HEATH VAN DER WAERDEN UC TORANA HATCH
IF YOU need an example of a car that doesn’t fit any of the usual stereotypes, look no further than Heath van der Waerden’s wicked Lx-converted UC hatch. It’s got a drop of show car, a dollop of track car, and a healthy serve of pro touring.
When Heath bought the UC almost a decade ago, it was a pretty basic black cruiser with a 202 and ugly wheels. It wasn’t long before the front end met with an angle grinder and the car’s transformation began. The extensive modifications Heath made included hiding all the wiring, seriously stiffening the chassis, completely redesigning the hatch floor, making the custom aluminium sunroof, and adding more than 1300 speed holes to remove weight from anywhere that could stand to lose it.
Under the fibreglass bonnet lives a 383ci COME iron lion, with COME aluminium heads topped by a glorious, eight-stack EFI Hardware ITB manifold. Surprisingly, this little monster lives on a diet of injected LPG and spits out 435hp, with more in the tank as soon as Heath can figure out how to feed it more fuel.
The front suspension is fairly standard, though the lowered ride height and 24mm front swaybar really improve the way the Torana tackles corners. The rear end has copped substantial mods, including a fully floating, negativecamber Borgwarner diff with 31-spline axles and a Truetrac centre, all swinging from custom lower arms, Shockworks coil-overs and a rearmounted third link to control the diff’s movement.
The Torana proved to be a very capable combo at OSUSC, running consistent track times that saw Heath taking home second place in the Vintage class thanks to a speedy 1min 15sec hot lap.
“The auto test was the most fun you can have with your pants on,” Heath laughed, although the hard driving did show up some issues with the newly finished Torry. “There was too much oil being delivered to the rocker gear, the tyres weren’t appropriate, and it had too much antiroll in the rear end.”
Since OSUSC, Heath addressed the oiling problem, and then picked up a spot in the Summernats Top 60. He drove the UC there and back from Melbourne!