The story of the black Holden VN Group A SS

HSV built 302 examples of the VN Group A SS, all in Durif Red - everyone knows that.

This is a fact, however three examples very quickly became black and each has a very interesting story to tell. The two that could most accurately be thought of as 'factory' examples are build numbers 123 and 161, which were offered as a prize in a Tooheys promotion ahead of the 1991 Bathurst 1000.

In exchange for sending in tokens from cartons of Tooheys Draught, one lucky punter BOTH black Group As, which wore number plates 1000V8 (#123) and 2000V8 (#161) respectively. Changes were purely cosmetic, with red pinstripes and Tooheys decals applied along with the menacing colour.

Happily both cars still exist in the hands of collectors in Western Australia. It was believed 2000V8 had been written off, though it was recently confirmed to MOTOR not to be the case, while 1000V8 is also alive and well, though it needed an extensive restoration after being heavily modified and almost driven to destruction earlier in its life. Check out the full story over at our sister site Unique Cars.

The history of the third black VN Group A SS, build number 24, is a little murkier. Research suggests it was built for Sultan of Johor, repainted black from new with extensive engine modifications carried out by Bill Lee in Western Australia. 

As far as we can tell, it returned to Australia around a decade later, appearing for sale in the July 2002 issue of Unique Cars. The car now resides in Victoria and was recently spotted at a Melbourne meet. These black Group As represent just one of many unique stories created by Australia's muscle car industry.