Want to live on Conrod Straight? Now you can

If you’ve ever watched the Bathurst 1000 and thought how cool it would be to live on the circuit, here’s your chance.

A large parcel of land with a house and three cottages – and parking for five cars – has come up for auction in Bathurst, and it comes with one of the coolest addresses in Australia… 448 Conrod Straight.

The 6.2km race track around the small mountain to Bathurst’s west becomes a thundering temple to the V8-powered kings of speed for four days every October – and there are plans afoot for more events – but for the rest of the year, the track becomes a 60km/h two-way public road, and the property – known as Lochinvar, nestles on the side of the track’s longest and fastest stretch.

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If you’re looking for a ringside seat to the sights and sounds of the Bathurst 1000, the property’s main draw is an almost 300m long stretch of absolute frontage right onto Conrod Straight.

Covering almost 40 hectares, Lochinvar sounds absolutely amazing. Between a primary residence and three brick cottages, there are ten bedrooms, ten bathrooms and five garages, and there’s also a large shed where you can stash a few more toys.

The cottages are currently available to the public, with rates starting at $240 a night… though you can be sure that the prices can be, err, massaged vertically come race weekends.

The huge tranche of land is zoned so that more rental accommodation can be added, or you could simply open the gates, shoo the cows aside and advertise a tonne of camping spots for visitors to the Bathurst 12hr, Bathurst Challenge or the planned TCR endurance round slated for next year.

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There are plans to add another small track to the precinct, too, which could increase the potential of the site for motorsport-mad fans.

There are several other properties scattered around the circuit, but the majority become largely isolated during race weekends. Not Lochinvar – it has its own access road.

Even when there isn’t an event on, though, the location is still a beauty, with terrific views over the rolling plains of the Central Tablelands. And if you think country life could be a bit boring, Bathurst has come a long way in the last decade when it comes to decent restaurants and cafes.

We’ll be pooling our meagre incomes and petitioning our bosses to put in a bid for Lochinvar as the new WhichCar HQ… but given that’s got a snowball’s chance in a microwave of succeeding, you can get along to the auction yourself in late November.

Be warned, though... a neighbouring property that is only a tenth of the size sold for $2.7 million in 2017, so bring your novelty-sized chequebook with you.

The 2019 Bathurst 1000 kicks off this week, and WhichCar will be there bringing you images and social feeds from inside the garages of the top teams - stay tuned.