Originally Posted by
Brian Hjelm
1969- The racing tyres on the Ford factory team cars would not fit on the privateers cars. Which meant some unhomologated modifications had been made to the factory team cars. Just as well for the Ford factory team that the tyres failed as everyone was getting ready to line up with their protest money. They could never have been declared winners. I am sure of this, I was there in the pits, and the Ford privateers were livid, and the Holden teams were chortling.
1970- Toranas had 186 engines, the 3100X prefix. Not sure now about 1971 as to whether the 202 or 3300X was in them at that stage, probably not. The 202 option in Toranas was released some time after the initial release of the LJ series in 1972. I couldn't get one in the early LJ I ordered for my mum. 1972 Bathurst GTR's with XU1 option used the 3300X for sure. Later 202's in Torana GTR used a different engine number prefix. I think the one for option XU1 was JP but don't take that as gospel. It was a marketing decision to promote the Torana that made the Torana the focus of the HDT's racing efforts, not any shortcomings of the HQ Monaro 350. HQ's were selling as fast as we could make them and the marketing and development focus went to the Torana range. A competitive Bathurst HQ 350 could have easily been homologated out of factory parts bins and the US GM Goodwrench range of performance equipment should there have been a need.
As a matter of interest to those unfamiliar with models then, the Monaro GTS350 in HK,HT, HG, and HQ ranges was a separate model, 81837, that was in regular production. It could be ordered any time simply by the dealer ticking the model box and any options required by the customer on an order form. We even used to build a few for plant stock in the more popular colour and trim combinations. Torana GTR's were likewise, model 82911, and in regular daily scheduled production and kept in plant stock. The Torana GTR with option XU1 "Special Vehicle Equipment" was built in batches of around 220 for homologation purposes to ensure updates were accepted by CAMS. Whilst theoretically XU1's were available to any dealer, we used them as bait. A dealer could have one if he also took a couple of whatever that were hanging around in plant stock. Small volume country dealers did not like this.