LH Holden Torana

march 1974 had first new torana body, arrival of larger mid-sized lh series, produced in four-door sedan style only. despite larger external size, car relatively cramped mid-1970s standards. resembled other gm products of generation, notably opel ascona. unique in that, following addition of four-cylinder option in may 1974, same body style available choice of inline-four, inline-six, or v8 engines, specifically, 1.9-litre opel four, 2.85- , 3.3-litre holden red sixes, , 4.2- , 5.0-litre holden v8s. low-compression versions of fours , sixes available export markets.

exports philippines occurred, sold holden 1900 .

the 5.0-litre engine reserved sporting lh torana sl/r 5000 sedan. special build derivative of sl/r 5000 bathurst-intended l34 option , of 263 built, higher-compression engine stouter components more power , durability in competition use. notable external feature of l34 bolt-on wheel arch extensions, designed accommodate larger racing rims , tyres.

the l34 option, first seen in 1975, proved fast , successful, yet fragile, in australian touring car racing. superseded evolutionary a9x option made available in lx torana series in 1977. a9x delivered standard 5.0, used l34 motor in races developed repco lh sl/r 5000 h.o. l34. a9x version of torana had larger 10-bolt salisbury differential disc brakes , had option of borg warner super t10 four-speed. hardly cars delivered super t10 option, in effect immortalized a9x pretty stock car better differential , suspension. lh torana in l34 form won famed bathurst 1000 touring car race peter brock , brian sampson in 1975 , bob morris , john fitzpatrick in 1976, l34 motor being fitted a9x, in effect winning car, well.

according holden dealer team boss harry firth, holden chose have v8 engine in sl/r 5000 developed repco on dyno led massive oil surge problems on race track , had number of teams, including hdt, suffer numerous engine failures in both testing , races in 1974. firth believed using same v8 engine had developed stillborn v8 gtr xu-1 have solved problem, hdt had cured oil problems, holden ignored warnings.

prototype wagon , hatchback versions of lh torana built, never reached production. overall, total of 70,184 lh toranas built. few special models of lh built, sporting plus 4 , g-pak models. plus 4 arrived in september 1974 , attempt move few more of slow-selling four-cylinder models. g-pak, first seen in february 1975, received 3.3-litre inline-six. both came four-speed manual, sporting instrumentation, , disc brakes in front.

new zealand assembly got off troubled start. general motors new zealand, still had wide four-cylinder vauxhall viva/magnum line on sale, had planned 2850 6 s model bench front seat , three-speed column manual shift , 3300sl bucket seats , four-speed manual or three-speed trimatic floor shift.the new zealand government, though, imposed 60% sales tax (a post-first oil crisis measure) on cars engines on 2 litres gm launched lh in mid- 74, , few of each built. lh withdrawn temporarily , relaunched months later opel 1.9-litre i4 , floor-shift manual or automatic (sl only) gearboxes. six-cylinder toranas never again built in new zealand , rare imports after this. gm new zealand built few unique local sports special editions, changes cosmetic.