Dale Palmer’s budget-built 1969 Holden HB Torana

Seeing a HB Torana with a trailer is a rare sight; I’ve driven one at length and can vouch that the 1159cc Vauxhall engine struggles to move itself, let alone anything attached to it. Of course, this is Drag Challenge, so Dale Palmer’s HB is going to be anything but stock.

“It’s just something we had kicking around the shed,” Dale explains. “Every part of it is, really.” Lucky Dale’s been hoarding some cool stuff over the years, because it’s all come together to form something sick. “I had the body, the front clip is from a TA Torana if you can believe that, the engine was under a bench; it’s just all spares,” he reiterates. “Ever the fuel lines.”

Once Dale nailed the body together out of detritus and floor sweepings, he recessed the firewall and dropped a six litre LS in the front. The engine was treated to a new cam, springs and valve gear, but not much else, retaining the stock bottom end. “It’s been tuned by Jason Kenny at LS Power Performance,”
says Dale. Jason also fabbed the exhaust, which is HSV from the heads before going custom about 10 inches along. “It’s a twin 2.5in system with a couple of cutouts, just to make it easy for Drag Challenge. Flick a switch, and they’re open, so we’re not pulling the exhaust on and off.” Cooling the LS is a stock HQ Holden radiator with a pair of EL Falcon thermos fans behind it; waste not, want not.

Behind the LS, a Powerglide runs into a narrowed nine-inch via a drive shaft knocked out by Matt at GJ Drivelines in just a couple of days. “That was handy,” Dale says. “It’s pretty crucial.” Why leave it so late? Well, despite owning the HB for 20 years, it took just three months to convert it from slow to go, with the car only finished a fortnight before Drag Challenge.

Dale even retained the HB’s tiny 30 litre tank, albeit with a six-inch sleeve installed to house a high-capacity Walbro fuel pump. “It’s got a set of 3.9s in it and sits on 3000rpm at 95km/h, which is great for this, plus it laid consistent 10.5s at Heathcote a couple of weeks ago,” Dale says. “I could probably do a flat 10 with a swaybar, but we had to take it back out to fit the fuel tank back in.”