SIX IS ENOUGH

SOME SAY THAT NOTHING’S AS GREAT AS A THUMPING V8, BUT THIS BUNCH OF TOUGH SIX-CYLINDERS MAY JUST GO TO SHOW THAT THAT’S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE!

A HANDFUL OF TOUGH SIX-BANGERS

1972 HOLDEN LJ TORANA GTR XU-1

Although the XU-1 Torana famously campaigned by Dr John Elliott in the Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC) series may have now changed hands, its legend lives on. The car was first imported by Sir Colin Giltrap and originally raced by New Zealand Saloon Car champion Rodger Anderson, who used it to win the Shell 100 endurance race at Levin in 1973 and 1974. Despite its success, when Rodger retired from racing, feeling that he’d achieved all that he’d set out to do, the car stayed in the family, until his wife, Lola, eventually tired of the XU-1’s heavy clutch when driving to work in Auckland’s North Shore traffic. John’s love affair with XU-1s began many years ago. He recalls, “In my last year at secondary school, my father had a Glacier White LJ Torana GTR XU-1. I was racing a supercharged VW beach buggy at the time, with his help, and did several races in it at Levin. For my final club meeting there, my father left the VW buggy at home and arrived

with the XU-1 for me to race only. I did all three races that day and won all of them.” After purchasing the car from fellow racer Wayne Anderson, John’s since raced it in Australia twice, as well as all around New Zealand. The first trip to Australia was with CMC, and, while the car was essentially a slightly modified production car, he loved the people and chose to carry on racing with them. “Outside of CMC, people are always absolutely astonished [by] how fast the XU-1 actually is, but it was generally the company I kept that hid this! … I have never raced a car which was so popular, attracted such attention and such a large and loyal following on both sides of the Tasman,” he says. As the only six-cylinder in the class, and, with less than half the horsepower of some of the front runners, John continued the evolution of the car. The final incarnation of it became the underdog that everyone cheered for from the sidelines in reverse-grid races, as John left well before the pack, in a rapidly changing game of cat and mouse. Uninhibited by traffic in front of him, the Torana went on to claim many podium positions, even taking home championship titles on multiple occasions. Of course, to do this, a serious engine had been built, based around a 202 Black block. The block itself received plenty of work, including redrilled oil passages and tight bearing clearances. A stock 3.25-inch-stroke Blue crank was fitted, along with a steel girdle, and held together with ARP fasteners. Slightly longer–than–stock 5.71-inch H-beam rods became part of the package to improve the rod-to-stroke ratio, while JE pistons were added to each — with careful attention being paid to the pin height — for an impressive static compression ratio of 12.5:1. Dr John states: “We ran edge-orificed cam followers that were very carefully machined and faced, as, without these, most of the oil can end up under the rocker cover and not enough at the bottom of the engine, resulting in dire consequences!” Over the years, the car had a selection of Australianmade Clive’s Cams cams in it, John choosing this provider, as the owner previously worked for Wade Cams and had been involved in the hand-grinding of all the production XU-1 cams when they were manufactured, making him an absolute fount of knowledge. John mentions that, “[w]hen using a flat-tappet cam, I used his cast-iron 191A cam and side-orificed lifters. The cams are cryo hardened. I have used his steel-billet roller cam with wonderful power, but [it] vastly reduced engine life. Holden straightsixes pulling 8200rpm sound like a Ferrari, but their bores tend to split without warning, or the con rods escape and try and head back home to the outback with rather devastating consequences!” With the roller cam, John would use Comp Cams roller followers with Ford FE big block follower bridges, which just happened to fit perfectly. “I replaced the cast cams every two seasons and significantly modified the way the cam gear is attached to the cam, with a much bigger hold bolt and thread machined much further into the cam for more solid purchase. I have still managed to snap the end off the cam when I ignored my own rule and decided to go for two-and-a-half seasons on the one cam with the perhaps anticipated result,” states John. As aluminium straight-cut cam gears are no longer easily available, John and his crew CNC machined their own and, knowing the harmonics of a sixcylinder are the enemy, made sure to get the balancing perfect, while saving as much weight as they could. The cylinder head atop all this is a 12-port J.Zed aluminium down-port item, which features a modified valve location as part of the casting. The history of these castings can be traced back to Phil Irving — the same man who designed the Repco Brabham Formula 1 engine as used by Denny Hulme used to win the World Championship in 1967. Strapped to the side of the head is a set of triple 50mm Weber DCOE side-draught carbs fed by a Carter electric fuel pump and Holley fuel regulator running a maximum of 3–4psi of fuel pressure. For oiling, which is known to be critical in these

HOLDEN STRAIGHT SIXES PULLING 8200RPM SOUND LIKE A FERRARI

THE CAR MADE 365HP WITH THE ROLLER CAM; MORE THAN ENOUGH

Holden straight-sixes, the car was fitted with a Peterson four-stage dry-sump pump with custom oil pan and -12 Aeroquip fittings. As for that Ferrari-esque exhaust note … well, that came care of a custom set-up with two threeinto-one headers with primaries measuring in at 1¾ inches, and then into a two-into-one unit that was limited in size by the need to navigate the engine bay, ending in a single three-inch that exits from the side of the car. All up, the car made 365hp with the roller cam, or 335hp with the flat-tappet cam, which, in the lightweight shell, was more than enough to shame its fair share of V8s around the track. “The roller-cam engine was a sensation, and, the one year I ran it, I won the CMC Group 2 championship outright, but the maintenance required wore me out, so I retired back to spec two, as above. With all the lessons I had learnt, it was very reliable and remarkably trouble-free. I just had to do the rollercam thing to get it out of my system and then came back to reality — I do not for one minute miss the all-nighters to keep it going! Actually, having said that, I am pretty confident [that] I could still replace the big-end bearings in my sleep!” John laughs. Of course, all the power without control wouldn’t have resulted in a lot, so equally as much effort went into the car’s set-up. The standard LJ XU-1 front-end design remained, complete with factory-strengthened lower A-arms that were paired with Koni shocks and 1200-pound springs. Likewise, the rear suspension design remained stock, with the addition of Koni shocks; 400-pound springs; and standard, genuine Holden rear rubber arm bushes. Ironically, John mentions that the aftermarket rubber bushes would often not last a race meeting, while the genuine Holden ones would last multiple seasons. Replacing the rubber bushes with Delrin resulted in the handling deteriorating dramatically, as the rubber’s compliance allows for the rear arms to go through their full movement without binding. Likewise, the trailing arms were left un-strengthened for the same reason, except for the rear of the arm around the bush, which was strengthened. A 24mm front sway bar was fitted, with a 19mm rear bar only occasionally used. John recalls the car being a lot quicker around Manfeild with it attached, but slower on other circuits. The car’s power was put through a Celica fivespeed with a custom gear set built by Mal Clarke at Bygone Autos, backed by a Commodore BorgWarner diff centre fitted with XU-1 ends, retaining the standard XU-1 stud pattern. The car was not the Doc’s first foray into race cars, and, having been with him for 15 years, it was recently moved on to allow him to complete his 1974 Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 replica, which, all going to plan, he’ll be behind the wheel of at some stage over the coming season. Will it live up to the amount of fun the XU-1 provided? Well, that’s yet to be seen.