However, for the endurance races and the Australian Grand Prix support races, Perkins Engineering picked up significant sponsorship from Bob Jane T-Marts, and the car was painted yellow and blue, the colours of the T-Marts. Driving with Steve Harrington, Perkins proved there was life in the older model VL Commodore which won first time out in Bob Jane colours at the 1992 Don't Drink Drive Sandown 500 after a late race battle with the BMW M3 Evolution of Tony Longhurst and Paul Morris. Perkins then sensationally put the Commodore onto the front row for the 1992 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, but alternator and tyre problems in the rainstorms that marred the race (and eventually caused its early finish) saw them eventually finish in 9th place. While driving the older VL, Perkins also pointed out during the top ten runoff at Bathurst that the only 'old' thing about the car was its superseded body shape. The speed of the Perkins VL at Bathurst raised questions about the legality of the car, though Perkins' qualifying time of 2:14.08 was only 0.74 seconds faster than he had qualified in 1990. Also, in that same time period other cars such as the Sierra's and the 4WD, twin-turbo Nissan GTR had also improved their own lap times at Bathurst by around 2–3 seconds per lap.