43 replies to this topic

[308 Sunbird]

Wish I had a garage full of toads! Hey Wayne it was great seeing the L34's at Sandown,
thanks to all involved.

[REDA9X]

This old one again.
Holden wouldn't even supply an L34 to the press at the time. Bruce Sutton supplied his car for testing, and the fact was Holden at the time were less than impressed that he had because his car had actually been tuned in the workshop and they feared at the time it would perform better than it did. In the end the article was actually helpful to holden passing the L34 off as exactly what it was, a car that had most of the bits there ready to go to race, it still needed a decent exhaust and intake to go properly. Any engine thats choked with a poor exhaust and intake won't go to it's potential.
Holden didn't just retard the timing on cars the press got hold of (how many magazines of the day actually got hold of an L34 for testing anyway....) they did all of them so that if anyone did get hold of one they would find the performance no better than a stock SLR5000.
We have all read the old twin thermo fan thing in magazines, but that was never in the magazines testing the new cars at the time, that was always articles in magazines like "hot Holdens" or Street machine where the cars were already a few years old and usually heavily modified. Unfortunately these are themagazines people read as bibles.
For the record, Larry Perkins wasn't using the stock L34 dizzy as supplied by Holden in the L34, he was using aftermarket units like Scorcher and versions of the electonic ignitions found in the VC and onwards.

[a9x868]

The thing is, your L34 is NOT stock like my commode and the L34 is even green (croak!!)

thems fightin words!!!!!

[unclefestal34s]

having owned over a dozen L34s over nearly a 30 year period and about 15 odd LH SLR5000 pre pollution cars...i can tell you from my own experience that a track pack or HO L34 as some refer to them is and was a absolute weapon...i recently took my red track pack L34 to gmh-torana forum private drag day with its fragile bango 3.08 diff and m21 box it ran a very respectful 13.4 @ 107mph going through the traps in 3rd gear,mindful of its fragile driveline i baby the car of the line letting the clutch out ever so gently to ensure no breakage..the engine makes just on 340hp with its 780 holley,wade cam etc....
many years ago my stock L34 with modified rochester,and extensions on the h&m headers with 2.78 gears went 14.4 @101 mph... one of my stock SLR5000s with 3.08 gear ratio went 14.6 @ 97mph don;t sound like much of a difference but i can tell you the L34s had big top end speed than the SLR5000...any L34 in its stock configeration was a docile car to drive but the moment you leaned on them you knew your were driving something special..

[REDA9X]

I don't think anyone has critisied the car at any stage in any thread.

[xu2308]

Yes the L34 HO cars are really the last factory hotted up car built other than the VN SS Group A Cars
but i think if the V8 LJ XU-1 had of allowed to be made, it would be interesting how the L34 HO car
would of shaped up to the V8 LJ XU-1 that HDT Souped up, namely the pink car that Peter Brock talks about
that was taken to Calder on the 31/5/1972.