1976 Holden LH Torana HDT Sports Sedan

A built from the ground up Holden Dealer Team Torana Sports Sedan powered by a mid-mounted Repco-Holden Formula 5000 5.0-litre V8 along with suspension developed by one of the country’s leading open-wheeler engineers, Leo Pruneau. It would be driven by Holden’s number one factory driver, Colin Bond. The LH based HDT was Bond’s idea. It was all smiles at the 1976 Sydney Motor Show when Colin showed off the shiny new HDT Torana SLR/5000 Sports Sedan. Two years in the making, the car was ready to go in June 1976. This is no plain Jane LH Torana. The bodywork is made up of two main sections, made of fibreglass for the front and the back. The Torana’s first race was at Sandown in July of 1976 in round two of the Sports Sedan Championship where Bond put the car on pole. After Bond went to Ford for 1977, the car went to Melbourne for Ron Harrop to prepare and drive. During that year the car was repainted to match the HDT Group C Torana liveries. Ron’s first outing in the car was at Wanneroo which was the third round of the 1977 Australian Sports Sedan Championship. HDT boss John Sheppard decided that nine-time Bathurst winner Peter Brock would drive in the Calder round. This was also its last race as a Holden Dealer Team car. Following on from this the car was sold to Barry Nixon Smith in 1979. Barry was a Queensland Holden dealer/racer. Barry would then go on to sell it to fellow Queenslander Dave Watson. In 1983 it was then purchased by Des Wall while holidaying with his family in Queensland. Current owner, David Wall, son of Des remembers one of the first racing adventures in which the car was stuck on a jumbo and flown to New Zealand. Des stopped racing the Torana in the late 1980s. In 2012 Des and David embarked on a full restoration of the Torana returning it to HDT trim. The attention to detail is second to none and definitely a credit to both Des and David. A full feature on this Torana can be seen in Issue 80 of the Australian Muscle Car magazine. Please contact one of our friendly staff to make an appointment to view this car at our Kogarah showroom.