Racer Wal
I made the trek up to Toowoomba Qld to find this car. I have a mate named John Stewart who tracked this car down for me. He said this is a very tough car and it is worth the trip up the hill to Toowoomba to shoot it. So, I picked up Johnny on the way and we drove up to shoot the car. The car is a Holden HT ute and it is a race car. The owner is Warren Bradford, or Wal to his mates. The HT has a history. Wal first saw the car 11 years ago. It was just in the early stages of being built. Wal had a beautiful LX Torana hatchback, which was his first ever tough car. Tough enough to run 11.30 @ 119 mph. The Torana lived in the garage for 2 years, and never saw a road. The first time out, he got pulled over and booked. Then 11 years after first seeing the car, an offer came from the guy with the ute to swap it for his Torana (roller only) and the deal was done.
The colour of the ute is Lina Mint, and I am sure you will agree looks 'mint'. The rest of the body has been modified for racing too. There is no tray under the tray top, and flaps have been cut into the tail gate so the air can get out when he hits the go pedal. The interior of the car has also been completely converted to racecar. There is no passenger seat, only a race seat with 5 point RJS harness for the driver. The steering wheel is removable and the instruments in the dash are only the ones that you need for racing. The rollcage goes all the way forward and rear.
Wal is intending to enter the Pro Street ranks and the engine that is in the car is not the one he intends to race with, but it is still tough. It is a 308. The crank is standard 308 with X rods and 30 thou ACL flat top pistons. The cam is a custom grind CE 836 hydraulic. The valves are stainless steel and the manifold is port matched. The heads have some work and everything spins courtesy of Twin true roller Rollmaster timing chain. The exhaust is Tri Y extractors and into a 3 inch dump pipe.
The rest of the drivetrain has been modified as well. The Trimatic is full manual with a B & M Pro Ratchet shifter and 2500 Dominator stall converter. At the back is a braced 9 inch diff with 4.88:11 full spool with an Alby pinion brace and 35 spline Moses axles. The brakes are 4 wheel disks with VL Commodore calipers front and rear, with VL disks on the rear and HQ Holden on the front.
The suspension and wheels are ready to race too. The front has been left pretty much standard but the back is a full coilover, ladder bar set up. It all rides on a set of Weld Racing 15 x 12s on the rear and 15 x 4s up front. The tyres are Hoosier slicks on the rear and Nankang front runners at the pointy end.
Wal is no stranger to going fast. The engine out of that LX Hatch went into his current race car. A HB Torana. The HB has a best time of 10.69 @ 122 mph. Wal would like to thank his lovely wife Terri and his son Kane for all their hard work. Other than Kane, there has been not many other people who put anything into this car. He bought it and since then Dad and Son have done pretty much everything. Wal also builds race car trailers. His business is called Bradford Built Trailers. If you are interested in having a trailer built, it would be worth giving Wal a call. The trailer he built for this car was very high quality.
