It's the shell of a VK Commodore HDT Group A touring car that he acquired from Australian motor sport legend Peter Brock in the late 1980s.

Mr Marsh said that automotive auction house Shannons had told him the car could be worth up to $750,000 fully restored.

The VK was driven by the late Peter Brock to win the touring car round at Sandown in 1985.

It was driven at the 1985 Bathurst 1000 race by team mate John Harvey.

Harvey also drove it in 1986 touring car championship events.

Mr Marsh believed the car was the first to be fitted with Brock's controversial "Energy Polarizer" device, which eventually led to the disintegration of Brock's relationship with Holden.

Mr Marsh said he bought the shell of the car in 1988 when he visited Brock's HDT business in Bertie Street, Port Melbourne, to get some spare parts for a VB Commodore he was doing up as a rally car.

He said the HDT business was in the process of being liquidated after Brock's falling out with Holden, and the garage was chaotic.

"I saw the VK shell sitting out the back and said to Brock 'what are you doing with that'?" Mr Marsh said.

"Brock said 'what do you want it for?'

"I told him what I was doing and he said 'mate, if you can get it out of here quickly you can have it'"

Mr Marsh said he had first met Peter Brock when they were both in their early days of motorsport.

Mr Marsh went on to establish a business building seats for racing cars and supplied Brock and other touring car drivers from the late '70s until the mid '90s.

After moving to Warrnambool, Mr Marsh began rebuilding the Group A car for production-car rallying.

He fitted it with a 400bhp, 308-cubic -inch V8 and a turbo-400 Chevrolet automatic gearbox. It retained the Ford nine-inch rear end and Volvo disc brakes, as fitted when the car was homologated for touring car competition.

Mr Marsh rallied the car from 1991 to 1997.

Its days as a rusty, dirty hulk are about to come to an end.

Mr Marsh said he had collected all the mechanical parts he needed to restore it to original condition.

"I am going to completely restore it out of respect for Peter Brock and his achievements."

He said Brock, who was killed aged 61 in an accident during a rally in Western Australia, had made a huge contribution to motorsport and had possessed a charismatic and magnetic personality.

Mr Marsh expects the restoration of the Commodore to be completed in 12 months.

A Shannon's representative told Drive yesterday that the auction house was reluctant to make comments on the value of any car they had not personally inspected.

But she said that a "Bathurst-winning Brock Commodore... may bring between $250,000 and $500,000". What a buyer was prepared to pay depended on many factors and someone might be willing to pay a higher price if a particular car was personally important to them.

Mr Marsh also is known in Warrnambool for his connections with the Middle Island maremma dog project, and his stand as an independent candidate for Wannon at this year's federal election.