THE LOW ROAD
Father and son Gary and Ash Low opt for six-pot power for their sweet Holden streeters
FATHER-AND-SON DUO GARY AND ASH LOW PROVE YOU DON’T NEED A BENT-EIGHT TO BE GREAT
IT’S like they always say: like father, like son. For Gary Low and his son Ash, using oldschool six-pot power to upset the V8 crowd is a family tradition – one that has seen the birth of two stunning street machines. “It all started with Dad,” says Ash. “He’s had a lot of Minis and some V8s in the past, but really a lot of Holdens, and most of those were six-bangers.”
As a teenager, Ash went through a couple of chrome-bumpered lions before settling on the LX Torana you see now. “It was supposed to be a quick tidy-up, but the car quickly went back to bare metal,” he says. While the outside got some love, it’s under the bonnet that really has our attention.
“It was originally a 202 car, and we then did a few different things before putting this built 179 in there now,” says Ash. The 179 has been thumped out to 206ci thanks to a nice bill of parts. A 202 crank was slotted in, teamed with some Starfire rods and ACL pistons to raise the compression to 13:1. The bottom end was finished off with an Ivan Tighe custom-grind stick, sealed in by a heavily modified head adorned with a Redline triple-carb manifold and a trio of FAJS carbies. Sucking on E85, the package makes around 200rwhp, but for Ash, that wasn’t his main aim. “The boys use the dyno as more of a tuning tool than anything else, so the power level can always change,” he says.
Since its completion, the Torana has run a best of 12.97@104mph, shifting through a modified Trimatic ’box and Hilux rear end. The Torry has taken a stack of trophies both on track and in show, being a bit of a head-turner. “We wanted 13-second quarters when we built this engine, so I’m pretty happy with it,” Ash says. “People don’t really believe it’s not a V8 when it wheelstands off the line, and they love to see something different with us running the sixes.”
On the other side of the garage is Gary’s HZ Kingswood, sporting a snotty 202. Much like his son, Gary’s love affair with six-banger Holdens kicked off quite early on. “It all really started when I was a young fella, because not everyone could afford a V8 back then,” he says. “We’d mess around with the sixes because it’s all we had, and it’s just something that’s stuck.”
Having spent nearly 30 years messing around with Minis, Gary opted to go back to his roots and grab himself an old Holden. The HZ was a good roller when the boys picked it up, really only needing an engine and ’box. Prior to that, the duo had been racing a seriously strippedout VC Commodore, which ended up donating its driveline to the HZ.
The 202 is actually the matching-numbers engine from the Torana, so as Ash puts it: “It’s all been kept in the family.” It’s also copped its fair share of work, including Starfire rods, ACL flattop pistons, a ridiculously lumpy Crow cam, a reworked Yella Terra head and the same intake manifold and carby set-up as the Torana’s mill.
THE LX HAS RUN 12.97@104MPH. PEOPLE DON’T REALLY BELIEVE IT’S NOT A V8 WHEN IT WHEELSTANDS OFF THE LINE