Forty Years of LH Torana

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1 Collectible & Classic It s about The cars!! Forty Years of LH Torana It is 40 years since Holden launched the LH Torana at the now defunct Warwick Farm racing circuit in Sydney. The iconic brand s loyal fans have already started to celebrate. And with good reason. Because the LH is the second last Holden to be fully conceived, engineered, designed and built in Australia. RETROAUTOS March 2014 ISSN

2 Styled by Leo Pruneau and his team, the mid-sized Torana package appealed to a broad a cross section of consumers. It was one of the few cars in the world specifically designed for four, six and eight cylinder motors. Lowest on the model hierarchy was the four cylinder poverty pack. In the middle were the sixes and a few creature comforts.at the top, more race car than street machine, sat the awesome SLR 5000 with the L34 V8 option pumping out nearly 250kW.That was big power in the mid 1970s. Vauxhall Ventora Chevrolet Vega Coupe That Leo Pruneau styled the LH Torana provides a wonderful serendipity. For it was Leo who, ten years earlier, styled the Vauxhall Viva which morphed into Australia s first Torana. Leo spoke to about designing the LH. We got the right shape very early in the program and it was consistent with General Motors design language at the time. If you look at the Chevrolet Vega and Vauxhall Ventora you can see the similarities, particularly around the grille and side view, he says. RETROAUTOS March 2014 ISSN

3 Chevrolet Vega Fastback Leo also confided that the grille was originally planned to be bigger and bisected by a much thinner chrome bumper bar, similar to the Chevrolet Vega (pictured above). We could not achieve that look because the body engineers did not like it, so we compromised with a smaller opening under a wider bumper bar, he says. The dash board was also a result of corporate consensus. Pruneau s team had styled a sculptured, rounded facia, but Holden was eager to gain exports. That meant the dashboard had to accommodate left and right hand drive configurations. A flat symmetrical facia was the easiest and cheapest to make and that s what went into production. RETROAUTOS March 2014 ISSN A station wagon and two door coupe were also planned for the LH range. The wagon never got beyond the prototype stage. The two door was redesigned into a hatchback and made it onto the market in You can see prototype images of these two cars in Norm Darwin s great book Torana Tough. The LH Torana and its successors represented many things to many people. The potent brand name combined with its mid-size dimensions and multiple engine options gave the Torana a wide and unique demographic reach, and its appeal has endured down through the years. In 2004 Holden resurrected the Torana name and dimensions as a four door hatchback

4 concept car. It makes you wonder that, just perhaps, instead of spending a billion dollars on developing an upsized, longer, heavier Commodore,they d spent it on a new mid-sized Torana they might not be downsizing the organisation now. Ah, such is the stuff that dreams are made of, and Holden will now become just another importer. What Holden said about the Torana concept car "Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney, today said that naming the concept car was easy. We knew many fans would immediately call it Torana because it is a high powered, midsize, rear wheel drive hot hatch. Holden Design Director, Tony Stolfo, said the showcar's aggressive, sports-oriented frontal treatment recalled its hard-charging Torana heritage while speaking the design language of the here and now.

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