V8 Torana to win.

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V8 Torana to win.

Post by Hardcast » 19 Mar 2022, 3:48 pm

I see an add to win a V8 LJ Torana pop up regularly on this site.
I've driven one, several times.
Back in 1973, my local Holden Dealer (Reeves Garage, at McLaren Vale) built two. I believe, City State Motor City built at least one as well.
Two of my close mates were apprentices at Reeves, and did most of the work. The first one built was Orange, and was driven around by the Dealership owner, John Bosworth, then sold to a local Builder. "It will make a nice little runabout for the wife" were his words. He was a Ford fanatic. He took it for a test drive at mid day Saturday, and never brought it back. The second (Red) one was an Order, taken after driving the first one.
The orange car was eventually sold to a young lad who wrote it off. The Red car is still local.
A third car (Purple) was ordered, it was picked up in Adelaide and driven out to Reeves where the boys started to work on it. In the mean time, Reeves received a phone call from GMH. Words to the effect..... If you make another Torana, we will remove your Dealership, so the third car never eventuated. Reeves sold the cars with their own New car Warrantee. The chassis and body stood up well. The Red car was driven to work on dirt roads for probably 10 years. Then sold to a local friend who turned it into a Show car. 350 chev, auto. Sold to someone who crashed it. The second owner bought it back and has restored it to original spec and will never leave the family again.
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by bladeracer » 19 Mar 2022, 4:13 pm

Hardcast wrote:I see an add to win a V8 LJ Torana pop up regularly on this site.
I've driven one, several times.
Back in 1973, my local Holden Dealer (Reeves Garage, at McLaren Vale) built two. I believe, City State Motor City built at least one as well.
Two of my close mates were apprentices at Reeves, and did most of the work. The first one built was Orange, and was driven around by the Dealership owner, John Bosworth, then sold to a local Builder. "It will make a nice little runabout for the wife" were his words. He was a Ford fanatic. He took it for a test drive at mid day Saturday, and never brought it back. The second (Red) one was an Order, taken after driving the first one.
The orange car was eventually sold to a young lad who wrote it off. The Red car is still local.
A third car (Purple) was ordered, it was picked up in Adelaide and driven out to Reeves where the boys started to work on it. In the mean time, Reeves received a phone call from GMH. Words to the effect..... If you make another Torana, we will remove your Dealership, so the third car never eventuated. Reeves sold the cars with their own New car Warrantee. The chassis and body stood up well. The Red car was driven to work on dirt roads for probably 10 years. Then sold to a local friend who turned it into a Show car. 350 chev, auto. Sold to someone who crashed it. The second owner bought it back and has restored it to original spec and will never leave the family again.


I know little about them, but many years ago I got to drive a Torana and it impressed me. It was the racing style, wheel arches, intake in the bonnet and such. But it had a basic six-cylinder engine in it. It had had a V8 but the owner had removed it to build it and dropped the six in so he could still drive around. Something happened (possibly drug related) and a mate ended up buying it off the guy pretty cheap. My mate didn't have a car licence, only bikes, so he could never drive it. But it was destined to be his road car when he eventually decided to learn to drive (I don't believe he ever did). When he needed to move it I got the job. I was impressed with how sure-footed it was even at road corner speeds, I reckon it would've been really nice at track speeds.

I'm not at all into cars, not even remotely (why would you be when you have bikes!), but the other car that impressed me way more than I'd expected was a 240K, that thing was brilliant!
A good mate bought a 300ZX twin-turbo, that thing was insane for road use.
Absolute pig to do even basic maintenance on though so he sold it within months.

My girlfriend's father's niece's husband is Ray Ikin, who has a very nice collection here (traralgon) of old Aussie racing cars. It's very impressive to see them but they're still far removed from motorcycles :-)
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by on_one_wheel » 19 Mar 2022, 5:19 pm

I had a LH Torana, wasn't a bad car, zero rust and straight as a die, It ended up being defected for "suspension modifications" despite being bone stock.
I eventually gave that car away about 20 years ago.
Wish I'd kept it.
I did prefer the HZ kingswood ride, comfort and brute strength though.
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by bladeracer » 19 Mar 2022, 5:30 pm

on_one_wheel wrote:I had a LH Torana, wasn't a bad car, zero rust and straight as a die, It ended up being defected for "suspension modifications" despite being bone stock.
I eventually gave that car away about 20 years ago.
Wish I'd kept it.
I did prefer the HZ kingswood ride, comfort and brute strength though.


Mate of mine has spent a fortune on his HT wagon, including transporting it from Melbourne to Perth unseen. Lots of rust he had to cut out of it but he's built a nice original car out of it. Original paint was the catch, he doesn't want to repaint, he wanted it totally original. He has gotten a .253 to put in it as it was originally, but he wants me to build it which means sending the engine over here, and that hasn't happened yet.

A guy I raced with had a Cortina he had a 351 in, that was pretty mad. For years he kept swapping the engine in and out to go over the pits every time he got busted doing stupid stuff in it (like 160kph over the Fern Road Canning River Bridge).
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by on_one_wheel » 19 Mar 2022, 7:04 pm

bladeracer wrote:
on_one_wheel wrote:I had a LH Torana, wasn't a bad car, zero rust and straight as a die, It ended up being defected for "suspension modifications" despite being bone stock.
I eventually gave that car away about 20 years ago.
Wish I'd kept it.
I did prefer the HZ kingswood ride, comfort and brute strength though.


Mate of mine has spent a fortune on his HT wagon, including transporting it from Melbourne to Perth unseen. Lots of rust he had to cut out of it but he's built a nice original car out of it. Original paint was the catch, he doesn't want to repaint, he wanted it totally original. He has gotten a .253 to put in it as it was originally, but he wants me to build it which means sending the engine over here, and that hasn't happened yet.

A guy I raced with had a Cortina he had a 351 in, that was pretty mad. For years he kept swapping the engine in and out to go over the pits every time he got busted doing stupid stuff in it (like 160kph over the Fern Road Canning River Bridge).


Awesome, wagons were once considered a family man's car, they spend decades valued real low... now that 90% of them have been scrapped their value and appeal has gone through the roof.

I've built a few Holden v8 engines, 253, 308 and a killer 355 stroker.
Hopefully your mate wants to go to town on the 253, if so there's some awesome tips here https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/li ... mighty-253
If he's looking to go stock... the smoothest engine I ever built was a stock 253, the rotating assembly was fully balanced, stock cam, stock 2 barrel ww Stromberg, you could literally balanced a 50c coin on top of the thing while it was running. I've still got that engine but the wagon that it sat in is long gone. :violin:
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by bladeracer » 19 Mar 2022, 8:25 pm

on_one_wheel wrote:
bladeracer wrote:
on_one_wheel wrote:I had a LH Torana, wasn't a bad car, zero rust and straight as a die, It ended up being defected for "suspension modifications" despite being bone stock.
I eventually gave that car away about 20 years ago.
Wish I'd kept it.
I did prefer the HZ kingswood ride, comfort and brute strength though.


Mate of mine has spent a fortune on his HT wagon, including transporting it from Melbourne to Perth unseen. Lots of rust he had to cut out of it but he's built a nice original car out of it. Original paint was the catch, he doesn't want to repaint, he wanted it totally original. He has gotten a .253 to put in it as it was originally, but he wants me to build it which means sending the engine over here, and that hasn't happened yet.

A guy I raced with had a Cortina he had a 351 in, that was pretty mad. For years he kept swapping the engine in and out to go over the pits every time he got busted doing stupid stuff in it (like 160kph over the Fern Road Canning River Bridge).


Awesome, wagons were once considered a family man's car, they spend decades valued real low... now that 90% of them have been scrapped their value and appeal has gone through the roof.

I've built a few Holden v8 engines, 253, 308 and a killer 355 stroker.
Hopefully your mate wants to go to town on the 253, if so there's some awesome tips here https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/li ... mighty-253
If he's looking to go stock... the smoothest engine I ever built was a stock 253, the rotating assembly was fully balanced, stock cam, stock 2 barrel ww Stromberg, you could literally balanced a 50c coin on top of the thing while it was running. I've still got that engine but the wagon that it sat in is long gone. :violin:


He races bikes like I did, he wants a nice stock engine in the car.
If the engine is of the era and you decide to move it on let me know.
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by womble » 20 Mar 2022, 5:47 am

Most wives struggle to navigate modern fray SUV’s without constantly scraping and bumping things.
A pink lj with a 308 is the perfect gift for the wife you dont like.
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by womble » 20 Mar 2022, 5:56 am

I have wife and daughters who drive unfortunately.
Always getting texts with pics of the latest scrapes and wheel rash. “Is this bad, is it expensive to fix, how bad is it blah.

“No dear its just the top coat we can fix it” ( thats the quarter panel you dumb mole )
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by Hardcast » 20 Mar 2022, 9:48 pm

womble wrote:Most wives struggle to navigate modern fray SUV’s without constantly scraping and bumping things.
A pink lj with a 308 is the perfect gift for the wife you dont like.



Very true. The Toranas I spoke of did not have limited slip diffs. The first one did for a day, and was replaced. It was dangerous in the wet.
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Re: V8 Torana to win.

Post by Grumpy » 25 Mar 2022, 12:24 am

Hardcast wrote:I see an add to win a V8 LJ Torana pop up regularly on this site.
I've driven one, several times.
Back in 1973, my local Holden Dealer (Reeves Garage, at McLaren Vale) built two. I believe, City State Motor City built at least one as well.
Two of my close mates were apprentices at Reeves, and did most of the work. The first one built was Orange, and was driven around by the Dealership owner, John Bosworth, then sold to a local Builder. "It will make a nice little runabout for the wife" were his words. He was a Ford fanatic. He took it for a test drive at mid day Saturday, and never brought it back. The second (Red) one was an Order, taken after driving the first one.
The orange car was eventually sold to a young lad who wrote it off. The Red car is still local.
A third car (Purple) was ordered, it was picked up in Adelaide and driven out to Reeves where the boys started to work on it. In the mean time, Reeves received a phone call from GMH. Words to the effect..... If you make another Torana, we will remove your Dealership, so the third car never eventuated. Reeves sold the cars with their own New car Warrantee. The chassis and body stood up well. The Red car was driven to work on dirt roads for probably 10 years. Then sold to a local friend who turned it into a Show car. 350 chev, auto. Sold to someone who crashed it. The second owner bought it back and has restored it to original spec and will never leave the family again.

I recall a bloke who was staying at the Milang hotel around 1974/75 owned a red V8 LJ. From memory it had a 308 under the hood. I’m not sure what the story was regarding who did the conversion, I just remember it as a pretty special car, especially to a car mad teenager.
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