TORANASAURUS

SYDNEYSIDER Daniel Buongiorno is about to hit the track with a new combination in his KING LX Torana. The car was originally going to be repowered with a blown and injected Keith Black-style Hemi as a radial car, but Daniel decided not to muck about. Instead, he went to Queensland and bought the Hemi out of Noonan Race Engineering’s rail car, which has run 5.30s over the quarter!

“I bought Peter Papaioannou’s old SUXGAS Torana as a roller,” Danny says, “and sent it to Hi-torque Performance to fit the engine. When it finally came back to Sydney I had Craig Burns at Street Car Fabrications finish some of the bar-work and the rest of the fit-out.”

Danny sold the Kobelco Superman supercharger that came with the engine and replaced it with a PSI blower, which will be a softer hit on radials off the startline. Backing up the mountain motor is a Rossler transmission, and for now Danny will run with a big slick tyre.

“I’m just at the point now where I want to get the car to the track and get going,” he says. “I know it will eventually need a fabricated sheetmetal rear end, but that can come later when we start leaning on it.”

The combination is going to be tuned by Brett Gillespie, and the Sydney-based deal is a big step for Daniel, who is yet to steer a ship with over 3000hp and mid-six-second capabilities.

“For now, I just what to see what it does, how it behaves and we can go from there,” he says. “It’s only a back-half car and I’d like to keep it that way for a while with headlights and a firewall – kind of a tough street car rather than a full pro car.”