RUNNING in Turbosmart Outlaw Blown at Drag Challenge 2018, Jake Edwards’s LH Torana has owned the Summernats Horsepower Heroes dyno competition for more than half a decade and even run eight-second passes at the strip. However, after owning the car for 25 years Jake reckons driving the Torrie on the road is what he’s really excited about.

“I’ve owned this car since about 1993, but I think I’ve only done about 2000km in it in all that time,” says the Canberra local.

While Jake made over 2000rwhp at Summernats with a 496ci big-block Chev and 114mm turbocharger, the LH fronted at Drag Challenge 2018 with a 355ci Holden stroker running HQ iron heads and a custom 76mm Garrett turbocharger, good for 711rwhp on Jake’s own dyno. “I had almost everything lying around in the shop, so all I had to buy was the cam, rings and bearings!”

The non-intercooled donk runs a tame 8.2:1 compression ratio and Jake planned to limit boost to 15psi early on, pushing to 24psi on Friday if it all hung together. “I would like to run a nine-second pass at each track; however, this car has done eights with similar power figures in the past, so to do an eight would be great,” he says. “Ultimately, Drag Challenge is such a torture test I’d really just like to get to the end of it with the car in one piece. It is a genuine SL/R, so I think the Holden nuts are going to want to kill me!”

After destroying a wheel and tyre on Day One with some over-enthusiastic braking, Jake had a good weekend… ‘til he blew the side out of one of the cast exhaust manifolds at Swan Hill on Day Four. Desperately hunting a new original manifold, he managed to limp the car to Ballarat where he swapped in a new header pipe.

Jake and his wife Amy finished the Drag Challenge week with a 7.71@136mph on the 1000ft at Calder, placing them eighth in class and the fastest Holden-powered vehicle.