I was contacted by a guy called Gavin Williams, who was interested in having a feature done, not on his car but his wife's. In the beginning, Annette was not supposed to know about the shoot and having her car featured in Street Cruising was supposed to be part of her birthday present. As it turned out, it was too hard to keep it a secret and Annette found out. The car is a LJ Torana GTR and is painted in Subaru WRX pro-drive world rally blue.

 

 

Lets start with the engine. It is a Holden 202 red motor, 40 thou over, with a steel crank out of a blue motor and Starfire rods. The pistons are ACL duralite race series. The camshaft is 45/75 and the rollers are Yella Terra Street Terra 1:6 ratio and the head is a Yella Terra Stage 3 Bathurst. Fuel comes in through a Holley Street Avenger 570 CFM and a redline high flow mark 2 four barrelled manifold. Standard ignition has been replaced by electronic. Exhaust is extractors with 2.5 inch Noyzworx with twin mufflers. Pretty solid for a 'girl's car'.

 

 

 

The gear box is a tri-matic with a stage three shift kit from Precise Automatics with a 3000 rpm stall converter and a B&M pro stick. The diff is standard Banjo with 3.08:1 ratio. Stopping is done by LJ discs on the forn with LH calipers and standard drums on the rear. The wheels are Globe Sprint Masters 13 x 6.5 inch with 225/60/13 Bridgestone Eagers on the rear and 205/60/13 on the front.

 

 

 

The interior has been re-trimmed by Prestige Auto Trimmer. The seats, roof lining and door trims have been re-covered in blue and black velour. The window winders and door releasers have been replaced with Billet Specialties models. The standard GTR dash and steering wheel have remained and the seatbelts have been replaced by 2 inch RPM race gear harnesses.

 

 

 

Everything has gone far from smoothly with the purchase and work on this car. The day they went to pick it up, the lady who they were buying the car off had left a pot of fat on the stove and the telephone rang. Next thing, the lady came running out with a pot of fat on fire, with flames spilling over the carpet and her hands. While Anette was stomping out flames in the house, Gavin was at the front hosing down the lady to relieve her agony of third degree burns on her hands. After all had calmed down, the bank cheque was found burnt to a cinder and Annette had to make a trip to the bank to explain what had happened to a very suspect bank teller. That night they returned to collect the car. If this wasn't enough Gavin accidently started the car in reverse in the garage with his foot flat to the floor and reversed into another car pinning himself under the car. Quite a bit of damage had to be repaired thanks to Gavin's 'indiscretion'. Bloody men drivers. In spite of quite a bit of bad luck, the car is now the gorgeous machine you see here.

 

 

Gavin and Annette would like to thank Mal Jensen for rust repairs, Tony Clark from TCR for body and paint, Michael Hockey for parts sourcing advice and asistance along the way, Craig Keene for letting them store the car in his shed while their house and shed was being built and Ray Wooldridge for getting the tune spot on.