525kW one-off V8 Supercar wagon sold in unique trade

Update April 1, 2020: A wild V8 Supercar wagon, dubbed Project Sandman, has finally found a new home, after nearly 18 months on the market.

Built by Triple Eight Race Engineering, the custom one-off 525kW creation has been purchased by the father-son racer duo of Stephen and Brenton Grove

Speaking to the V8 Sleuth, Brenton explained a unique deal was struck with Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane in order to give Project Sandman a new permanent residence.

"We sold my Supercar back to Triple Eight at the end of last year, so essentially it's something of a trade," he said.

"We were really interested in the Sandman and it all just happened to be a few weeks before the Holden announcement of Holden closing."

Dane commissioned a full restoration of Project Sandman, meaning it is unlikely to see much track action, instead being kept by the Groves as a cool, and seriously fast, piece of memorabilia. To find out more on the car's history, read our original story below, or head to the V8 Sleuth.

This article was first published October 17, 2018.

Triple Eight Race Engineering is getting rid of its bonkers promotional tool, the Project Sandman, which put a two-door wagon body onto a legit V8 supercar chassis, with a wicked-up 5.6-litre V8 engine.

The ultimate V8-powered track car was developed from Jamie Whincup’s race-winning 2013 Holden VF Commodore supercar and has been used in a variety of ways including as a ride vehicle, development chassis and promotional car for the team since 2014.

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Just about the entire Triple Eight driver roster has steered the Sandman – even Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo had a go at Sandown in 2016.

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During 2017 the Sandman served as a test-bed for the development of a twin-turbo V6 engine, which was intended to be used in the ZB Commodore race car.

Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, Whincup, Steven Richards and Greg Murphy were all involved in the development of the engine which was supposed to debut in the Supercars championship this year, before the plan was unceremoniously scrapped.

Murphy piloted the twin-turbo V6-equipped wagon around Mount Panorama for demonstration laps last year as part of the Bathurst 1000.

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Since then, the original 5.6-litre 525kW V8 has been dropped back into the engine bay, which has an extra 600cc of capacity over a regular V8 Supercar, along with an 8200rpm redline (compared to a mandated 7400rpm limit for the official race cars). Triple Eight claims the Sandman can hit 100km/h in 3.2 seconds.

Differing from regular Supercars, the Sandman uses a set of paddle shifters mated to an Albins ST-6 transaxle gearbox to change gears instead of a traditional sequential stick, along with fly-by-wire throttle.

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No price is listed for the unique piece of Supercars history, but we suspect it’s one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it kind of deals.

We can only hope that the reason they’re selling off this car is to make way for another equally-awesome machine.

The car is available for sale through the V8 Sleuth website.