V8 Torana Hatch with the lot

While the writing has been on the wall for car forums for a long time, there are still a few people out there flying the forum flag for us tragics. One of them is a talented young bloke by the name of Heath, who has been building his dream car for over 8 years, taking it from a daily driver to a show-stopping and track-attacking stunner. Like most people in 2013, he started to document his progress on a model-specific forum. The difference is, he stuck with it, and still keeps that thread updated, even up until the present day.

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VR HSV Senator LSX454

I always love when an Australian car shows up in my inbox, I have a soft spot for our local product (even though our industry has all but shut down), and I even owned a Commodore some years ago. This particular piece of Aussie machinery is a VR Holden Commodore of the HSV variety, HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) being Holden’s tuning arm, much like AMG is to Mercedes. For the international readers, you can read up on HSV here.

What I love about this car is the incredible attention to detail and the no-expense-spared attitude given to the build, it’s not often you see these cars receiving this type of attention. If the details don’t get you, I’m sure the bright orange LSX motor with individual throttle bodies will melt your eyeballs and warm your soul. Another really neat touch is the rear wheels, they’re CNC machined to look exactly like the factory cast alloys, except much wider. It’s a subtle touch, but speaks volumes of the owners taste direction with the car.

Thanks to Ismail for submitting. Click here for more builds of Australian cars.

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LX Torana GTR

If you’re an Aussie, like I am, then you’d be well versed in the Holden vs Ford debate, even if you don’t fancy either marquee, it’s an argument with no expiry date. Almost as well known as this red and blue rivalry is the tale of the Nissan Skyline GTR dominating the touring car races of the early 90’s, a story regularly re-told by many a Skyline owner with a smirk on their face. It’s fair to say the Skyline was not liked by Holden and Ford fans of that era. So what do we make of this, then? A Holden LX Torana fitted with an R32 Skyline GTR engine and AWD system. Two ex-Bathurst legends which would have been fierce rivals on ‘The Mountain’ were it not for the age gap, now combined into one machine. Personally, I love it, and I thank you for following that very drawn-out intro that possibly makes little sense at all.

Thanks to Travis for submitting.

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Holden HR Ute – Pro Street build

This next build was found via Instagram of all places. I noticed a new follower pop up in my feed, clicked on his profile and I was greeted with images of this Pro Street ute build. After a few comments back-and-forth I located the build thread online and now I want to share it with you. The car in question is a 1966 HR Holden – an Australian car manufactured under our local GM banner – being transformed to a full chassis drag car in the owners garage. By the way, there is no official Build Threads Instagram account, but feel free to tag your projects with #buildthreads to share and connect with other readers.

Click here for more ute builds.

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Spirit of Sunshine

Seeing as Anzac Day is fast approaching, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to feature a very unique build I’ve had sitting in my submissions for a while now. Not your typical hatch/coupe/sedan, this is an Aussie-built land speed record chaser, using the tank from a 1953 Canberra Bomber as it’s body (aka belly tanker), powered by a Buick 3.8ltr V6 from a Holden Commodore and built by a couple of guys in a garage in my home state.

Thanks to Geoff for submitting. If you stick around long enough through the 160+ page thread, you’ll be rewarded with a second, smaller belly tanker build that the guys decide to tackle.

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