Holden Torana LC GTR - Reader Ride

By: John Johnston

Date: 02.09.2017

John Johnston's Holden Torana LC GTR

The car itself is a GTR, that was known as the deluxe sports model and was the start of the pocket rocket line out of GMH. This was a second car I bought to wreck for spares for another I was restoring for my boy.

That was done about 20 years ago, when there were still plenty of parts around at wreckers, so we were fortunate to gather sufficient to put another one together. So it’s all original specification. We went as far as a caustic tank strip for the body. It had a sunroof, so the turret was removed and replaced; The boot and floors were all cut out and replaced; The front radiator surround had been butchered by someone who wanted to put a V8 in it, so that had to go.

The big thing when buying one is ensuring they have the right ID codes for a GTR and XU-1. Really you’re looking to match the chassis, engine and paint codes.

| Buyer's guide: LC/LJ Torana

They live up to their reputation as a pocket rocket. Even with the original 161 they were very lively. The 173 only went for six months and I’ve only seen one quite recently.

John Johnston poured a huge amount of effort into this resto

They got on my radar because my boy wanted a GT Falcon at age 15. I couldn’t support that desire. But we found an original GTR in a car yard, so we bought it and restored it and that’s where it all started.

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