Penrite Oil Australia has acquired a unique piece of Supercars history, taking delivery of one of the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Supercars.
It has purchased chassis number #SBR25-EM-03-12, as raced by Erebus Motorsport in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Australian Supercars Championships, alongside the Ford, Holden and Nissan brands.
Fitted with the AMG designed and manufactured 5-litre version of the M156 6.2 Litre V8, this engine was maintained and developed for Erebus Motorsport by AMG and its racing engineering partner HWA when it first competed.
It was the first Supercar engine to feature a flat plane crankshaft and was claimed to develop 485kW of power and 616Nm of torque, characterised by its unique exhaust growl.
The Erebus Motorsport E63 AMG Supercar was sponsored by Penrite Oil Australia at the 2015 Bathurst 1000, marking Penrite’s first major sponsorship involvement in the Australian Supercars Championship. This car represented a major step forward in Penrite’s motorsport marketing program which has grown since.
The car was delivered to Penrite Oil Australia in full racing specification, featuring its original Penrite 90th Anniversary retro livery as last raced by Will Davison at Sydney Olympic Park in his final race for the team back in 2015.
That was also the final Supercar race for the Mercedes-Benz marque, with Erebus Motorsport making the change to Holden from the 2016 season onwards.
“We are delighted to be the new custodians of such a piece of Australian motorsport history. This car is also very special to Penrite as it represents our first major team sponsorship involvement in the Supercars Championship,” Penrite Oil Australia chief executive Toby Dymond says.
“There were only four of these cars made in the world and we are very pleased to have secured this one, in full racing specification,” Dymond says.
According to Jarrod Harding, Penrite Brand and Marketing Manager, even though this historic Supercar won’t race again, it certainly won’t disappear.
“While it isn’t our intention for this Supercar to be returned to regular track duties or to be used for ride days, we look forward to using it for special demonstrations and for some very special Penrite promotional activities in the future,” Harding says.
“So you will definitely see the car hit the track somewhere in the future – and we have also secured a spare set of panels which gives us the option to rebrand it as the 2015 Bathurst 1000 car, which was the first complete Penrite Oil Australia Supercar livery,” he says.
In the interim, the Penrite Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Supercar will be displayed at Penrite Oil Australia’s Head office in Dandenong (VIC) with the family owned company planning to ultimately relocate this historic Supercar to its Lane 88 private car museum.
