Owning a race car that’s done battle at some of our most hallowed tracks in the hands of some of Australia’s most legendary drivers must be an incredible feeling.

First published in the December 2025 issue of Street Machine

Just ask Larry Kavanagh. Larry is the saviour of the HDT LC GTR XU-1 Torana nicknamed Saggy Sarah (SM, Feb ’11). A race car since she rolled off the line in 1970, this storied machine spent 80,000 miles competing around Australia and the South Pacific in rally, rallycross and touring car events. She was then abandoned in a barn before being rediscovered and saved by Larry.

While he estimates he’s covered around 850 laps over his 15 years of racing the LC, Larry says the inside of its blown 202 Holden six – which replaced the original 186 – is still clean as a whistle. “The engine was built 20 years ago,” he says. “The bearing shells still had white metal showing. Up until April this year, I hadn’t had the rocker cover off, as I don’t wring its neck on the track because of the car’s history. I pulled it out because I wanted to replace some gaskets chasing oil leaks, and replace the worn-out valve springs and check the bearings.”

Despite all its race work, the mill isn’t as exotic as you might think. “It’s a 202ci Holden block, with a blue 202 crank that’s cross-drilled and balanced, Starfire rods, and forged dished pistons to drop the compression for the blower,” Larry explains. “The head is a ’72 HDT XU-1 Bathurst head, which has had a bit of a tickle, but nothing crazy. It has Yella Terra rockers with screw-in studs, and the cam is a fairly mild grind with solid lifters.

“The blower has been on the car since ’81, and that carburettor since about ’84. It has VK Commodore electronic ignition that’s been recurved, and a modified oil pan with increased capacity.”

Larry keeps the boost under 10psi, and by limiting himself to 6000rpm on-track, he’s only lost one blower belt in 14 years.

The force-fed 202 previously spun up 320hp on the dyno, but it’s received better-flowing headers since then, which dropped the boost back. Larry isn’t sure what the stout six makes today, apart from huge smiles from motorsport veterans who remember Saggy Sarah fondly.

“It’s the history of these cars that makes them important,” Larry says. “The LC retains the two-pack expander foam in the chassis rails, which Harry Firth did to add some chassis stiffness, and I’ve tried to keep a little bit of everyone in the car. The only thing we did was put another set of valve springs
in it.”

Hopefully this means Saggy Sarah and its blown 202 are ready for another half-century of action on race tracks around Australia.

HISTORY CLASS

The blower is a Godfrey Marshall K300 that originally saw duty on a Fokker Friendship aircraft. It was fitted to the hot 202 by Saggy Sarah’s 1977-’83 custodian, Bruce Watt, who evolved the LC into a Sports Sedan from its rallying days. The Weber 48 IDA carb is mounted on an Ian Tate-made tube manifold originally built for Peter Brock’s rallycross Torana, ‘The Beast’.