94 replies to this topic

[S pack]

If it is one of Brocky's Toranas it might be his mid engined 308 powered sports sedan. Think he called it 'The Beast'?

[xu2308]

I believe it was a LC HDT Car that was converted to look like a LJ Model the Beast 2, is it alive these days, i dont know, Peter Champion built a exact replica of it, that was in his museum up in Qld, i believe the museum has shut at the moment.

[S pack]

I believe it was a LC HDT Car that was converted to look like a LJ Model the Beast 2, is it alive these days, i dont know, Peter Champion built a exact replica of it, that was in his museum up in Qld, i believe the museum has shut at the moment.

Al, I believe you are correct about it originally being an LC. The Beast made it's debut at the Easter Bathurst meet in 1971.

[micklx]

AMC did a story on this car. Find yourself a copy of that for all the info.

[Pop's-SS]

Read the AMC magazine Brock and I by Harry and that pic was in it
I read it the whole magazine from cover to cover while I was waiting to have an arthroscope on my right knee yesterday.

Very interesting read on what Harry had to say about certain race cars and the drivers.

That one with the larger tyres on it handled better with skinnier tyres.

Page 62

Harry Firth

Brakes were changed when it went to huge 15-inch wheels and tyres - which meant so much unsprung weight that the complete rear hopped off deck at bumps, the handling going from fair to dreadful. But that was what Colin and Peter wanted

Barry

[sagman]

That was one of the '71 LC's that HDT used at Bathurst , i have read it is most likely Bond's car that was upgraded to LJ grille and lights and was used as one of the '72 rally cars , KZR-545 or KZR-565. Incidently those plates were used on the cars in Bathurst '71 , rally cars '72 and the 2 early '72 silver LJ's.
Despite Ian Tate imploring H to use a new body shell and do it right they had to make it out of a car that Ian describes as being 'Rooted' and it only had a 4 point roll cage to boot !!!!
This car was known as the 'Beast Mk 2' , the original 'Beast' (rallycross car) was the made from the GTR , KLD-158 which was the rally car used by Tony Roberts and was used to prototype the XU1 . It was also raced as a sports sedan both naturally aspirated and supercharged as well as the more famous Rallycross use.

Laz

[Potta]

That was one of the '71 LC's that HDT used at Bathurst , i have read it is most likely Bond's car that was upgraded to LJ grille and lights and was used as one of the '72 rally cars , KZR-545 or KZR-565. Incidently those plates were used on the cars in Bathurst '71 , rally cars '72 and the 2 early '72 silver LJ's.
Despite Ian Tate imploring H to use a new body shell and do it right they had to make it out of a car that Ian describes as being 'Rooted' and it only had a 4 point roll cage to boot !!!!
This car was known as the 'Beast Mk 2' , the original 'Beast' (rallycross car) was the made from the GTR , KLD-158 which was the rally car used by Tony Roberts and was used to prototype the XU1 . It was also raced as a sports sedan both naturally aspirated and supercharged as well as the more famous Rallycross use.

Laz

So where does Saggy Sarah fit in Laz?

[sagman]

'74 Giant Killers mag. had a feature on Saggy titled 'Four long years ago' ................. it states that 'Holden Torana XU1 registered no BJD-440 was bought unregistered by Firth Motors of Auburn and pressed into service after suitable legal tuning as a Holden Dealer Team entry in th 1970 Sandown 250 series production touring car race ............ This was a practice gallop before the Hardie Ferodo 500 at Bathurst.' ............ 'Colin Bond drove the car at Sandown and at Bathurst later '.

Bondy spent several hours with me at home a couple of years back and we went over the car and the history and with no hesitation confirmed it was indeed his Sandown and Bathurst car from '70 as that was the car that was turned into he and George's first XU1 rally car.

What blew him away was the fact that it has so much of the 'Rallycross Beast' in it , which was the same reaction that John Dixon had when he first spotted the car at a Phillip Island meeting before it was painted ............. his first question was 'how come this car has so much of the Rallycross car in it?......... he walked around it a few more times and said 'this is one of our LC touring cars that we made into a Rally car' ... so i showed him the book and he said 'that would be right , that's the one everyone drove and couldn't kill ' .

The roll cage is set in the same place as the Repco powered car and i wondered what the hell i had at one stage when i first sanded back to the red and white paint job as from the side view they looked to be the same.

Over the years it was the recipient of many upgrade parts and a lot of these were given to Janson when he was driving the living suitcase out of it.......
the gearbox was one of the old LJ race boxes ( i broke that at Winton ) but have had it rebuilt , Tatey verified that at Sandown , the front shocks are the large bore Bilsteins that the '73/4 cars ran and so on .....................rear end was an L34 unit that was fitted with disc brakes which was something else laying around the old parts bin ( remember H wanted four wheel discs on the L34's )

So i guess it would be fair to say that 'Saggy' has been there from the start , has morphed from tourer to rally car , rallycross car and sports sedan, hillclimb and commuter before being drastically changed as a sports sedan only and it has won and placed in all categories including winning the '71
ARC , featured in a movie , competed overseas and has a list of pilots like no other............... i reckon she fits in just right .............

Laz

[Potta]

Fr0ck me. I got the Impression that she was a special car after reading bits and pieces over the years but I didn't realize she was THAT spesh!

She would be on the when you're hot you're hot DVD right?

I'll have to check it out again.

Thanks for sharing.

[xu2308]

 GMH Styling V8 XU-1.jpg   497.81K   4 downloads

Richox1
this is the Car that Harry talks about in his Torana mag he put out, Torana the Great Magazine, there are storys of Harry Firth driving around a Pink LJ V8 XU-1 in 1972 and there a pic of the roof of this car parked up at Bathurst in 1972 where the HDT Boys were all Stationed at, as its colour is a rare one off painted LJ Colour.

[xu2308]

Richox1
the colour of the Car is Barneys Shirt, a pink/lillac mix of colour, only LJ XU-1 made in that Colour, Harry Firth knows more about this car and the Fox wont say, he dosent deny about the car, but he wont talk about it.
But i believe its the car that Harry was driving around in 1972, as it was up at the 1972 Bathurst, parked where the HDT Boys were parked on that weekend, there is a pic to prove it was there in 1972.

[Potta]

Fr0ck me. I got the Impression that she was a special car after reading bits and pieces over the years but I didn't realize she was THAT spesh!

She would be on the when you're hot you're hot DVD right?

I'll have to check it out again.

Thanks for sharing.

What a car you have there Sagman!

Most definitely on the when you're hot you're hot DVD!

It's a wonder she has survived all that she has been through!

[Potta]

Why not Richo? Someone must own it, I can't see any reason not to believe Sagman, especially seeing as it has the same plates today.

If you have serious doubts, I suggest you do a search for all of the info on the site regarding Saggy Sarah.

There is a lot of evidence that suggests his claims are very true.

Laz has had her for quite some time but this is the first time I have seen where he has explained exactly what he has.

He has no reason to lie, because he is not trying to gain anything from telling us.