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The Great L34 A9X debate


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#576 Bigfella237

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Posted 24 December 2014 - 09:51 PM

Didn't they make less than 300? You would think they are much rarer and harder to find.

 

305 A9X sedans + 100 A9X Hatches (not counting spare shells or race cars)

 

Not sure on L34 numbers?


Edited by Bigfella237, 24 December 2014 - 09:52 PM.


#577 VIXL34s

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Posted 24 December 2014 - 10:18 PM

263 seems to be the common number of L34 s produced I beleive

#578 Shiney005

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Posted 27 December 2014 - 09:39 AM

There were 160 built with the 2.78 diff, and 103 with the 3.08.



#579 toranamech

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Posted 05 August 2015 - 04:47 PM

POWER TO BURN AND SAFETY [IN GOOD HANDS]Astonishing performance is the feature of the L34.7secs 0-110 kph.185 bhp on dyno at rear wheels at 5000rpm.Allowing for loss of 40% equates to 310 engine hp.14 sec flat standing quarter at a near accurate 170kph.Falcon GT 15.8 SLR5000 15.9 .Summing up the L34 is a very powerful and very fast car having more than is needed for road use.But it has no bad temperaments,is quiet useable in city driving and has good handling and brakes.[if this was a HO pack car they would not be saying this Red.] if your standard Motors were so good and powerful they would have raced with them.Get used to it the L34 was a very special car and so were the A9X but for different reasons.The L 34 was the GTHO of the Toranas

I have to agree, I have had 2 L34's one of them was a HO pack, I spoke to the original owner years later and he said off the showroom floor they were not that great, better handling than an SLR 5000 due to wheels tyres and suspension mods , but performance wise much the same.

He purchased the track pack or HO pack from the dealer in Caloundra and the one thing he noticed when fitting the Crane solid cam, was the original factory fitted L34 camshaft had the Holden 253 part number on it, so a quick check in the Holden part catalogue and Voila, mystery solved, If Holden fit headers, big valve heads, better manifold, roller rockers and better ignition, how better to kill it off than a small cam, check the parts catalogue if you don't think it is true. 

 

The A9X had an old ADR27A smogger, so amongst the slugs of that era, probably felt ok, bit more power as no rad fan and the bonnet scoop, the suspension was much the same except for the upper control arms, the rear disks and 10 bolt fixed the diff woes.

 

The A9X would be a better car to live with day to day, but L34 much rarer for all the previous reasons mentioned



#580 _ck1971_

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Posted 06 August 2015 - 03:01 AM

mystery solved, If Holden fit headers, big valve heads, better manifold, roller rockers and better ignition, how better to kill it off than a small cam, check the parts catalogue if you don't think it is true. 

 

The A9X had an old ADR27A smogger, so amongst the slugs of that era, probably felt ok, bit more power as no rad fan and the bonnet scoop, the suspension was much the same except for the upper control arms, the rear disks and 10 bolt fixed the diff woes.

 

The A9X would be a better car to live with day to day, but L34 much rarer for all the previous reasons mentioned

You dont have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve the so called mystery, its pretty obvious why the standard factory produced L34 isnt much, if any, quicker than an SLR5000, the exhaust system was dreadful but that didnt matter because under the Group C rules of the day you could change everything past the 1st join,the cam was as you said a standard 253 unit (that'll get those big valves working, not), so there's no mystery, fit those items to any Holden V8 and see how it goes.

 

The A9X engine had a revised cam, why this was fitted is debatable but the suspension was not much the same as the L34. The A9X suspension was designed without the constraints imposed on the L34 suspension it was done by Ray Borrett and it was much more refined that the L34 setup.

 

The L34 is a rarer car because the were less of them made.

 

If you start talking about the High Output Pack remember that it was available from GMH as an accessory and you could put it into any car you liked, I wonder how the A9X would have performed with the High Output Pack installed?

 

It's a shame that we couldn't get an L34 and an A9X, both in factory standard trim and run them against each other so we could get rid of all the opinion based biased rubbish and see where each car was better or worse than the other, I for one couldn't care which one came out on top.

 

ck1971.



#581 myss427

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Posted 06 August 2015 - 01:25 PM

Not sure about 40% drive line loss with a manual gearbox! That would be the highest percentage I have ever herd quoted, banjo diff and depress would not eat up much power. 



#582 HSVGTS

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Posted 23 September 2019 - 12:56 PM

Anyone like to kickoff a 10 year old debate again ? Haha...

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#583 Shiney005

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Posted 23 September 2019 - 11:10 PM

I mentioned in another thread the other day that the SL/R 5000 tested by Sports Car World had a 3.08 diff, and the L34 had the 2.78. That Saffron SL/R 5000 disappeared from the press fleet soon after, and every V8 Torana tested by magazines from then on had the 2.78 diff ratio.

To quote that Sports Car World article...... "I felt the road test car could have been de-tuned for the sake of an enthusiastic press ready to crucify it as a supercar".

Don't forget that the Supercar Scare was more than just those 5 days in June 1972.  Ministers were still making noises about "Supercars" in mid 1973, in reference to the HQ 350 Monaro.






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