{"id":16228,"date":"2016-05-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/news\/ultimate-sleeper-holden-lc-torana-sl-with-a-355ci-stroker"},"modified":"2023-08-15T00:41:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T14:41:50","slug":"ultimate-sleeper-holden-lc-torana-sl-with-a-355ci-stroker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/features\/ultimate-sleeper-holden-lc-torana-sl-with-a-355ci-stroker","title":{"rendered":"ULTIMATE SLEEPER: HOLDEN LC TORANA SL WITH A 355CI STROKER"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MARK Allen’s LC sedan might look like it just left the bowling club, but there’s a tough Holden 355 stroker under the hood and it’s already run into the 12s.<\/p>\n

This article on Mark’s LC Torana was originally published in the April 2016 issue of<\/em> Street Machine<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>When Mark got hold of the unassuming more-door, it had already been converted to a Holden V8 with a Trimatic and a nine-inch out back. But about a month into his ownership the converter shat itself, so Mark figured he’d check out the rest of the motor.<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>“The bearings were knackered and that was just the start of it,” he says. “Pretty much everything we looked at was stuffed, so I figured we’d tidy a few things up.”<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>In Mark’s book, “tidying a few things up” doesn’t involve a rattle can and five litres of oil. The engine was given a complete makeover by Mick Fernihough and a little bit more horsepower was thrown at it. The crank got stroked out to make it a 355 and a new high-rise Torque Power intake went on, but as Mark didn’t want anything hanging out of the bonnet, it involved a fair bit of trickery to make it all fit.<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>“I took some meat out of the crossmember so the motor could go lower and modified the transmission mount too,” he says. “The headers are from CRS, but I had to modify two pipes on the passenger side and all four pipes on the driver’s side, because I’d dropped the motor down. I made my own chassis kit too, but I didn’t check if the body was twisted. If it was, it’s staying twisted now!”<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>It’s been built primarily as a street cruiser, so it’s only got a mild hydraulic cam, 2800 stall, and 3.25 gears in the Phil Purser-prepped nine-inch, but it’s still managed a very slippery 12.2 on the Roadstone radials you see in the pics. “There were a few guys with HSVs that were very unimpressed that night about getting hosed by a shitty brown Torana,” Mark jokes. He reckons with a bit of fiddling and some traction, the car will get into the 11s without a drama.<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>If you’re wondering when he’s going to paint it, don’t lose any sleep over it. “Some old bloke told me he knew how to get all the white stuff off the paint. I said: ‘Don’t you know how long it took to make it look that shitty?’”<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>Besides, Mark’s quite happy to have a car that he can park anywhere and not worry about it. After all, he’s spent the past few years working on Chris Bitmead’s Ridler contender<\/a>, and has a pretty nice Willys coupe in the shed as well (SM, Mar ’02). “I re-do the pinstriping every now and then,” he says. “It’s just electrical tape.”<\/p>\n

$\"Holden$ <\/span>Yep, it’s low on the maintenance, low on the radar and high on the fun factor – the perfect little sleeper.<\/p>\n