Australia's Most Famous Torana

Eighteen years in the build is more time working on one car than many of us have held our licences; but that is how long Howard and Marilyn Bell put into the final phase of this Torana masterpiece, widely known as Litre 8.

Long time Holden fans will know this car by name, but it’s the kind of creation that you just never seem to get tired of looking at. The Mandarin Red paintwork leaves a lasting impression.

There have been three distinct phases of this car’s build-up. Phase one started when this car was brand new with the original 308. It is a genuine SLR 5000 after all.

Phase two saw the 308 pulled out and a turbo 202 placed in the engine bay. The third and final phase is what you see here – LITRE-8, the biggest, baddest and best of all.

“The car lasted in original condition for about six months,” says Howard. He was not one to shy away from tinkering with upgrades on his pride and joy. Some of the changes made way back in the late ‘70s have remained on the car to this day, like the Brown Davis-supplied drop tank and the alloy roll cage.

In 1988 the Bell’s pulled the car off the road to upgrade from the turbo six to a big-block Chev. Initially it was going to be an iron block with Holley 1050 Dominator for induction. However, Howard wanted to keep the hardware under the hood.

After a few alternative ideas were considered and scrapped, Richard Bendall of MoTeC fame suggested the Kinsler eight-throttle manifold that was designed to fit under the sloping Corvette hood.

Howard consulted an engineer about placement of the iron block, and proper weight distribution would require the motor to be set back about ten inches. So that plan was ditched and replaced with a Keith Black alloy big block – 479ci to be precise, or eight litres in the new money.

No expense has been spared on any element of this build. The wheels are 17x10in Compomotive Composite TS with colour-matched centres and Dunlop D11 full slick tyres.

Inside, you’ll find Scheel front seats, custom dash running a full complement of VDO gauges, four-point harnesses and SAAS steering wheel.

Front brakes are enormous 343mm Harrop Engineering rotors with TWR/AP billet four-piston callipers. The spec sheet goes on and on with titanium this, billet that and gold anodised something else. It’s truly boggling how much attention to detail has gone into this car.

Peak power for the beastly V8 is 727hp at 6500rpm, and 920nm of torque. It’s a damn big motor but it’s built to rev. The large bore combined with the shorter stroke means bulk cubes that aren’t shy of 7000rpm. Oh, and those power figures don’t include the 200hp nitrous system.

In 2006 when we first shot this car in our studio, it was revolutionary. Years on it’s even easier to see just how influential the build of LITRE-8 has proven to be. It’s one of those timeless performance rides fit for the history books.