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The Holden Dealer Team is heading back to its spiritual home. New owner Kenny Habul has confirmed that HDT will build a permanent headquarters at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, complete with a restoration workshop, a museum, and a new performance model already being tested on three continents.
The plans were announced on Monday, October 12, 2026 — a day after Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood won the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford Mustang, and during a race weekend that remembered Peter Brock, the nine-time winner whose name has defined HDT since the brand began in 1980.
There was more than a little irony in the backdrop. Brock made his endurance racing debut at Bathurst in 1969 and became the track's greatest star. Yet the 2026 Great Race was won by Ford's blue oval — a Mustang victory on the mountain where Holden once dominated. That changing of the guard is the environment in which Habul now hopes to revive one of Australian motoring's most famous names.
HDT has already opened temporary premises in Bathurst's Kelso suburb while the company seeks approval for a permanent site at Mount Panorama. The intended complex would include a paint facility, a workshop for repairs and restorations, and a dedicated museum. It's a vision that recalls Shelby American: part heritage business, part performance-car builder, part shrine.
"We are respectful of what this brand means to people, and we recognise these cars need to be preserved and improved," Habul said. Owners, he added, will be able to buy parts from HDT's shelves and fit HDT-approved upgrades covering power, brakes, and safety.
The bigger headline is the new car. Habul confirmed that prototypes are being tested in Australia, Germany, and the United States, with more details to come.
"There is a lot of work to do before we have an HDT-reimagined car to present, but there is a fundamental recipe that I think will be very impressive," he said.
The challenge is the missing ingredient. Every HDT road car since 1980 was derived from the Holden Commodore, a large rear-drive sedan that served as Australia's homegrown answer to the Chevrolet Impala or SS. Local production of the Commodore ended in 2017, and General Motors shut down the imported version when it axed the entire Holden brand in 2020. There is simply no Commodore left to modify.
That leaves Habul with options: a GM rear-drive platform from North America, an architecture shared with a partner automaker, or a fully new design carrying the HDT badge. The brand has gone down the retro route before — building VE- and VF-based models in the 2000s and 2010s — but that chassis is gone with everything else. Whatever Habul's "fundamental recipe" proves to be, it will need to convince purists that a non-Commodore heart can still beat with Brock's spirit.
Peter Brock remains the deal-maker and the deal-breaker. He founded HDT in 1980 to finance his racing program, and the modified Commodores that wore his name became instant symbols of Australian performance. The lineup stretched from the VK and VL through the VN and VS generations, each model carrying a piece of his reputation.
His split from Holden was spectacular. In February 1987, Brock unveiled the VL Director equipped with his Energy Polarizer, a device he claimed improved the car's performance. But the component had been expressly prohibited by Holden, and the ensuing fallout severed HDT's factory relationship with the automaker. Brock sold the business in 1988, yet the modified Commodores kept appearing for years afterward — VN variants from 1988 to 1991, followed by later VS models.
Since Brock's death in 2006, subsequent owners of the brand have traded openly on his name. The strategy worked, up to a point. But it also meant HDT's identity stayed locked in the past.
That past carries serious money. In 2021, a 1985 HDT VK Commodore SS Group A previously owned by Brock fetched A$1.057 million at auction — then a record for a production Holden, and roughly US$775,000 at the time. To put that in perspective for American readers: this is a niche sedan, virtually unknown in the US, selling at values that embarrass many of Detroit's own muscle-car icons.
Habul is banking on that loyalty. Certified parts, restorations, and upgrades for surviving HDT cars give collectors a reason to keep the faith while the new model takes shape. If the brand can service its existing community properly, the next car will have a built-in customer base from day one.
The corporate history is tangled. HDT Special Vehicles was built in Melbourne under Brock, then passed through a series of owners after his exit. Brothers Len and Sid Pennisi bought the company and relocated it to Sydney in 1994. Peter Champion took over in 2007, moved the operation to Queensland, and revived road-car production with retro-inspired Commodores based on the VE and VF platforms.
Habul purchased the brand from Champion in September 2026 — barely a month before the Bathurst 1000. His immediate commitment to Bathurst is, in itself, a statement. The company has spent much of the last two decades far from the mountain; Habul is putting it back in the shadow of the track's famous climb.
"This is about building world-class performance vehicles in Bathurst, the home of Australian motorsport and the spiritual home of HDT," he said.
American enthusiasts have a closer relationship with this story than they may realize. The final-generation Commodore was sold in the United States as the Chevrolet SS from 2014 to 2017 — the same fundamental machine that HDT's predecessors used for their last road cars. The Camaro may have gotten the headlines, but the SS was the Commodore in everything but name.
Habul also brings his own US ties. His SunEnergy1 operation has competed in IMSA endurance racing for years, making him familiar with North American sponsors, suppliers, and teams. If the new HDT needs commercial partners or engineering expertise from overseas, Habul is arguably the first owner in the brand's history with the network to reach for it.
Observers caution that the real risk isn't engineering — it's sentiment. Australian fans watched HDT get revived more than once, with inconsistent results. By investing in permanent infrastructure, a museum, and an actual engineering program, Habul is attempting to move the brand from collectible relic to active performance marque. The proof will be in what he builds.
HDT says further details about the new vehicle will arrive "in due course." In the meantime, the Kelso workshop will carry the workload while the Mount Panorama project awaits approval.
Bathurst has always been HDT's measuring stick. It's where Brock built his legend and where the brand's future is now meant to be built as well. Whether the reimagined car turns out to be a Commodore in spirit, a reinvented sedan, or something entirely new, one part of the equation won't change: it will be developed in the shadow of the mountain that made the name mean something in the first place.
