Building a sweet streeter out of a rare car was never a concern back in the day, but the thinning number of surviving classic cars nowadays – and their resultant rising values – has divided car enthusiasts. Some believe all old cars should be restored and preserved, while others, like Dimitrios Apostoleris, take a different line.

First published in the February 2025 issue of Street Machine

“I had bought a completely original HJ GTS coupe to chop up into a tough street cruiser, and while the body was shot, it was a good driver,” Dimitrios says. “I soon came to the realisation that I couldn’t cut it up, being that they only made 606 of them and it was in totally original condition. But I’ve always loved the LX Torana, as a friend raced one back in the day, and so I went on the hunt. In my mind, it had to be a hatch, blown, and engineered.”

Dimitrious has ended up with precisely that in the form of the tough-as-teak LX you see here. However, it certainly didn’t come easily, with Dimitrious encountering a mountain of setbacks along the way. Fortunately, he had a good crew of mates in his corner to keep him motivated.

“There were quite a few times I had written out ‘for sale’ ads for the incomplete car, but my friends Jeremy Elliott, Paul Hamilton and Riccardo Pontonio really pushed me to keep going and finish the build,” Dimitrious says. “I call them ‘the Bad Influencers’, because they’re always encouraging me to do more modifications or push the car further.”

Riccardo’s name should be familiar to SM readers, as we’ve featured a couple of the Drag Challenge veteran’s rides in the mag, including his seven-second VK Commodore (SM, Mar ’20) and twin-turbo LS-swapped Mercedes wagon (SM, Yearbook ’23). So, with a guy like Ric in his corner, Dimitrios’s Torana was never going to wind up passe.

“I found the LX for sale at a Shannons auction in 2016,” Dimitrious recalls. “As soon as I saw it, I knew that was the one for me. It was actually a former Holden development car that had used a turbocharged, carby 202 built by Ian Tate back in the day. This was just an SL model, and the brown interior was pretty tatty when I got it, but I had a vision of what it could be.”

While it needed some work, the Torry’s body had already been beaten smooth and treated to a paintjob some years before. The years may have left it chipped and a bit worn, but it was still straight and free of rot, which made it easier for George Lyras and his team at KB Prestige & Restoration to blow on a fresh coat of PPG White with matching black-outs.

One body mod that draws a lot of comments is the vinyl roof, which Dimitrious says was inspired the one on Riccardo’s VK. “Ric talked me into it, as it’s something different and also old school,” he says.

Because Dimitrios’s end goals called for a blown donk and engineer approval, chassis connectors were added for safety, while split rear wheel tubs allow for a much larger tyre under the rear, which is certainly needed given the hopped-up blown LS that now rides up front.

It’s based off a factory-blown 6.2-litre LSA crate motor, to which a host of upgrades were added to give it a tougher edge. The stock TVS1900 blower has been swapped out for one with a ported housing from Higgins, along with a set of their CNC-ported heads and a deep-breathing #16 VCM cam to give the LSA a serious set of lungs. Custom 1¾-inch headers evacuate the spent gases.

This work has resulted in a 595rwhp dyno sheet on 98 pump fuel, which is plenty in a small Torana. But while his mate Ric is a regular at Drag Challenge, Dimitrios doesn’t have plans to pound his hatch down the strip just yet.

“I’m not looking for something to drag race,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of different cars, and I’ve also got a 400rwhp, blown, manual CV8. But for this project, I wanted something chrome-bumper, something a bit quicker than the CV8, and a nice, neat streeter.”

Aiding the street manners is a TH400 auto with a Dominator converter, and a nine-inch diff out back with 31-spline axles, a Truetrac centre, and highway-friendly 3.5:1 gears.

“This car is a lot of fun to drive, and I love getting it out with the boys or taking my wife and daughter out for ice cream in it,” Dimitrios says. “I’ve built houses and pools and the like, and this car build tested me more than any of them. I’m so fortunate to have my mates, the Bad Influencers, to keep me going with it, because the car is awesome, and I get it out at every opportunity.”

If only we all had mates like yours, Dimitrios!

DIMITRIOS APOSTOLERIS
1977 HOLDEN LX TORANA SL

THANKS
My wife and my daughter Zoe; the ‘Bad Influencers’: Riccardo Pontonio, Jeremy Elliott, Oliver Lukeis, Wesley Sissing, Paul Hamilton, Dave Kermond and George Giouroukis; Luke Foley; Anthony Bell; Ash and team at Sunset Shine Detailing; George and team at KB Prestige & Restoration; Peter Blackman at Blackman’s Leather; Ethan at Kings Motorsport Wiring; Walkinshaw Performance.