Project Torana update: Part 1

By: Guy Allen/Paul Tuzson, Photography by: Guy Allen/Paul Tuzson

Date: 29.10.2015

Our Project Torana is now a work in progress and so far we've managed to pull apart a fully-functioning A9X replica Torrie

Project Torana: Part 1

You may have noticed we’ve gone a bit quiet after announcing our Torana build a few months ago – a project we’ve undertaken with those wonderful folk over at Street Machine magazine. Why? As so often happens with these projects, we had a rush of activity at first then decided to put the brakes on while we worked out what in hell was the next step.

Our starting point was a nice A9X replica Torrie (not the real thing) with a 253 V8 in the snout and an M20 four-speed gearbox. Not a bad package, really. And, if we had any sense, we would have given it a quick freshen-up and moved on. But where’s the challenge in that?

So far we’ve driven the car from NSW to Vic and pulled it apart. The good folk at Glenlyon Motors (in Brunswick, Vic), have been entrusted with the assembly work. Mick and his crew have been in business for a long time and work on an incredible range of machinery, so this job is well within their scope.

We managed to beg/borrow/steal a workshop trolley and mounted up the now empty body shell, which was shipped over to Chris and Demi at Corporate Auto Body in Thomastown. They’ve done some great work on our project cars in the past, so it was a no-brainer to drop this one in their lap.

The shell has been stripped, cleaned up and skinned, and is awaiting a fresh coat of bright orange paint. Yep, we’ve tossed subtlety out the window on this one.

As for a powerplant, there was a raging debate between sliding in an LS-series engine (the preferred option for many of us) or building an old-style bent eight up into a 383. It turns out the latter will give us a whole lot less grief when it comes to registering the car, so that’s the way we’re going. One of the options we’re looking at is fitting a single-port Holley fuel injection system.

Transmission? Not confirmed, but we’re leaning towards an auto, possibly a Turbo 400.

We have a deadline looming, so getting it all together in time will be a bit of a challenge. Watch this space…

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