1979 - 83 : The Torana Years

An A9X!!!!

On 24 March 1981 I purchased a second-hand, late 1977, jasmine yellow and black, 4-door Holden Torana A9X from a dealership in North Sydney for the princely (to me) sum of $7,990. It was A9X production line car number 204 - J595359  / engine number HT73603. Though I had no log books or original purchase documents at the time of my obtaining the car, I subsequently found out that this jasmine yellow sedan had initially sold through Ron Hodgson Motors, Cabramatta, New South Wales. It came from that dealer with the following options: coloured bumpers, air-conditioning, a sunroof and tow bar. I used as a trade-in my 1976 LH SLR 4.2 litre V8 Torana for which the dealer gave me $4,500. I then owned the A9X for 2 years, before selling it in March 1983 to a young man from Sydney's western suburbs. I was 24 at the time of the purchase and a mere labourer at the local brickworks. I have no idea what the car's ultimate fate was, or where it is now. This is the story of my time with the car and what led up to the purchase and subsequent sale......

My A9X parked at 26 Popes Road, Woonona, circa January 1983, rego LSA764.

Cars cars cars....

I was born in September 1956 and during April 1975, at the age of 18, I brought my first car - a white 1967 Holden HR sedan. It cost me $750. The car was needed as transport for the 20 minute journey from my home at Bulli to the University of Wollongong where I had just enrolled in an electrical engineering degree. Public transport was not an option in 1975. Around that time I developed an interested in Australian motor sport. This peaked at the end of the decade, before eventually petering out by the middle of the 1980s. I was a keen follower of the Australian Touring Car championship during that period, and especially the Bathurst 1000 motor race which took place every October long weekend. I was also a Holden supporter and followed the exploits of drivers such as Peter Brock and Allan Grice. A voracious reader and television watcher when it came to motor sport, during the late 1970s I started collecting Australian motoring magazines such as Wheels, Modern Motor, Motor Manual, Racing Car News, Sports Car World and the newspaper broadsheet Auto Action. During the 1980s I joined the locally-based Volvo Sporting Car Club and on a number of occasions visited race circuits such as Oran Park, Amaroo and Bathurst. At one point I went to a driver training course at Amaroo Park, and had the privilege of doing a lap in a Nissan Bluebird with Allan Grice at the wheel! I was also an occasional fan of the sprint cars at the Kembla Grange race track near Wollongong - a friend of mine raced there and in addition had an historic Lotus Cortina which he used in club meetings and hill climbs. So for more than a decade I was a decided 'hoon', with a lot of my life and work dedicated to supporting my interests in cars and motor racing, though not to the street racing which is often associated with that term. 

The period was book-ended by a number of financially lean years as a university student - full time from 1975 through to the end of 1978 and then part time from 1983 through to 1986 - during which I was limited to reading and watching, rather than doing. In between - 1979 through to the end of 1982 - I worked as a labourer at the AIR brickworks, Thirroul, and it was this job which allowed me to engage in my motor sport interests through the purchase of cars and visits to tracks. This involvement was to a very limited degree as the wage of a young brickmaker was not all that high. After paying rent, partying and buying records and music magazines, there was not much left to support my interest in cars and associated activities. Also, I was never technically adept, and as a result things such as tune ups and maintenance or customisations usually cost me.

I drove the HR into the ground during the university years, which began in March 1975 and came to an end in September 1978 when I dropped out following the realisation that I was not cut out to be an electrical engineer. I was also sick and tired of being broke and had started a relationship with my future wife. By the beginning of 1979 the rear springs on the HR were collapsing and it was succumbing to the rust which was then common in cars along Australia's east coast. It had served me well, both around town and on long trips. I remember during the winter of 1978 driving myself and a group of friends down to the New South Wales snowfields at Perisher Valley. As we approached Jindabyne late one Friday night the inside of the windscreen began to ice up as the car had no heater - we just used a few blankets to keep us warm on the trip down. 

So it was that in March 1979 the decision was made to scrap my beloved HR. I immediately purchased a blue and white 1974 HQ Holden station wagon for $2,300 from a young guy in western Sydney, through a weekly newspaper called the Trading Post. It was a lovely looking vehicle, with a nice set of mags, Statesman front end and blue velvet curtains in the back - your typical 'shaggin' wagon.' When I went to pick it up one evening after work I was met with a new car minus 4 wheels and tyres! The owner had lent them to a friend to help get his car through registration. Eventually they were returned and I was able to drive my new purchase home. Unfortunately the previous owner had stuffed up the mechanics by replacing the column shift with a non-standard floor shifter. The latter would always get stuck, and often saw me at the most inopportune moments having to climb under the car and knock it back into gear with a hammer in order to get moving. Needless to say I was not overly impressed with my purchase and began to look elsewhere. A solution was found sooner than I expected and came during October 1979.

Torana fever

By 1979 I was in the grip  of Torana fever - a fever which first took hold around 1976 when the LH SLR5000 L34 model began to make a name for itself on the Australian touring car circuit and at Bathurst. The Torana was victorious there in 1975 at the hands of Peter Brock and Brian Sampson.

The Bathurst 1975 winning Torana SLR5000 L34.

The LH Torana was a good looking car - boxy but with smooth lines, and a V8 under the bonnet which made it an ideal race car and awesome road car. I became a real fan and followed the Torana drivers in earnest over the next few years as they battled the arch enemy Ford, led by the rather serious American Allan Moffat. The latter took his team to a famous 1 - 2 victory at Bathurst in 1977, much to the chagrin of thousands of Holden fans.

My Torana fever came to a peak with one of the most famous Australian motor races of all time, namely the 1979 Bathurst 1000, won by Peter Brock and Jim Richards driving a Torana A9X hatchback. It followed a year or two of diligently watching the touring car races on Channel 7, all leading up to the Bathurst classic. Brock and Richards won the 1979 race by 6 laps, and Brock broke the lap record on the last lap, such was the dominance of both the car and drivers.

Peter Brock's final lap, Bathurst 1979.

The pair had also won the race the previous year, bringing some pride back to the Holden camp after the 1977 Ford humiliation. So it was that during the long weekend early in October 1979 I sat down in front of the television all day and watched Peter Brock in the sleek A9X red and white 2-door hatchback sweep all before it at Bathurst. His success in the car spurred me on to want to purchase a Torana of my own. A number of circumstances came together to enable this.

The LH SLR

Jeanette and the SLR circa 1980.

By October 1979 I was in full time employment as a shift worker at the Thirroul brickworks. I was also in a steady relationship with Jeanette, whose family was about to move from Woonona to Lithgow, located on the western edge of the Blue Mountains approximately two and a half hours away from Bulli. As a result we decided to move in together and also purchase my future father-in-law's Torana. It was a 1976 LH SLR,  4.2 litre manual, 4 door sedan in a reddish-orange colour with black stripes and bonnet,  black trim and hot wire magazine.  The price was $5,500, comprising $3,000 cash plus the HQ station wagon as a trade. Sure, the 4 door was a long way from Brock's mountain conquering machine, but it was a Torana with a V8 under the bonnet, and a decided sporty change from the sloppy and bulky HR and HQ. The Torana purchase was a step up in the power stakes from my two previous cars which ran in-line 186 cubic inch / 3.3 litre 6 cylinder engines with single carburetors. They were both decidedly unsporty.

The Torana was an entirely different beast and a real treat to drive. It had a small V8 and was a torquey little car, with plenty of power. The gear box was very tight and the clutch stiff - in stark contrast to my previous Holdens which were decidedly loose in all areas, especially handling. Generally it was a nice car to own and great to have a V8 on hand to travel up to the Blue Mountains on weekends. I especially enjoyed the steep ascent and descent on either side of the mountains, near Penrith and Hartley. They were windy and reminded one of the Bathurst circuit, only a lot safer and wider. With the power of the V8 there was no problem in getting up or down the mountain and the Torana had ample brakes to ensure the sandstone walls did not get too close.

Michael in his AIR t-shirt 1979

At the time a lot of the guys working at the brickworks were also into their cars. One of my fellow workers - Dave - had a gaudy purple, 1976 3.3 litre Torana SS hatchback; my boss - Toddy - had a beautifully clean aqua-green and black early 1977 LX Torana 4.2 litre sedan which he used to drive on weekends; and the young mechanic - Mick - had a deep red and black 4.2 litre LX Torana hatchback, with huge mag wheels. When I was on afternoon or night shift it was interesting to see all the Toranas lined up out the back of the large shed where we worked. In addition, the young mechanic at the local Woonona garage had an original orange and black A9X sedan in immaculate condition, and another mechanic in Wollongong had a yellow and black A9X hatchback with 'A9X 5000' decals on the rear spoiler and along each side. I was not the only one in Wollongong's northern suburbs with the Torana bug! 

The mundanity of the work at the brickworks meant that our life outside the factory revolved around cars, music, parties, women, the beach and popular drugs such as alcohol and grass. So it was that I would purchase magazines such as Wheels and Auto Action, and collect anything and everything I could about the touring car scene and the annual history of the Bathurst race. All of those magazines and books are gone now - passed on to the local car museum back in the 1990s when I started a family and left the Torana fever behind. But during the second half of the 1970s my earnings definitely went into cars, music, magazines and books, and having a good time.

I purchased the red and black Torana in October 1979, at the very peak of the Torana A9X period of touring car dominance. After the 1979 Marlborough Holden Dealer Team Bathurst race victory, the A9X Torana was replaced in 1980 by the rather ugly Commodore as the official Holden race car, and almost overnight the rather mysterious A9X became a collectors item, on par with the famous Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III from 1969. I always thought that the Torana was an amazing car - it was decidedly sleek and sexy at a time when many of Australia's racing cars were rather mundane looking, especially the tank-like Fords and Chargers. The Torana was compact, lightweight, fast, sporty and relatively reliable. As such, the racing it was involved in was exciting and it really pushed the Ford camp. The most exciting event of the year was always the Bathurst race, and all the while my workmates and I were big Torana fans.

Peter Brock's 1979 A9X Torana.

Between October 1979 and March 1981 I spent a lot of money taking care of the SLR. It was already in pretty good condition, with a nice paint job and Hotwire mags, but I added new purple velour inserts in the front bucket seats; good tyres and of course car insurance through Federation - which was quite expensive for a young guy with a V8. The car was also a petrol guzzler and needed frequent tune ups to keep the V8 engine running smoothly. Therefore a lot of my wage went into the car during this period. It also coincided with moving out of home and into a flat at Thirroul with Jeanette. We were only there for a short period - perhaps 3 months - before renting an old weatherboard cottage at 26 Popes Road, Woonona, across the road from one of my school friends.  We occupiedd the house for over a decade and were sorry to leave in the middle of the 1990s when it was sold off for redevelopment.

Meanwhile, even though I liked the SLR, it was not long before I was looking around for another, perhaps better Torana. Being such a fan of the car, by the second half of 1980 I began dreaming of upgrading to a 5.0 litre SLR5000 or even an A9X. I remember spending many weekends - Saturday afternoons mostly - driving up to Sydney and cruising past the car yards on Parramatta Road. At the time they were full of incredible cars such as Torana XU1s, L34s and A9Xs, and an assortment of Falcons and Chargers. This was at the tail end of the Aussie muscle car boom period and history was on show every day along Parramatta Road, especially at yards such as Brian Anthony Performance Cars, Granville. I remember browsing through the Sydney newspapers on Fridays and Saturdays and clipping out any and every reference to a V8 Torana. During the six months between September 1980 and February 1981 I noted a lot of Toranas for sale in the newspapers and trade magazines. It was a process I would continue to pursue through to 1983.

Newspaper advertisement, October 1981.

I was primarily interested in A9Xs on offer, both in private sales and car lots, and I  found it an interesting exercise to monitor the various cars coming onto the market at that time. There were quite a few A9Xs available through the Sydney yards, alongside tarted up regular V8 Toranas with flares and bonnet scoops and spoilers added. The latter were to become more common as the years went by and the A9X became rarer. The rarest Torana on offer at the time was the L34. I gathered that most of those had gone to the racing teams and as such were very rarely offered for sale as road cars. The A9X was different to the L34, however. From the get go there were basically two versions - the special racing models in both hatchback and sedan formats and with a stronger and lighter body shell as prepared by the factory for delivery to the racing teams; and the road cars that were sold through the various dealerships and never intended to be used as race cars. All the A9Xs were built between August and December 1977, plus one in January 1978. According to the official records, there were 33 of the GMP&A racing shells, plus 100 hatchbacks and 305 sedans produced as road cars - a total of 405 all up. The road cars were available in 23 different colours and with slate (black), chamois or tan interiors. It was recently (2017) estimated that anywhere between 45 to 59 of the road going hatchbacks survive, with the rest either destroyed through accident and use, hidden away in garages, or otherwise having disappeared. Of the hatchbacks that came off the production line, there were 29 in palais white and 15 each in jasmine yellow and flamenco red. Of the sedans, there were 81 in flamenco red, 62 in palais white and 39 in jasmine yellow. The racing shells were primarily in a single coat of palais white. There were other colours as well, such as deep blue.

So it was that by the end of 1980 a number of these 405, non-racing shell A9Xs began to appear on the second-hand market. Many were in mint condition with low mileages, though not all. Also appearing were a few - very few - of the redundant ex-racing machines, though they were usually found on offer in the rear pages of publications such as Auto Action, or disposed of within racing circles. The average price for an A9X during 1981-2 was $11,000, whilst the L34s were around $8,000. This was basically the original sale price for both cars and indicates that even at that stage they were holding their value and recognised by some as collectable. In cruising the car yards, those near-new A9X hatchbacks looked decidedly special. There was something that made them stand out - they were both beautiful and brutal, like one of the cars out of the 1979 Australian cult movie Mad Max, with their flares, bonnet scoop, rear spoiler and huge mag wheels, hiding a powerful motor and drive train. The Torana A9X was the stuff that dreams were made of ... and I dreamt of owning one.

A Jasmine Yellow A9X

By early 1981 I was ready to move on to a new Torana, having wearied of the tight clutch and gearbox of the 4.2 litre, along with the somewhat heavy steering. I was no 'boy racer' and possessed only average driving skills, so I did not push the car or damage it through silly accidents. I had been driving the HR in the pre-breathalyser years and survived, such that by the time I owned Toranas I was decidedly more sensible and protective of my investment. I also took care of the SLR in the hope that eventually I would use it as a trade in. So throughout 1980 and into 1981 I continued to do my research and scanned the papers for A9Xs, but the price was usually too high for my limited budget. However, in March 1981 I noted an advertisement for a Torana on sale at a small dealership in North Sydney. It was briefly described as follows:

Torana SLR5000, '77 model, 4-door, yellow/black, flares, etc. $7,990

Mmmm.... I thought. This was worth checking out. At the time I was not sure whether all the 5 litre Toranas built during 1977 and into 1978 were of A9X configuration. Perhaps this example was just a normal SLR5000 kitted out with flares, spoiler and bonnet scoop? There was not a lot of information available to the public about the A9X - most of the knowledge was with the racing teams. I did not know that genuine A9Xs had only been produced between August 1977 and January 1978, and Holden was sensitive about releasing information on its so-called muscle cars. Also there was a deal of subterfuge and mystery around the original sales of the car. For example, an advertisement from Max Aubert Holden at Queanbeyan on 28 January 1978 announced the arrival of the new Torana SLR5000 with 'A9X Sedan' in small letters beneath the title. So, unlike the present day, the public and fans did not know a lot about the A9X in regards to manufacturing dates, numbers produced, specifications and variants. All that was available was a few review articles in the various magazines, and these were often slow to appear.

Motor Manual, December 1977.

So with my limited knowledge, I decided to further investigate the car on offer and that weekend made the trip to Sydney to have a look. To my surprise I discovered that it was the genuine article - a December 1977 A9X! The salesman did not seem to be aware of the distinction between a 'normal' SLR5000 and the A9X, and I did not bother to tell him. A deal was quickly done - my red Torana was accepted as trade-in plus $3,5000 - and the following Tuesday the jasmine yellow and black, 4-door A9X, engine number HT73603, registration JPL330 was mine!

Was it a bargain? Well, not quite, for while I was ecstatic about owning an A9X, and the price was in my range and therefore affordable, this car was decidedly second-hand. At the time of purchase it was just over 3 years old, had 90,392 km on the clock and was in no way in mint condition. I surmised, or discovered, that it had originally been purchased by a family in the horse-racing industry. I did not have their details or any history of the car apart from what the salesman told me. There were no papers such as receipts or log books, and I did not ask. The Torana - to the previous owners perhaps just another Holden with a powerful V8 - was used to tow a horse trailer between city and country. It was fitted with a tow bar, an ugly vinyl-lined sun roof and air-conditioning. When I purchased the car in March 1981 the bulky metal sliding sunroof had rust under the vinyl lining, the paint work was chipped from lots of country and bush track excursions, the interior was full of horse hair, the dash was tatty and the air conditioning did not work. Apart from this it was in sound condition, with the 2.60:1 Salisbury differential pulling out to 96 kph in 1st gear! This was way too low for street use and tended to get one in trouble with the police as you moved through the gears. I recall getting it up to 185 kph at one stage before running out of road. This was short of the 220 kph possible top speed of the stock standard road car with L31 engine and 14 x 6 steel wheels. The 4 wheel disc brakes - the first on a Holden - were powerful, though the hand brake mechanism was right out of left field - a floor mounted foot pedal and handle on the dash! The car had RTS - radial tuned suspension - and this was a decided step up for Holden. It did not feel at all sloppy like my old HRs.

Once I got the car home I immediately set about tidying it up. What I envisaged was a full external respray in the original colours - jasmine yellow for the body and a glossy black on the bonnet; some Hotwire mags to replace the factory steel rims; a tune up and perhaps headers to help the engine breathe. In reality it was about all I could afford. Fortunately I was able to achieve these upgrades such that by the middle of 1982 my A9X was beginning to look new again. As part of the upgrade I also replaced the rather stone chipped front registration plate JPL330, with a new yellow and black LSA764. In the 2 years I owned the car I spent over $3,500 on parts, mechanics and associated costs. These included the following items, from the mundane radiator hose to the gearbox overhaul:

          $ / item / date

• 6.80 / bottom radiator hose
• 10 / spray paint for bumper bars - original A9Xs had chrome bumpers as standard, with no rubbers. My car had painted bumpers with rubber strip inserts when I purchased the car. The front and rear bumper rubber strips were an option on the A9X (code VE5) though apparently rarely used. I have also seen a couple of other 'original' A9Xs with coloured bumpers and rubber strips. I subsequently purchased a new bumper rubber for the front of the car, as the old rubber had deteriorated. This purchase comprised a can or two of spray paint which was merely to patch up the stone chips and scratches on the front of the car, prior to a proper respray down the track.
• 14 / seat backing and rubber
• 52 / tune up 12 May 1981
• 25 / wheel alignment - 4 June 1981
• 97 / clutch - 11 June 1981
• 8 - rego inspection
• 205 / rego
• 75 / tune up - 19 August 1981
• 12 / quartz halogen bulb
• 35 / high beam switch
• 8 / dash pad
• 4 / floor mats
• 38 / differential pinion seal
• 30 / lower dash section (new) - the whole dash needed a revamp, due to usage. I purchased and installed the lower dash section, and a new glove box door. I later purchased an upper dash section, but this was never installed.
• 270 / gearbox and transmission overhaul - 1 March 1982. By this stage the car had 107,404 km on the clock.
• 103 / paint - in preparation for the respray.
• 23 / bumper rubber
• 18 / flare bolts - the ones on the car had signs of rust by the time I was the owner, pointing to the fact that the car was not garaged and perhaps had been stored in a coastal location and in salt air.
• 23 / right hand front door hinge
• 4 / indicator covers
• 1 / Torana sticker - this was needed for the respray.
• 6 / windscreen surround - this had worn away and was leaking when I purchased the car.
• 180 / sunroof reline - the original vinyl had signs of wear and rust underneath. This was relined and restored by a firm from Warilla. It was not necessarily a factory option, but likely a dealership option installed at the time of the original sale, along with the tow bar and air-conditioning unit. It was a decidedly unnecessary option and I think made the rear facing scoop fume issue worse.
• 200 / paint job 28 March 1982 - this was done by a friend of mine in the largish garage of my neighbour. He did a really good job and the car looked great after the respray.
• 40 / grill - the front of the car had a lot of paint chip marks and scratches when purchased, due to running on rough dirt roads. Following the paint job I invested in a new grill to give the front of the car a bit of a fresher look.
• 10 / paint job rub back
• 240 / Ming protection for new paint job - this was undertaken by a firm in Wollongong.
• 6 / Allen keys
• 25 / relay
• 12 / oil and filter
• 314 / front tyres and alignment - the new set of tyres were applied to a set of Hotwire mags (refer below)
• 260 / rear tyres
• 240 / rego
• 50 / Ultratune
• 500 / exhaust and extractors - this made a noticeable difference to the engine's performance and sound. It was one of my regrets at the time that I never got to enjoy my A9X with the new extractors and tyre set up.
• 70 / Ultratune February 1983
• 150 / brakes
• 50 / seat covers
• 120 / 8 x 14 inch Hotwire mags x 4 - these were placed on the car during my final months of ownership. They were a terrific buy and looked awesome on the car. Most of the racing A9Xs wore 10 x 14 inch or 10 x 15 inch Hotwire mags.

           Total - $3,537

Additional running costs included comprehensive insurance with Federation which came to $1,000 for a year - a lot of money at the time as I was under 25 and without a No Claim bonus. I was only getting about 12-14 miles per gallon around town, though on a trip it got up to as high as 22 mpg. During the first year the Torana travelled some 27,000 kms, with a lot of trips between home and Lithgow, along with visits to Sydney. It was generally a great car to drive, though in slow or heavy traffic the heavy clutch was a pain, as was the engine bay fumes which were sucked into the cabin through the rear facing bonnet scoop. The latter was a distinctive part of the A9X but decidedly impractical for a road car travelling at low speed. Though I owned the car for two years, and drove it every day, I never took many photographs or bothered to record the finer technical detail such as was revealed on the compliance plate. I suppose the reason was I had the car in my possession and was more interested in improving it aesthetically, and using it, rather then looking towards a mechanical upgrade. And  those technical specifications were not easy to access for a second-hand owner such as myself. I did have access to some of the original, published reviews of the car and, if I wanted, all I had to do was look at the car and in the engine bay. Nowadays the specifications are vital in relation to proving the authenticity of an A9x and in verifying a car's history.

Saying goodbye

My job at the brickworks was dead-end, dirty and dusty. As a result, during the second half of 1982 I once again had thoughts of returning to university in 1983 and trying my hand at a science degree, majoring in geology. So whilst I loved the A9X I began to realise as 1982 wore on that it was beyond my means. As Christmas approached it was time to dispose of the Torana and begin a new phase of my life. In hindsight I would have loved to have kept the car and garaged it, perhaps only driving it occasionally or on long trips, but that was not possible due to my financial circumstances. I would no longer have full time employment and needed to get a car that would be cheaper to run and more practical for day to day running to my part-time work and university. The Torana was wasted on me - it was not a city / town car, but more suited to long distance cruising and storage in a garage to protect it, for at the time many fans like myself could see that it would be a good investment, though this was never a major consideration on my part. Another factor in the sale was the ongoing spectre of speeding fines. Following the decision to sell the car I received a letter from the Department of Motor Transport dated 5 March 1983 informing me that, after having 3 speeding infringements since purchasing the Torana,  one more infringement would result in the loss of my license. These infringements were:

* 4 March 1981 - exceed speed limit by more than 30 km/h. This was in the SLR, though I cannot recall the exact circumstances. I do remember that at one point I revved it out on the new express way between Bulli and Waterfall, only to be pulled over by the police when they noticed the puff of smoke from the exhaust as I backed off to slow down. It should be remembered that during this period in the early 1980s radar was being introduced and young men in sporty cars such as V8 Toranas were common targets, and more often then not speeding. These were also the years before fixed and mobile speed cameras, and there were not many police cars on the roads around Wollongong. Despite this I did get caught those three times.

* 22 September 1982 - exceed speed limit by more than 15 km/h but not more than 30 km/h. This occurred at Lithgow on my birthday. We were leaving to come home and were pulled over by a police office who checked the car and tyres. I was very much aware that I was not speeding at the time of being pulled over as we were only just getting ready for the long trip. I felt that we were stopped because the car looked fast, though we were not going fast. Anyway, this was a nasty birthday present. I recall that the police office said if he had of known it was my birthday he would not have booked me!

* 3 January 1983 - exceed speed limit by more than 15 km/h but not more than 30 km/h - speeding at 78 kph in a 60 kph zone. Once again, this was so easy to do in the 5.0 litre Torana.

The Torana was a fast car, and I remember making one trip from Bulli to Lithgow - 220 kilometres - in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Today you would be hard pressed to make it in less than 3 hours due to reduced speed limits and increased traffic. A decision was therefore made early in March 1983 to sell the car for $6,500 - a lowish price in order to achieve a quick sale. I had no trouble in selling it to a young man from south-west Sydney on 23 March 1983. We were both happy with the deal, though for me it was also a sad day when the Torana drove off. Unfortunately as an everyday street car for a young man planning a family it was decidedly not practical! High petrol consumption, too fast on the road and therefore attracting the attention of the police, with engine bay fumes sucking into the car via the bonnet scoop, high insurance premiums and significant running costs, all added up to forcing me to sell the car.

Tracking down my car

When the A9X drove off from Popes Road that day back in March 1983 I  moved on, not even bothering to record the details of the new owner. Over the years I occasionally thought "Where is the car now?" but it was not until I began compiling this blog in 2017 that I gave consideration to its fate. After a couple of months of trawling though Torana websites looking for evidence of its survival, I had all but given up the task of eventually tracking it down for there was no images of a jasmine yellow A9X sedan with a sun roof. However, there was a glimmer of hope when I joined the GMH-Torana online website. After posting a link to my blog, I was contacted by a current owner of an A9X who suggested I check out the Eric Blair 1993 Holden Torana Performance Handbook. It contained detailed specifications on every A9X built. In addition, my contact and a friend were keeping a record of all the surviving cars that were being offered for sale or otherwise were providing specifications such as build and engine numbers. Unfortunately all I had was the build date 11/77, the fact that my car was a jasmine yellow sedan, and the engine number HT73603. From this, they were able to narrow it down to the following three cars (with my car in bold), from a sequence of 4 produced together:

#1 - Car 201 - J595308 - a  jasmine yellow sedan originally sold by Alan Capp, Wangaratta, Victoria. I found out in February 2022 that that car was purchased new by a Sydney man - John Harmer - and it was stolen from the Macquarie Centre around 1982. It's fate is unknown, though I suspect it may be one of those recently sold at auction. 

#2 - Car 204 - J595359  - a jasmine yellow sedan originally sold through Ron Hodgson, Cabramatta, New South Wales. This would prove to be my car. Present whereabouts unknown. See further details below.

#3 - a jasmine yellow A9X similar to my original car, with engine number HT73606 and build 11/77, sold through Australian Muscle Car sales for around $95,000 and listed here: https://www.australianmusclecarsales.com.au/muscle/200948-1977-a9x-torana.html. It is a Northern Territory car, and the colour in the photograph best reflects the original, pale yellow colouring of the jasmine yellow paint scheme.

Having spoken in February 2022 to the previous owner of the A9X sold by Alan Capp Motors of Wangaratta in country Victoria, I am pretty sure that mine was the car sold by Ron Hodgson Motors, Cabramatta. Car number three did not have the coloured front bumper bar or sunroof of my old car. The whereabouts of my car therefore remains a mystery.

The 2023 article

I was able to surmise additional information about the origin of my A9X from a February 2023 issue of Australian Muscle Car magazine. Its cover story was on Rory, the first A9X  to be sold by Ron Hodgson Motors, Cabramatta. 

Rory was a white hatchback, with a detailed sale and ownership history. The story included a copy of an original options sheet from the dealer, and reinforced my view that my A9X had followed a similar route, with an point of sale sunroof, air-conditioning and coloured bumpers, but no 'maggs' like Rory, just the standard steel rims, as seen on the AUTOart 1:18 scale model car in the photograph below. This model is identical to my A9X apart from coloured bumpers and lack of sunroof.

1:18 scale model jasmine yellow A9X with standard steel wheels.

In August 2023 a picture of a red A9X similar to mine, with coloured bumpers and sunroof, and which was also sold through Ron Hodgson motors, was posted on the Facebook Torana Whispers page. Its number plate JPL218 was similar to that on my original JPL330, which I later replaced with LSA764 as it was worn and damaged. Dealers usually had a series of plates on hand, which would be attached to the cars when sold. The Facebook postee, Andy Rundle, also noted the existence of a Western Australian example similarly optioned.

Hopefully one day I will see my car again, though it may have suffered the same fate as Rory and had its options removed, including the sunroof. It is possible that the fate of my car was one of the following: (1) destroyed in an accident; (2) altered from its original condition and paint; or (3) stored in a garage. In the meantime, the search continues......

Torana A9Xs today

There is no doubt that over the past 40 years not all of the original road going and racing A9Xs have survived and are at present running on the road or around the various Australian race tracks. For example, of the 39 original jasmine yellow road cars, perhaps less than 10 survive. Nevertheless, and despite its impracticality as a road car, the A9X remains a classic, and an increasingly valuable one at that. For example, the car pictured below (car #1?) was sold by Shannons in Melbourne during 2008 for $192,000.

Torana A9X, sold at Shannons, Melbourne, in 2008 for $192,000.

It was a stock-standard A9X sedan, almost identical to the one I used to own, though in better condition. I suspect that this is the Alan Capp, Wangaratta, A9X stolen from the Harmer family around 1982. A stock standard A9X white hatchback sold at Lloyds on the Gold Coast in January 2017 for $260,000, to a single online bidder, setting a new Australian record for the car. The Torana A9X continues to maintain its status as one of the most exciting and collectable cars ever produced in Australia. And I owned one once....

1:18 scale Autosport model jasmine yellow A9X with non-standard mags.

References

1977-1979 Holden Torana Hatchback: Buyers Guide, Trade Unique Cars [website], 28 January 2017. Available URL:. https://www.tradeuniquecars.com.au/buyers-guide/1701/1977-to-1979-holden-torana-a9x-hatchback-buyers-guide.

1977 Holden Torana A9X : Dreams of Bathurst, Car of the Day [website], 19 July 2016. Available URL: http://caroftheday.com/2016/07/19/dreams-of-bathurst/.

Anotniou, Fiv, History of the Holden V8 : 1968-79, Elikon Press, Melbourne, 2003.

Australian Classic Car [magazine], Holden Torana A9X, December 2007.

Australian Muscle Car [magazine] : #11 X-terminators - Peter Brock and Bob Morris A9Xs; #23 Bob Morris A9X; #35 The General's ultimate factory race car - Torana A9X; #97 Strife and times of Brock's first A9X.

Berry, Richard, A9X Torana, Auto Action, 29 August 2012, 16-19.

Blair, Eric, Holden Torana Performance Handbook, Marque Publishing, 1993, 164p. Reprinted 2004. 

Brock, Peter, Torana A9X [film], Chevron Marketing Services, 2004, 90 minutes.

Darwin, Norm, Torana tough : history Holden Torana 1967-80, H@nd Publishing, 2012, 296p.

Ellery, Max, How to restore your Torana, Ellery Publications.

-----, Torana's 1969 - 1979 LC LJ LH LX UC GTR XU1 SLR5000 A9X : Vehicle Repair Manual, Ellery Publications, Axedale, 1997, 380p.

GMH-Torana Forum [listserve], 2017. Available URL: http://www.gmh-torana.com.au/forums/.

Holden LX Torana Technical Specifications, Unique Cars and Parks. Available URL: https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/holden_torana_LX_technical_specifications.

Holden Torana A9X: World's Greatest Cars, Trade Unique Cars [website], 7 February 2014. Available URL: https://www.tradeuniquecars.com.au/feature-cars/1402/worlds-greatest-cars-holden-torana-a9x.

Just Holdens [magazine], Torana A9X, circa 1980.

Newton, Bruce, Holden Torana SS A9X, Wheels, April 2015, 91-3.

Paradise, Geoff, The History of the Torana: from Brabham to A9X, Express, Auburn, 1993, 98p.

Restored Legends - Holden Torana, n.d.

Road and track test: A9X, V8 Action, Age Publications, Melbourne, 1978.

Smy, Damion, 1978 HDT Torana A9X, Motor, March 2009, 120-3.

-----, 1977 Bathurst HDT A9X Torana, Motor, December 2010, 124-7.

Stathis, Steven, Bathurst A9X Toranas : a photographic history, Phase Three Posters, Sydney, 2007.

Street Machine [magazine], Precious metal - your 13.2 km Bathurst A9X, December 1986.

Wheels [magazine]: A9X (review), February 1978; Long live the supercar - A9X vs HG350, July 1978; A9X Swan Song, April 1980; Power brokers - the big bucks in Australian muscle, June 2007.

---------------------------

Michael Organ

Last update: 24 April 2023