TORANA A9X MARKET

HOLDEN’S V8-ENGINED Torana came to be at a time when the world was walking very rapidly away from big-engined cars. The world excluding Australia anyway. Competition-spec L34s were fast for as long as their engines held together but Holden needed a car that could serve both as a competition platform and promote sales of less exclusive Torana variations. The A9X announced in 1977 was available with two or four doors and a proper reverse-inlet bonnet scoop. It retained the L34s wheel-arch flares which looked ridiculous when shrouding standardsized rims and rubber. Of course they weren’t meant to stay that way for long. The sedan was by far the bigger seller (305 cars vs 100 of the chunky, sexy Hatch) yet the cars Holden offered for testing purposes to the motoring press were both hatchbacks. Something to be said there about selling the sizzle. During the decades that have passed since every boy or girl racer and their parrot wanted an A9X – and rarely could buy them – but the market has been decidedly ambivalent towards these cars. A decade ago a couple of quite significant examples had a crack at breaking the $500,000 barrier but for the most part any money on offer for two-door cars has stayed below $250,000. Twenty or so years ago, A9Xs similar in appearance to our featured hatch could be found for a tenth of today’s money. Those canny enough to take notice at the time were offered an unrepeatable opportunity to latch onto a legend.