The fastest Australian car ever built suffered minor damage in an embarrassing bingle with V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander behind the wheel.

The fastest, most expensive Holden Commodore ever built has been crashed by Australia’s fastest driver.

V8 Supercar championship leader and defending champion Garth Tander on Wednesday became the first person to damage the $155,500 HSV W427, a 7.0-litre V8-powered version of the Commodore claimed to be the fastest car ever produced in Australia.

In an embarrassing mishap at Oran Park racetrack on Wednesday, Tander dinged the HSV W427 during a magazine photo shoot.

The white HSV W427 was the first of only a few hundred to be built.

The car suffered only minor damage – estimated to be less than $1000 – when it nudged a temporary tyre barrier placed across the circuit. The front bumper and front left guard were damaged but the car was still driveable and, after a quick patch-up, continued to be used for photography for Motor magazine.

“I was just idling out ready to do some shots [photos],” explained a sheepish Tander, who said he didn’t imagine the track would be blocked. “I went up over the bridge at Oran Park and thought shit there’s some tyres [across the track].”

“We weren’t going super quick … maybe 50 per cent hot pace,” he said. “But just because it’s so blind [I didn’t see the tyres until it was too late].”

The incident happened on the first lap and it was the first time Tander – who drives an HSV GTS on the road - had driven the much-hyped HSV W427.

He quipped that he didn’t “think I’m likely to get one as a company car”.

“I’ve hardly put a scratch on the race car all year then this happens. I was a bit embarrassed and pissed off.”

Tander, who says he can’t remember the last time he damaged a road car, estimates the W427 hit the temporary tyre barrier at “15 or 20km/h”.

“I actually thought it might have stopped … it was going that slowly [when it crashed].”

The HSV W427 is aimed at pitching the Holden performance brand against more fancied European brands, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

Its 7.0-litre V8 is the biggest engine of any new car and it can reach 100km/h in 4.7 seconds – twice as fast as an average family sedan.

Crashes by professional race drivers when they’re not actually racing are not uncommon.

In 2007 Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton crashed a one-off $100,000 McLaren-designed go-kart that was to be auctioned for charity.

Arguably the biggest and most spectacular crash was that of former Jaguar Formula One driver Antonio Pizzonia, who rolled a Jaguar S-Type with a UK journalist on board when he braked at the point a Formula One car would normally brake.

Wow, Tander acting sheepish. I would of never thought he would be doing that. (much)