There's a thick, grey blanket of cloud hanging low in the sky and a wind cold enough to freeze a penguin is keeping the temperature in single figures.

It's bitterly cold but there's a hive of activity in the paddock area behind Sandown Raceway's pit lane as an army of worker bees in hi-viz uniforms dismantle a village of temporary structures.

There's a buzz in a few of the garages too, as a league of sponsor-clad personnel from Red Bull Racing Australia prepare to give those who pay their wages – and others who have paid for the privilege – the ride of their life in a ridgy-didge V8 Supercar alongside either five-time champion Jamie Whincup, Bathurst legend Craig Lowndes or his co-driver, Steven Richards.

Two days ago, it was a different story altogether. The paddock was lined end-to-end with transporters and marquees, the garages were nests of stress and strategy and the circuit was bathed in glorious spring sunshine for the Sandown 500, the first of three endurance races in the V8 Supercar championship and the warm-up to this weekend's Bathurst 1000.

Craig's Commodore: Red Bull racer meets Lowndes Edition road car. Photo: Cristian Brunelli

At the end of its 161 laps, Lowndes joined his Red Bull crew in yet another shower of champagne from race winner Whincup (and co-driver Paul Dumbrell) after the veterans narrowly missed out on joining the podium antics with a hard-fought fourth place.

Today though, in spite of the chill and his result, the 40-year old arrives back at the circuit with his unflappable cheer and wearing his trademark ear-to-ear grin.

Among a collective of racing robots full of self-importance, there is something special about Lowndes that has made him the unequivocal fans' favourite.

Craig's Commodore: Red Bull racer meets Lowndes Edition road car. Photo: Cristian Brunelli

Few drivers have managed to journey across the crevasse that divides Ford and Holden supporters and survive. Even fewer have ever successfully made it back again.

Lowndes has. And so did Peter Brock, the King of the Mountain who mentored the early part of his career when he was known as "The Kid".

There is an uncanny familiarity about the path both drivers have walked to achieve their places among legends of Australian touring car racing.

There is also now an uncanny familiarity about their involvement with Holden away from the racetrack as clearly the Aussie car maker thinks Lowndes is a little bit special too and, in celebration of his 20-year career in V8 Supercars, it has created a limited run of Craig Lowndes signature edition Commodores based on the range-topping, high-performance SS-V Redline.

It is the first time Holden has done anything similar since the demise of Brock's Holden Dealer Team division in the late 1980s, and it is the reason why I'm here today ... to find out whether Lowndes feels even more like his idol, and to be among the first in the country to drive his car.

It's the first question I ask moments after joining him in the heavily bolstered, leather-clad front seats as he gives the starter button a quick one-finger punch to fire the 6.0-litre naturally aspirated V8 into life.

Craig's Commodore: Red Bull racer meets Lowndes Edition road car. Photo: Cristian Brunelli

"I'm hugely proud, and honoured," Lowndes says.

"I grew up idolising him [Brock] and I'm lucky to have been a part of a team with him. I still admire those cars that he created with HDT back in the day, so for me to do the same in the next generation is really quite special."

Holden will build 230-odd Craig Lowndes Edition Commodores, each costing $57,990 plus on-road costs (or $60,190 for the six-speed auto) and only available in either Heron White or the Red Hot of our test car.

All of them will be hand-finished by a group of specialists within its South Australian factory, where some of the unique visual highlights will be fitted, including the three-panel black bonnet graphic that links to the black roof panel, bootlid spoiler and rear diffuser.

While there are no power upgrades for the V8 (which produces 260kW/513Nm in automatic form or 270kW/530Nm when fitted with the six-speed manual), the Lowndes Edition does come with top-shelf Brembo brakes and unique 20-inch alloy wheels that are staggered with wider rear tyres for extra traction and overall grip.

Most – if not all of them – have already been snapped up by enthusiast owners who secured their place on the grid before the car was even officially revealed, and each of them will also receive a host of exclusive experiences including two VIP tickets to their nearest V8 Supercar event and a personal meet-and-greet event as well as a signed certificate of authenticity for their car.

After Lowndes and I return to Sandown, he throws me the keys to his eponymous beast when he is called back to work behind the wheel of his other Commodore.

Not surprisingly, as I head out on the road, there's very little that defines the everyday driving experience beyond the regular SS-V.

The big V8 delivers its generous slab of torque effortlessly and does so producing a deep – albeit slightly muted – exhaust note befit of a classic muscle car.

The steering is well weighted and there's no degradation in the level comfort despite it wearing lower-profile 20-inch tyres.

The upgrades, however, come to the fore at the other end of the driving spectrum when, after a couple of hot laps at the (thankfully warmer) end of the day, it becomes clearer there's a marginal increase in grip from the larger rubber – at both ends of the car – as it turns in sharper, holds its line longer and feels more stable under heavy acceleration.

The extra stopping power from the bigger Brembos is also appreciated at the end of each of Sandown's long straights, particularly after I see 205km/h flash on the head-up display while approaching the crest before the quick, downhill esses into the Dandenong Rd corner.

The most obvious difference is how you help it get up to that speed – and back – as the Lowndes Edition arrives in-line with a minor product upgrade across the entire Commodore range (see breakout) and our automatic test car featured the new-for-2015 paddle shifters on the steering wheel, which respond quickly to inputs and are much more intuitive to use than the manual-shift mode on the gear lever.

For the small group of owners there is no doubt they will relish the rarity of the Lowndes Commodore and revel in the fact it is the closest they can get to a road-legal V8 Supercar.

But it is nothing like the real thing as I am about the relish the rarity of driving not one, but get the opportunity of slipping behind the wheel of two Commodores that bear Lowndes' name – hopping straight out of the bullish, red road car into the seat of the Red Bull racer he is belting around Mount Panorama this weekend.

In reality there are very few direct links between the two, save for the general look of the body panels that are draped over a purpose-built race car skeleton and the generic rear-drive, V8-powered configuration.

That much becomes obvious as I contort myself through the roll cage and drop into the tight-fitting bucket seat that sits low enough to have your legs stretched almost straight into the pedal box and is positioned behind the B-pillar and more towards the centre line of the car for optimum weight distribution and better protection for the driver in an accident.

After I am secured tightly in the six-point racing harness, I look up and familiarise myself with the sparsity of the cockpit and the foreign nature of its controls such as the gear lever for the rear-mounted sequential transmission that is mounted high and close enough to the steering wheel for quick shifts, and the digital dash that is about the size of a cigarette packet and sits behind the small-diameter, suede-covered steering wheel.

Like the Lowndes Edition, the Red Bull racer has a starter button to fire its 5.0-litre V8 into action, but it is housed on a small box of buttons beside the adjustable roll bars in the centre console and can only be activated after a jet-fighter-type switch is flicked to arm the car's electrical system.

After all the preflight preparation is done, I press the button and the engine cranks into life, initially whirring away on its starter motor before erupting into a cacophony of unbridled horsepower. I then press the bottom-hinged clutch to the floor, pull back on the gear lever to engage first gear (which it does instantly and with a positive thunk) and gently balance my feet on the pedals, applying just enough pressure on the lightlysprung throttle to build up revs while releasing an equal amount on the clutch pedal to find the bite point and get moving – hoping not to embarrass myself and stall it in the pit lane

Thankfully I don't as surprisingly, for such a highly-tuned race engine with a small flywheel and multi-plate race clutch on the back of it, there is a decent amount of feel through the pedal.

Things suddenly get a little more animated as I exit the pit lane, give it a bit of gas and the stone-cold rear tyres are overcome by 470kW of power being sent through the transaxle gearbox and they instantly erupt into wheelspin.

I quickly lift off a little, grab second gear well before the full line of shift lights burst into a rainbow of colour, and do the same with third and fourth gear down the front straight before braking early and coasting through the opening sequence of corners.

As the tyres build up heat, so does my confidence and, on the next lap, I start stomping the throttle all the way to the floor out of the corners and unleashing the brutal force of the engine, revving it all the way to its 7500rpm redline in each gear.

Unlike the road car, it doesn't have a heads-up display or a speedo so I can't compare the top speeds, but needless to say it feels a hell of a lot faster as the crest of the hill on the back straight arrives a lot quicker in the V8 Supercar.

It also does everything else better, carving through the corners with immense grip, riding the bumps with an amazing degree of composure and providing an almost telepathic level of feedback through the steering wheel - as well as the seat of my pants – to alert me to what each corner of the car is doing.

But it doesn't do anything radically different; carry too much speed through the corners and the front end will push wide, stomp too hard on the gas pedal and the rear tyres will spin up, brake too late and you'll end up in the kitty litter. Simple, really ... except it doesn't have the road car's electronic safety net to save me if I do push it too far. Even just a little bit.

I manage to save myself from any slip-ups – and a big repair bill – and, after completing four laps, the crawl through the pit lane seems completely pedestrian and highlights that V8 Supercars aren't built for going slow, as the engine chugs and splutters at low revs, the throttle pedal is ultra-sensitive to small inputs, the brakes feel wooden with anything less than 120kg of pressure on them and there's not enough steering lock to manoeuvre it around the pit lane.

As I scramble out on a wave of adrenaline, one thing becomes certain; although there is nothing that physically links Lowndes' road and racegoing Commodores, they have something in common more than just his name on the side – the ability to put a smile on your dial. A big one, just like his.

Specs

2015 Holden Commodore SS-V Craig Lowndes Edition

Price: $57,990 (plus on-road costs)

Onsale: October 2015

Engine: 6.0-litre V8 petrol

Power: 270kW at 5600rpm

Torque: 533Nm at 4400rpm

Transmission: 6-spd manual or automatic, RWD

Consumption: 11.3L/100km

Performance: 5.5 seconds (0-100km/h), 250km/h (top speed)

2015 Red Bull Racing Holden Commodore V8 Supercar

Price: $450,000 (estimated)

On-sale: POA

Engine: 5.0-litre V8 petrol

Power: 470kW at 7500rpm

Torque: N/A

Transmission: 6-spd sequential manual, RWD

Consumption: N/A

Performance: 3.0 seconds (0-100km/h), 297km/h (top speed)

Breakout

The Craig Lowndes Edition is the big news among a number of revisions introduced across the entire Commodore range this month.

On the strength of the popularity for V8-powered models, the standard SS-V receives the most enhancements with the adoption of the steering wheel paddle shifters on automatic models, a new black interior trim with titanium highlights and new-look split-rim 19-inch alloy wheels.

All Commodore models now feature a gloss-black rear valance while the electric power steering has also been retuned to improve its on-centre feel and the reverse camera has been updated with curved target lines for guidance during parking.

Holden has also replaced the temporary tyre sealant and air compressor kit that was standard in SV6 and Calais models with a full-sized alloy spare wheel.

GET CLICKING

Watch a video review and interview with Craig Lowndes at drive.com.au/video

Interested in buying Holden Commodore? Visit our Holden showroom for more information.