Jay Duca is no stranger to pushing the boundaries with outlandish, never-before-seen creations. We all thought his slammed, IRS, quad-rotor VL Berlina drift car was a mad machine, but this LX Torana takes that basic recipe of blending Japanese style and stance with an Aussie classic to a whole new level – oh, and it’s diesel-powered, too!

First published in the March 2026 issue of Street Machine

“I just build cars for me and hope even those who don’t like what I’ve done can appreciate what has been done to it and the effort that has gone in from everyone,” says Jay.

We remember the moment Jay told us he was going to put together this mad thing; it was over a year ago at Summernats 37, as we checked out his freshly debuted Mazda Parkway bus. “I’ve been inspired by Heath van der Waerden’s Torana, but nobody does them low enough!” he said at the time. “So, I’m going to do one, slam it on S13 suspension, and put a Mercedes OM606 in it.”

Twelve months after that conversation, we again found ourselves in the exact same spot at ’Nats 38, this time staring at Jay’s freshly built, Opaline Blue Torana hatch coughing diesel soot and scraping on the ground – and all we could do was smile.

“People love it, man!” Jay enthuses. “There’s always a few that aren’t happy about it, but I just ignore the hate. Everywhere I go, people swarm on the car.”

Jay began the project by getting hold of a hatch shell that was more rust than car, and published a video on that for his Low Standards YouTube channel. Andrew Shaw saw the vid and got in touch with Jay, offering up his own shell for the build. “He had a shell he’d owned for 33 years, and when he saw mine, he said I couldn’t build it – it’d snap in half!” Jay says. “I told him my plans in case he was dead against it, because this car was his baby, but he was all about it! His goal was to get the car to Summernats, and he just wanted to see someone finish it.”

Given Jay told us about his build plans at ’Nats 37, he obviously spent the following 12 months cranking it out, right? Nope! This one-off machine was built in just eight weeks, with the mad rush to get it to Summernats 38 fully documented on Jay’s YouTube channel.

“It was testing to say the least; I took on too much,” says Jay. “To do this build in that time frame is stupid. It wore me to the bone doing 18-hour days – I used every last ounce of energy. But it’s hard to put into words how thankful I am for this car. People were taking days or weeks from their work or holidays to help; it was surreal.”

Getting a Torana to sit this low while stationary can’t be done just by fitting lowered springs. Jay got hold of a Nissan 180SX S13 shell, and with the whole floor and underpinnings of the Torana thrown out, he began splicing the S13 strut towers, chassis and suspension into the LX’s body. But don’t mistake this as a Torry simply dumped onto an S13 floorpan; Jay picked apart both, marrying the two together until he was happy with the look and height.

“I had them both side by side, and figured out I had to take about 100mm out of the S13’s wheel track, essentially bringing the front and rear strut towers 100mm closer together when they went in the Torana,” says Jay. That meant both the front and rear Nissan subframes also lost 100mm in width. A Corolla steering rack was also shortened to suit.

“Doing that allowed me to run a decent-offset wheel, which was important,” says Jay. “Decent” is well and truly understating the wheel specs. For context, a stock-bodied S13 fills its rear guards with 15×7.5 -7 wheels, while Jay is running a whopping 15×11.5 -51. If the offset figures confuse you, in a nutshell, more subtraction means more wheel poke.

Using Nissan S13 suspension also meant Jay had access to a plethora of aftermarket adjustable suspension that a Torana has never even heard of. The core pieces are Shockworks MacPherson strut coil-overs front and rear, with adjustable arms from GKTech under both ends to dial in camber, castor and toe for perfect fitment.

Of course, the chassis and suspension conversion is only half the story of this build; the other half is the equally radical driveline. The use of a 1990s 3.0-litre, DOHC Mercedes OM606 diesel inline six is a big attention-grabber, paired with an eight-speed 8HP70 transmission commonly found in BMWs.

“They’re a freakin’ awesome engine; I’ve always wanted to stick one in a car,” Jay says. “I’ve had this engine for a long time, and it’s been a dream to have one backed up by an eight-speed, so this is the vehicle. They do some crazy things with them in Europe, so when people see that, hopefully they’ll be less upset by it being diesel.”

As standard, the OM606 uses electronic fuel injection, a Mercedes EDC pump system. Jay has done away with that, instead using an 8.5mm mechanical pump. Internally, the engine is untouched, save for some upgraded valve springs and head studs. “The engine is tuned to 600hp and 664lb-ft, but right now it’s on gate pressure, which is only around 15psi – it’s meant to take 60!” he says. “Being an alloy head, they only weigh about 250kg; it’s stupid light for a diesel motor.”

A Haltech Nexus R3 controls everything else, including glow plugs, the drive-by-wire throttlebody, nitrous, wideband, and all of the sensors, while the PDM does the lights and all the normal car stuff.

The 8HP transmission uses a TurboLamik controller, with a sequential shifter. Those who love going sideways may ask how the hell you clutch-kick an eight-speed auto, but Jay has got a workaround for that by using a Haltech linear position sensor to read clutch pedal position. That cuts in as required like a clutch, so he has all the control he needs going sideways!

Speaking of which, at its core, that’s what this car is built for. All of Jay’s street cars have been built to go sideways while dragging rail, and the LX is no different. “It’ll get beaten up for sure, but I build my cars to use them,” he says. “With the instant torque this thing has and being just 100mm longer than an S13, it should go really nicely. I need to find someone to drive my VL – then we’ll have these things door-on-door going sideways! That’s the goal now.”

GET THE DRIFT?

This isn’t the first time Jay has massacred an iconic Aussie shape for a last-minute, tilty-wheeled assault on Summernats. Two years ago, he took a factory V8 VL Berlina, shoved it full of billet quad-rotor goodness and converted the rear end to S13 IRS.

That car has drifted all over the country and in New Zealand, so expect nothing less from the Torana.

JAY DUCA
1976 HOLDEN LX TORANA HATCH

THANKS
My wife Seanne; Rare Spares; Raceworks; Haltech; Shockworks; Goleby’s Parts; GKTech; Airflex; Stitches & Sounds; Tim; Ben; Brad; Rob; Nick; Will; Phill; Luke; Jase; Joe; Alex; Paul; Haken; Shae.