While chatting in the Sunday-morning sun at Toranafest 2024, my mate Phil made a terrific observation: “All these cars, all these colours – it’s like a spilled bag of jellybeans!” He wasn’t wrong – few car events boast the lolly-shop colours of a paddock packed with Holden Toranas!

Held around Maitland in NSW’s Hunter region, this year’s 30th-birthday event was the first Toranafest in five years. Prior to COVID disruptions, the decision had been made to run the event every second year rather than annually, not only to reduce the load on the good people of the Hunter Valley Torana Club, who organise the whole shebang, but also to make Toranafest feel a bit more special and sacred.

It’s an idea that seems to have worked, with the half-decade between events bringing more Toranas – 567, in fact – and people than ever to Toranafest 2024.

Torries were road-tripped or towed from far and wide, and some Torana freaks even came from overseas, including some keen Kiwis who flew across the ditch for a look. Some West Aussies made the long trek over, too.

A crew of Taswegian enthusiasts and their trusty steeds even crossed Bass Strait via ferry and headed up the Hume from Melbourne, veering off the main drag just after Gundagai to visit the Mount Panorama race circuit – the place where the Torana earned so much respect in the 1970s. “We did quite a few laps!” said a happy Ken Tatto, one of the Tassie contingent. “To get there, we travelled all the back ways over some pretty crappy roads!”

Other road-trippers included the Canberra Torana Club, which convoyed a dozen cars, and the Sydney Torana Club brought along 35. Plenty of other Toranas, too, carried interstate rego plates and club stickers – and happy passengers!

Sunday was the main show at Maitland Park, but Saturday was sensational as well, highlighted by a 50km cruise along some rural Hunter Valley roads under bright blue skies, finishing at the Luskintyre Airfield & Aviation Museum. Seeing the conga line of Toranas in all those poppy 70s colours as they arrived at the airport was tops, as was hearing all those exhausts – from the crisp, cammy tenor of some of the hot sixes to the big, dirty, stinking bass of the V8s.

The 300-odd Toranas then lined up on the grass for a few hours while hands were shaken, backs were slapped, and stories were told. The private Luskintyre airfield is a big-kids’ playground for vintage plane restorers, so as well as the array of Toranas, we also got to enjoy some cool old planes flying – not something many of us see every day, if ever!

Free entry for spectators meant Sunday’s show at Maitland Park was busy, but with plenty of space between the rows of cars it wasn’t too tightly packed, and there was certainly plenty of automotive eye candy for the crowd to enjoy. Thanks to its legendary 1970s racing success, the Torana has more than a lion’s share of passionate enthusiasts nearly 45 years after production finished – remarkable for a badge that was only in showrooms for 13 years. And if you ever needed proof of that, the 567 Torries assembled at this year’s show ought to do.

The marque’s heritage has also given us more than four decades of track tribute/race replica builds, but it was great to see a fair number of original, mum’s-shopping-car Toranas at the show, having managed to come through the 1980s and 90s without flares, fats and black-outs. There were some fresh, high-quality, this-is-now builds among the legends, too.

A highlight of Sunday was the ‘Rev for Bev’. The partner of late racing legend Peter Brock, Beverly Brock was an almost constant presence at his race meetings, including the 1970s Torana glory days, and she was a great fan and frequent attendee of Toranafest before cancer claimed her earlier this year. The midday engine blat in her honour from the assembled Torries was made even sweeter by the presence of another Torana racing legend, Garry Rogers. He was reunited with – and tweaked the throttle of – the LX A9X hatch he raced at Bathurst in 1979, the last year Toranas raced at The Mount. Magnificent!

By mid-afternoon, chairs and blankets were being folded, kids were being strapped into back seats, and Toranas were being idled toward the park’s exits. It was then I overheard another cracker comment. Standing with a few mates and gazing over the paddock of remaining cars, a bloke summed up what many without doubt felt about Toranafest: “I reckon I’ve had more fun in the past few days than the past 18 months.” Bloody oath!

GALLERY:

HIGLIGHTS:

1. The Dox family – dad and mum Gabriele and Anne Marie and kids Samuel, Nicholas and Oscar – love cruising in their LH Torana sedan, but they trailered the Motown 454ci-powered beast from Sydney for Toranafest. It’s run 10.4s over the quarter on slicks, and Gab has also driven it at events like Autofest at Mount Panorama.

2. Colette Keogh bought this sweet HB Torana four years ago. “I had to join the club!” laughed the Sunshine Coaster of her first Torry purchase. “I found it for sale on Facebook.” The HB has just 32,000 miles on it and came with all its paperwork. “It sat in a shed for 20 years,” Colette said. “Now it’s a Sunday lunch car.”

3. Dave Hedley bought this LX sedan from friends Michelle and Fraser of Alfa Motorsport Fibreglass. Tucked under the bonnet is a Holley Sniper-fed LS, which fronts a TH400 auto and a Truetrac 9in. Inside, a pair of Recaros are covered in cowhide, and the whole lot is engineered to be a regular cruiser.

4. NSW North Coasters Dave and Vikki Fogarty have owned their Torana for a decade. “We bought it in northern Queensland,” Dave said. “The body was in good condition, but the mechanicals weren’t the best. It was originally a Nutmeg colour but was painted to this in the 1990s. We eventually figured out that it used to be a Kings Cross police car.”

5. Ken Tatto and Denise Fayers travelled from Tasmania, accompanying six other Tassie club-members’ cars. Ken has owned his hatch for 20 years and built it into its current form, with its 355-cube stroker Holden V8 putting down 412hp at the treads. It’s the couple’s fourth time to Toranafest, and you can bet it won’t be their last.

6. Newcastle’s Jason Lewis has owned his Torana for 26 years. “I bought it kinda the way it is,” he said. It’s powered by a tough, 383-stroked small-block Chev, backed up by a Powerglide and 9in, and is a regular weekend cruiser around Newy’s seaside suburbs.

7. “It was a rusty piece of shit from Coffs Harbour,” said David Pearce of the LX Torana he bought a decade ago. “I bought a grinder and a welder and got stuck into it.” A VN-headed 355 stroker Holden V8 lurks in the engine bay, backed by a T5 five-speed gearbox and 9in. The Dragway rollers have been smartly detailed to evoke A9X rims.

8. This wild custom UC hatch has been modernised with the 304/4L60E powertrain, dash, steering column and air con from a 5.0 Statesman, along with a grille pinched from a later-model WL Stato. The extensive body mods were all done in steel – no fibreglass used whatsoever. Other features include central locking, power windows, Magna power mirrors, shaved locks and VZ SS guard flutes. It also boasts an extensive stereo system, and rolls on 17in Showwheels Streeters.

9. Sydneysider George Koutifaris has owned his 1974 LH for 13 years. After giving it an overhaul and replacing items like suspension bushes, George put it back on the road with its original 202ci six while prepping for a modified LS V8 transplant, which was completed in 2017. George drives his Torana to events such as Toranafest and Toranas on the Murray, along with cruising it once a month.

10. Stephen Woodhead bought this six-pot LJ new in 1972 but sold it seven years later. Happily, the Torry came back into his life in 1994 while on the hunt for a first car for his son. “I saw it by the side of the road with a ‘For Sale’ sign on it. It had only just been placed there that day,” he marvelled. “It was absolutely right place, right time.” These days, triple carbs and cool 13in Hustler alloys give it a bit of extra zing.

11. Travis Sullivan debuted this 410rwhp stunner at Toranafest. With an EFI 355 stroker Holden V8, five-speed, Truetrac and Harrop brakes, this LX is proper Aussie muscle, complemented by flawless dark grey metallic paint and leather-clad Recaros lording over a Euro-detailed interior. It was no surprise that it was voted Most Outstanding Car at the show.

12. The UC Torana of 1978 lacked a V8 option, but as Phil and Ann Lopez’s hatch proves, that’s easily fixed. Built this way by a previous owner, the UC was purchased by Phil and Ann in 2020 after joining the Sydney Torana Club. The engineered cruiser runs a 5.0L V8, a T5 five-speed and rear disc brakes, and has a lovely, lived-in look.

13. Melbourne’s Colin Foley travelled to Toranafest with the Aussie Torana Legends club. “I spent 20 years saying, ‘Wow, nice Torana!’ every time I saw one,” he recalled. “One day, my wife said, ‘For goodness’ sake, just go and buy one!’” He found this 173/manual LH in Hobart, with just 124,000km on the clock, original paint, and all its books, along with the original owner’s hand-written diary detailing things like when it was washed and new tyre purchases.

14. Newcastle’s Greg Judd spent eight years restoring and modding this factory 5.0L, manual LX SS hatch. “As far as we can tell, it was a GM-H promotional vehicle,” he said. “But the wheelarch flares are a bit of a mystery. I met a bloke at Toranafest who explained that they were a Holden pre-A9X thing that would have been fitted by a selling dealer after it had done its time as a promo car.”

15. Few Street Machine feature cars have more miles under their tyres than Heath van der Waerden’s SMOTY-nominated Torana hatch (SM, Sep ’23). Heath drove the car to Toranafest from Melbourne, after devising a clever plan to make his boss pay for it! “I didn’t have much leave, so I planned a work trip visiting customers up the east coast on the way, so work paid for the gas!” It wasn’t all work, though, with Heath making time to take in some driver’s roads like Macquarie Pass and the Old Pacific Highway.

16. This little piece of history was originally a test-bed for COME Engines’ hardware combos in the 1990s. These days, this LC-with-LJ parts lives in the NSW Hunter region with proud owner and Torry fanatic Dave Andrews. “I had to do some work to update its tech,” Dave explained. “But appearance-wise, I’m leaving it exactly as it is, including the old phone numbers!” It runs a Holden-blocked COME 383 Terminator stroker and Powerglide.

17. Mark and Michelle Jellicoe bought this LX hatch in Adelaide. “The previous owner bought it in 1985,” Mark said. “It’s had a closed-door respray, but apart from that, it’s just about original.” That originality includes a Hatch Hutch, air con, and factory cast-iron exhaust manifolds on that lovely 4.2L V8. The odo shows just 184,000km, and the couple cruises the hatch to events around Goulburn, NSW.

18. We first met Helen Wynants’s stunning LX when it was unveiled at Meguiar’s MotorEx earlier this year, and we have to say that the Mazda Soul Red Crystal paint was positively resplendent in the Toranafest sun. It’s powered by a tough little 355ci Holden stroker, backed by a T56 Magnum and 8in rear, with Wilwood anchors and Weld wheels on all four corners.