DARREN CARR ENGINE MECHANIC

MUM AND DAD always had a Torana all the way through and I ended up buying back a Torana they’d sold to someone else. From there on, I’ve always had a Torana, over 22 years. They’re nice and easy to work on, good to look at, a good little car. A plumber two doors up from work used to have this car, It was a real mess, sat in the front yard as a wreck, so we bought it. I always wanted a GTR and couldn’t afford it, so we built one.

This car was an S two-door column shift auto with a 173, vinyl floor and really rough. We completely stripped and sandblasted the car, replaced a quarter panel, a lot of rust repairs, got some GTR flutes welded in. We managed to find someone who wrecked a genuine GTR, so we managed to get all the running gear from that. So we restored all of that and put it in. It’s got the 2600 engine with two-barrel Strombergs. It’s got an M20 gearbox – we were going to go with the Opel, but decided on something a bit stronger.

It took roughly 10 years to build the car.

I enjoy driving it – it’s nice to drive, really comfortable and it’s good on long trips.

Try to find something that’s got really good bodywork, because that’s where most of the restoration money goes. Everything else is fairly easy.