Episode 30: Larry Perkins' 1993 Bathurst Winning Holden Engine on the Dyno

One of the greatest Bathurst races was when Perkins Engineering gave the rest of the field a 6hour lesson on going from last to first !

This is it, folks... Over the top! This little "Stock Block" Holden power house is the one that really blew us all away! The last GENUINE HOLDEN to beat all comers at Australia's annual knock 'em down & drag 'em out showdown at Bathurst in 1993. The big money teams had all switched to imported Chev or Ford race engines & Larry wouldn't have a bar of that! He knew he could beat the crate motors with his own carefully set up locally cast, genuine Holden engine & he did exactly that! All the punters got their hopes up & all were convinced that Larry's little ol' Holden had no hope of surviving the attack from the megabuck imports. Larry had a stonkering ace up his sleeve... He loved his Holdens, knew EXACTLY how to set them up & he knew what to do to build reliability & economy into them. Well, Larry was bang on the money. He built the car, set up the engine from a bare block & HE even attended at the foundry to ensure the ACTUAL BLOCK WAS CAST EXACTLY AS HE NEEDED IT TO BE. He put the package together & drove it himself and got the win. This is the Great Grand Daddy of all Holden 5 Litre race engines. This entire engine was made from raw materials & it was built specifficly to do one thing... OUTRUN ALL OPPOSITION & WIN AT BATHURST... & that's exactly what it did. A very special little engine.

Amazing how such a legendary name such as “Perkins” is still being kept alive in these vids. Great insight into Supercars. Love ya stuff mate

I remember working in that building when HRT were based there and that's all you heard all day. That was heaven! 🙂

The old Lion raw , never gets old that sound

540hp is nuts for a Holden 5.0L without needing the 355 crank. No wonder the HRT Chevy motors had no chance against your Dad and Russell in 1993. 😎 Thanks for sharing this Jack. 👍

Hearing that baby sing brought a tear to this old Holden man’s eye, love it!👍🏻🇦🇺

AWESOME ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!! I know Mark Larkham will be watching this on MAX volume LOVING every second of it!!!! The Holden block used were strengthened by the factory, i believe LP suggested a couple of areas to make it stronger, AWESOME!!!! An Aussie made ( cast and manufactured in Australia ) winning qualifying AND winning Australia's GREAT race 1000kms, Does it get better than that???? I doubt it!!!! Even as a Ford guy, i am going to enjoy this!! LP used the Holden Aussie made engine in 93, he won qualifying and won the race, inspite of EVERYONE saying it would NEVER qualify and IF it did?? it would not win the race, well LP did BOTH proved everyone WRONG!!!! I have a lot of respect for LP both as a driver and a race engineer!!!! Jack you should be HUGELY PROUD of your father, he put the 'Perkins' name on the map for many good reasons!!!! Be PROUD of him ALWAYS!!!!!!!!

Watched that race Jack and I was so proud of you guys using the Holden engine take it to the superior [lol] American units.

Thankyou, I must be a nerd, still find this stuff exciting. Nearly 77.

That was cool.1993 was my first year at Bathurst all the way from Scotland back then and I remember the sound of this engine and my first taste of the Aussie V8's. Instant fall in love. 😁

Anything Larry is super special even now, bring it on .

Amazing what LP managed to extract out of the 304. Don't think he left any stone unturned, those are some seriously impressive numbers.

What a beautiful noise I didn't realise when I was a kid LP was the thinking man's race car driver/builder untill I stumbled upon your channel I have a lot more respect for the man

Love the soundtrack on this video.

Also great to see Andrew's finest, the Dynolog dyno system working well. More Aussie engineering excellence!

What a sound! Music to any revheads ears lol, as you guys stated first few runs she was a bit fat and you could see above the inlet trumpets of that and the pitch of the engine changed after you guys trimmed the fuel map ..Awesome video Jack keep up the great work ,you and your Dad are absolute legends 👍

It's gonna feel great on the track

How glorious does that sound!

What can I say? Tackle tightening. Not bad for a "primitive" pushrod engine. Love these videos. So many poseurs in the Youtube space. You guys are the real deal.