My name Magnum comes from my ownership and passion of the Peter Brock and his HDT Special Vehicles built WB Magnums (Statesman and a Ute) produced for a short time along side the commodores during the years 1983 to 1988.

The Magnum starts life as a standard factory WB Deville or Caprice statesman, series two, any factory color and any trim, and then through Peter Brock and his HDT team, becomes a luxury sports limousine.
HDT take the stock Statesman, modify the engine and suspension, fit wheels and tyres and dress up the interior and exterior. Sounds so easy, but not so, great effort and work went into each one.

A basic conversion cost $4950 for the Caprice and $5950 for the Deville, Caprice being cheaper due to having 15 inch alloy wheels fitted from the factory. Included in the basic price was the modifications of the engine up to the group three HDT VH Commodore SS, meaning Big valve high comp cylinder heads, SS 5.0L Bathurst inlet manifold, exhaust extractors in heat proof white finish, fuel lines rerouted, ignition system, and a higher flow air cleaner, fitted with a chrome air cleaner lid, also chrome rocker covers and oil filler cap dressed up the engine. Castro GTX FM engine oil was also standard part of basic conversion. Peter Brock’s HDT decals and the important id plate finished off the under bonnet changes.

The suspension changes consist of uprated Bilstein shock absorbers front and rear, shorter stiffer springs, 20 mil lower for the front and 25 mil lower to the rear. Stiffer sway bars to front and rear of the car. A set of Momo Polaris 15 x 7 alloy road wheels for the Deville. Later on the HDT Aero 15 x 7 wheels specially modified for the statesman was fitted. Interior got the Momo Gritti leather steering wheel, and drivers left footrest.
Also included in the basic price was color coding of the front and rear bumper bars and the front bumperettes. Magnum Decals placed on front grill, rear boot lid and front guards, HDT improved decal or HDT we build excitement decal on rear windscreen, Peter Brock 5.0 litre decal on the chrome air cleaner lid, HDT id tag fitted to top left side of scuttle panel under bonnet. Two types of HDT ID tags where used during the manufacturing of Magnums, the first was the stick on type, second was a riveted on type, both very different to look at.

Above the basic conversion was a full list of options, thus making very few of the magnums exactly the same.

The most identifying thing about the Magnum if done has to be the full body color coding of the exterior chrome, and blacking out around windows, but I will say that of the Magnums I know of this option was not often chosen, and of note is quite a few did not even get the basic paint treatment of the bumper bars and bumperettes done, or placement of magnum decals, 100% standard looking on the outside (although lower to the bitcheman), but a killer performance and ride. Talking of ride comfort, a rare few also had the statesman leather option as available from GMH

Ok, the extras or options you could choose from, Full exterior paintwork treatment, included color coding of all chrome exterior items, and blacking out around the windows $550, Long range 126 litre fuel tank $282, Special High output engine $2750, Carburetor blue print $98, Window tinting $225, Radio key Burglar alarm $450, Lsd diff $450, 3.08 rear axel ratio & new Speedo gear drive $650, 16 x 8 inch alloy wheels $1095 for Caprice $2140 for Deville, Electric Sunroof $1450, Tinted tail light Assemblies $?, Tinted Headlight covers $?, Deville to Caprice dash change $?, Deville to Caprice Grill change $? Caprice wheels (not Momo) to Deville $? Engine oil cooler $?, Transmission oil Cooler $?, Peter Brock Stereo system $?, Plus further options on request.


During Peter Brocks HDT ownership, around 4246 HDT id tagged car have been produced, approximately only 120 of these machines are WB Statesman magnums with only one known WB Magnum Ute. This number is not certain, I know of the existence of only one of these Utes. Always on the lookout for the possibility of a second, a formula blue WB ute as being shown in the Peter brock poster set, unique cars write up and shown on some websites is not a original Magnum Ute from Peter Brock, it was made from a wrecked Magnum Statesman and a old yellow PMG ute many years ago. Peter Brock sold his business HDT Special Vehicles PTY LTD on 20th August 1988 to Peter Collorafi.
Peter Collorafi also built one Magnum Ute around 1990 and it is tagged as a HDT, id number 4253 Cottilion White in colour. It is a HDT, not a Brock built one.

Over a number of years of my Magnum research, lots of different variations from the basic package options have been found, from early HDT VC style Momo steering wheel fitted to later style VL steering wheels being fitted, and on a few, no Momo steering wheel fitted, left HDT with standard single spoke Statesman steering wheel. Caprice models with the Momo Polaris wheels used and Deville models fitted with caprice wheels. I know of only 1 Magnum with the 16 inch wheels fitted from HDT. 4 cars I know of did not have the footrest fitted. Two types of horn button decals used on the Momo steering wheels, a HDT or the peter Brock signature decal. Magnum decals came in black or silver, and not always fitted to the exterior of the statesman magnum. Most common color is Alpine white; very close to a third of Magnums this color. Other popular colors, Venetian red, Asteroid silver and other rarer colors being, cork, dummy, Mint, Brandy, spindrift and Mistletoe.

So each one of these unique cars has its own individual personality.

Hope the above helps to inform others and also to help preserve the balance of the Brock HDT Magnum Statesman’s left on the road.

Join www.brockcommodores.com to learn all things Brock and his HDT special Vehicles.

Magnum


HDT WB 5.6 Magnum Caprice UTE
[email protected]