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The word TORANA comes from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘to fly’, although the HB Torana would have been lucky to pull the skin off the top of a cup of custard with it’s wheezy 4cylinder engine, let alone fly. However out of the 81,813 LJ Toranas built, Peter Glenton purchased this little gem for a whopping $700 back in 1999 and over the ensuing four years transformed it into one of the best presented LJ’s we have come across, that actually lives upto its namesake ‘TORANA’. As soon as VOLATL rumbled into the area we were shooting, everyone including us couldn’t help but stare. Every part of Peter’s LJ has been carefully thought out and finished too perfection!
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Peter has run a 10.80 @ 137mph in VOLATL with the assistance of a very sweet sounding Motown 350 SBC. As you can see this car has been built not only to perform but to be a reliable street driven cruiser at the same time. She has a full custom leather interior, hand crafted LJ GTR dash with autometer guages blended into the gauge cluster and an ear pounding ALPINE sound system including a 12” subwoofer.
…I just crossed the finish line when she went BANG. At roughly about 200 kph I threw a conrod out the bottom of the sump…
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“with the underside of the car covered in oil and a cloud of smoke following i still managed my PB for the car running a 11.2 “.
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.. The plan from the start was to build a small car with a big engine as the build went on things change and the budget almost tripled..
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After the old 350 through a leg out of the bed, Peter sourced a new combo (pictured above) containing some of the best parts on the market. The new combo is a 350 Motown 4 bolt block, SCAT crank, MSD Ignition and a 750 DP Holley for the bang water. The only things that were reused on the new engine were a set of DART Cast heads and an Edelbrock Victor Junior manifold. With a friend of Peter’s, Mick Zahra in charge of the assembly work he created a street driven 540 hp true 10 second LJ.
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“From the start i wanted the car to be completly street driven, registered and totally roadworthy. It took some time to find a decent engineer but after a few headaches it all came together and I ended up with more than I had planned”
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What’s Next? “Just keep driving the car as much as possible and enjoy each cruise”.
Quick Specs
Peter Glenton
1972 Holden LJ Torana
Colour : Turkish Blue
Age : 30
ENGINE
Make : 350 Chev (Motown Block)
Carbie : 750 DP
Heads : Cast
Ignition : MSD
Exhaust : Twin 2.5”
Crank : SCAT
Comp : 11.1
Power : 540 at the fly
Performance : 10.8 @ 137mph
TRANSMISSION
Gearbox : Turbo 350
Converter : 4,500rpm Stally
Diff : 9″ 4.11 LSD
SUSPENSION & BRAKES
Shocks & Springs : Koni’s
Brakes : Front = HQCalipers, P76 Rotors Rear = 11” Ford F100 Drum
INTERIOR
Seats : Leather trimmed racing seat’s
Instruments : Autometer
Dash : Custom LJ GTR
RUBBER & RIMS
Tyres : Rear - 15 * 8.5” Front - 15 * 6”
Wheels : CentrelineWarriors
THANKS
Thanks to my Wife Donna for puttin up with me and my car. Also Mick Zahra thanks for all your help..
Full Gallery of VOLATL 1972 LJ Torana
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