72 replies to this topic

[xu2308]

In Harry's Book
Torana the Great HDT
Harry says he wanted to build a Stage 2 2nd production run on the V8 LJ XU-1
with 5.O Litre Engine much stronger-Rev Limit 7500rpm
Est 450-500 BHP
Lighter with Alloy Heads and Extractors
But GMH would have to be convinced to build it

Now this might of been the ultimate Supercar from Holden, Leave L34's and Race A9X's in there wake if built, should of took that to LE-MANS Harry

[xu2308]

 GMH Styling V8 XU-1.jpg   497.81K   7 downloads

Harry has sketch pics of the Barneys Shirt Car, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, was this Car the Car Harry was tinkering with for his 2nd production run on the V8 LJ, as the H was allways thinking and doing ahead of time, makes you wonder ??????????????

[yel327]

HJ's with a 400ci Chev would have been a good thing too, but got canned late in HJ development.

[StephenSLR]

HJ's with a 400ci Chev would have been a good thing too, but got canned late in HJ development.

Around the time of the release of the HQ, Holden were evaluating a 454 powered monaro. They felt that the Monaro was losing it's muscle car image, and that this would restore it.

The other engine that was under consideration was the 400 sbc.


















s

[xu2308]

mmmmmmmmmmm yes the 350/Z Monaro, was told that was destroyed, mmmmmmmmm NOT

[xu2308]

And the HSV 427 Monaro Beast they made, If Lambo's and Ferraris can be sold here why cant we make and sell supercars lol

[xu2308]

The 427 V8 HT Holden, now what a beast that would of been, i bet a fave car at engineering at the time Norm

[StephenSLR]

no talk of a 400ci or 454 by any of the Engineering personnel.

I thought that didn't sound right, (quote taken from another forum).

s

Edited by StephenSLR, 07 March 2012 - 12:24 PM.

[xu2308]

The old to much power for the brakes trick, a nice scary lol

[xu2308]

I think 'H'
Knows alot more about Barneys Shirt LJ XU-1 than he is saying, its up to him to say, so i hope its soon, as H is not getting any younger

[rodomo]

Barney's shirt may have been another colour at some stage before it left Fisherman's Bend?

[sagman]

Craig , the car has a number of mods which Harry was only to happy to tell me about , those that went to the book launch would have seen the large hole cut out around the shifter and if any had a look underneath they would have seen the spacers between the gearbox x-member and body and a look in the boot revealed a flat sheet welded in .

Question is how does he know what exactly was done to this car ? and why does it appear to be at the rear of the HDT pits at the '72 Bathurst race.

The car was owned by GMH right up to july '74 , not the usual practice for a 'colour plate ' or styling/ show car. ( it was built 19/1/72 and went straight to fishermans bend )

[xu2308]

Yes all very interesting the mods on Larry's Car, lots of things on the car that makes you wonder about what they were doing with it

[sagman]

Barney's shirt may have been another colour at some stage before it left Fisherman's Bend?

I had wondered about that early on and if i wanted to make a car vanish i would send it to the furthest away location .... Darwin would do it !!

However when i got a copy of the first rego papers it lists the colour as ' lilac ' . It was painted metallic blue straight over the barney's shirt and again the flutes were blacked out , then it was painted in a metallic burgundy , flutes blacked out and then in the early 90's it got the current colour ('84 toyota) and flutes blacked out .

Good thing for me and history (not so good for the first owner in darwin ! ) is that he got ripped off as he paid good money for a bare metal respray,
bootlid top , roof and bonnett and front guard tops were about all that saw metal !

Other interesting thing is that the rego papers clearly show the vehicle as second hand even though it was the first rego . Other styling/ show cars when sold have had the 'new ' tag ticked even though they had 2-3k miles on the clock.

Laz

[sagman]

By the way the vic rego was active till july '82 when the car arrived in the NT ............ What i really need is any info on the car when in Victoria. it was rego no. LXE-826 and was sold to some person ( i suspect a GMH employee or relative of ) who lived in the caulfield nth area.

The car was financed through GMAC finance which is why i believe it is a GMH employee who bought the car and certainly they would have been aware of the cars previous use as it would have been on a tender document which is how the ex company/ fleet / show / promo cars were sold.

Laz

[rodomo]

However when i got a copy of the first rego papers it lists the colour as ' lilac ' . It was painted metallic blue straight over the barney's shirt and again the flutes were blacked out

This happened at The Bend I'm thinkin?

[xu2308]

Rodomo

yes some

 secret squirrel.jpg   91.68K   3 downloads


type stuff going on at the Skunk Works at GMH, but mulder and scully are onto it we hope lol

Edited by xu2308, 09 March 2012 - 09:10 AM.

[yel327]

The 350/Z was a pure show car. Done by Holden Styling using a production 350 Coupe. No fancy running gear just some fibreglass add-ons. Sold by Holden in Feb 1974. As for the "Phase Three" Holden pure speculation. The car shown above in teal was know by the stylists as the "Old Man Emu" car. It was dreamed up by by the young stylists and produced as a mockup. Engine was not changed. Engineering had no involvement in this car - no talk of a 400ci or 454 by any of the Engineering personel. Biggest engine I ever saw in Engineering was a 427 and that was back in the HT days.
Note how the spoilers and bonnet on the Teal car ended up on the 350/Z.

Norm

They did play with a 400SBC. I'm pretty sure I know where the 400ci engine out of Old Man Emu went next. And I have GMH documentation showing the 400ci engine was at one stage planned to be standard in HJ Caprice, meaning it most likely would have been optional in HJ GTS, LS and Deville just like the 350 was in HQ (ie optional in HQ GTS, LS and Custom).
I think you made a typo above too, 2/75 not 2/74.
The polycast wheels you see on the 350/Z in the bottom photo are most likely those that ended up on the Ewe't when it was sold. They are on in when Ron Morphy had it for sale in 1975.

Edited by yel327, 09 March 2012 - 09:33 AM.