking as good as new, and while we will take it a little easy early in practice, we should soon be back to full pace.”
Release Date: 31/03/2005
HSV Dealer Team
|
|
