65 replies to this topic

[Torananut]

Just wondering if anyone out there remembers anything about a red L34 torana back in the early 90's. When i first saw the car it was sitting on a front lawn of a house in Rowville in Melbourne, covered by a blue tarp. It was sitting on bricks, was painted red with SL/R blackouts, had no interior and had not been started for years. The owner told me that he bought it cheap years before because it had been pranged front and rear but on a test drive it went like a rocket. He painted it, rebuilt some of the mechanicals and then it sat for about five years under the tarp as he was sidetracked with work/ wife/ kids/ and house issues. As a result the paint was showing signs of starting to blister.

The car still had adjustable race swaybars front and rear, the race boot tank was still there, and was running the side draft webber carbies. Inside there was original orange overspray on the floor but no other clues as to its history. The owner would not sell the car but let me take some photos, unfortunately there were only four photos left on the film in my camera (see pics below).

Of course next time i rang the owner several months later he had sold it to a friend in Croydon. This new owner put a new interior in it with a race seat drivers side, a set of rebel mags, and had changed the webbers to a holley, and he wanted $11,000 for it. I could not afford it at the time and i am still kicking myself.

I heard a story a few years ago that an 18 year old bought it, sprayed it gun-metal grey and wrapped it around a pole soon after, destroying the car (and himself). This would have been about 1993 at a guess.

Does anybody know this car? Cheers Grant

 Croydon L34 pic 1.jpg   222.04K   28 downloads
 Croydon L34 pic 2.jpg   340.95K   21 downloads
 Croydon L34 pic 3.jpg   201.14K   22 downloads
 Croydon L34 pic 4.jpg   170.54K   23 downloads

[REDA9X]

I'll take a guess if this car was Orange originally, then it's the Bob Jane car. The Bob Jane car was for sale a few years ago and it turned out to be a reshell done by a bloke in Melbourne in the 90's.

[xu2308]

 Bob Jane L34.jpg   46.76K   34 downloads

Here is the re-shelled car pic

[xu2308]

Looks like the Fuel Flip Filler Cap on the L34 Race Alloy Tank is a Corvette Le-Mans style cap, as the British monza caps look different to that one.

Edited by xu2308, 07 January 2013 - 12:25 PM.

[hanra]

These are my British Monza style flip fuel caps.

[xu2308]

Hanra yours on your mini are the monza caps for sure

[xu2308]

 Le Mans Corvette Cap.jpg   57.73K   11 downloads

Here is a Le Mans Corvette Cap, well the modern version of it

[Torananut]

Hi all, seems that nobody remembers much about this car.

Red, i'm pretty sure that this was not the Bob Jane race L34 as that was sold in late '75 to Ian Diffen in Perth, and he raced it for quite a while before selling it about 1980. Australian Muscle Car were looking for this car and in issue 17 a bloke claimed to own it in Perth and it still had a lot of race parts still on it, although he did not have the log book.

In 1990 i bought a car off a bloke who claimed to have owned the Bob Jane race car here in Melbourne in the early '80s and it was stolen and never recovered. He had access to Police computers at the time and made an unofficial list of L34s using the engine prefix HZ, and came up with about 93 cars. This list shows the Bob Jane car as body no. ALH009703M, engine no. QT693403, and had Vic. rego no.IOE-349. I have no way to check this but both stories can't be true!

As for the orange road car re-shelled in the '90s, i saw this car briefly one day while Rob H.... was building it and he told me that it was one of the Bob Jane/ Frank Gardner driving school cars, as shown in a magazine article from the mid '70s (V8 action). The car i am chasing is not this car as it was definately a race car. (I had to go to court as a witness as i had sold Rob H some parts)

The car i was asking about i think just may be a HDT car. My reasons for thinking that is that i have seen several boot tank designs and the only one with handles as shown in the photos have been of HDT cars. The boot tank in the car in the photos had always been with it, as had the webbers which the Dealer Team used at the time. Also i read an article in a magazine (which now i can't find) talking about Colin Bond scratching an L34 in early 1975. Back in the pits Ian Tate had a go at him asking "which orange Gemini did you hit", and Colin replied that he clipped the fence and not another car and that this was the orange shell they built up. Apparently the first two L34s for the team were sebring orange and glacier white before they got their HDT paintjobs.

Trying to find photos of race boot tanks is bloody difficult but these are what i have found this afternoon;

Bob Morris' 1976 Bathurst winner
 Bob Morris's L34 boot tank 1.png   199.03K   16 downloads

The tank in my car,the Charlie O'Brien L34, originally purchased from Les Small a few years ago, may have been 'borrowed' from one of Grices old cars.
 COB boot tank.jpg   132.27K   13 downloads

Brabham/Moss car Bathurst 1976
 Brabham-Moss 1976 Bathurst 3.jpg   212.99K   18 downloads

Colin Bond's HDT car on the way back to the pits Amaroo Park April 1976. Note the handle on the tank just above where the tail-light now is.
 Bond's car on the way back to the pits, Amaroo Park 1976.PNG   156.04K   14 downloads

I'll keep looking for more photos, Cheers Grant

[xu2308]

 Bob Jane L34.jpg   46.76K   14 downloads

 Bob Jane L34 Plate.jpg   25.99K   20 downloads

This is the re- shelled car i think, it was on ebay, im sure in the add it said it was re-shelled Bob Jane ex L34, i saved these two pics from the ebay add,correct me if im wrong.
AL

[xu2308]

 Bob Jane L34.jpg   87.6K   17 downloads

Here is a Bob Jane L34 that was for sale in Unique Car magazine, up in Qld, REDA9X might know more on this one i guess

[Torananut]

Hi Al, i know there is a couple of Sebring Orange L34s still around, to be honest i have lost track which one is which. The Bob Jane/ Frank Gardner car had the victorian rego LZF-200 but i am not sure if this is the car as they change rego when new interstate buyers get them.

The car i am trying to find i am told may have been wrecked in about 1993 but i'd like someone who saw it in a wrecking yard to confirm it. From memory i think i recorded the chassis number somewhere, i will have to have a good look around and see what i can find.

Thanks, Grant

[xu2308]

I am not up with the L34's, there some guys on here that know there L34's very well, REDA9X is up with most of the L34 Race Cars and A9X Race Cars from back in the day, but great seeing the pics u posted up, love the pic of the tank in the boot of that L34, reminds me of a Lone o Ranger LJ GTR V8 boot that was all tank and the same fuel fillers on it.
AL

Edited by xu2308, 08 January 2013 - 11:21 AM.

[A9X]

The Perth L34 was at the GMH day here recently, there was some pics posted i'm sure.

[A9X]

[Ice]

That was parked next to daves beautiful a9x hatch

[REDA9X]

The tank and the ammount of suspension work on this car made me think of a HDT car at first, however if the story of the car being written off is true, then this isn't a HDT car. It could however be a car Harry built for someone else.

[Torananut]

Hi Red,

All these years after i saw this car i'm still not sure myself which race car this was. The boot tank looks similar to a HDT style tank, but the only pictures of HDT tanks i can find show the handle on top of the tank and not the sides. Not sure who made the original boot tanks for the HDT, they may have made them inhouse, most boot tanks in Melbourne were made by Rod Stevens. I don't think the tank i saw on this car had any markings or a tag, but it was a long time ago.

To add to this i'm not sure if anybody knows how many L34 bodies that the HDT used between late '74 and late '78. There are at least two race cars that survive now plus the rally car. I was told years ago that the HDT had a deal with a wrecker at Swan Hill or Shaepparton who would buy the cars less motor and gearbox for about $5,000 but i don't know how many that would have been.

One thing i am certain of is that it was a genuine group C car, i just don't know which one it was. A friend and myself estimated that there may have been up to 50 L34s that raced, or cars built up to that specification. Today only a small amount of those have surfaced and there are several reasons for this. Firstly as you are aware of several cars were converted to A9X specs. Secondly many L34s were converted back to road cars after their race life with some getting wrecked, others rusting away, some stolen and not recovered, and there may be others surviving and the current owners are unaware of their past history. The third point and the most sad is that some cars after their group C days were over some were cut up to be used as sports sedans.

I was hoping with this thread that someone out there might remember this car but is seems nobody on the forum knows of it. Seems like this will always be the one that got away.....

Cheers, Grant

[xu2308]

Like REDA9X said maybe Harry built for someone, The 'H' used to do some work for Bob Jane on Bob's LJ XU-1 that he raced back in the day, so HDT might of on Bob Janes L34's as well.

[Torananut]

Hi Al,

The orange Bob Jane race L34 has been in W.A. since late '75 and as far as i know he only had one of them, although he did have several orange L34s at his driving school but they would not have been fitted out like the car i saw back in the early '90s. It could have been any one of the missing race L34s that have been lost since their racing days, only a small number are accounted for today. I was hoping that somebody may be able to confirm the story that i was told about the car being wrecked but i may never know the answer (i don't have the money to buy it if it turned up anyway). Appreciate everyones help.

Cheers, Grant

[unclefestal34s]

hi grant

i bought the sister car to the reshell car which sat in the echua museum a while back for a mate of who still owns it,.. its from what i no is the only surviving bob jane car sold from from his dealership in his signature colour and yes it was one off the driving school cars back in the day..

[Torananut]

Hi guys, it seems after having a look through some old ads i found there may have been more orange L34s than i first thought.

The car i was looking for was this one. I tried the phone number a few years ago and it was disconnected.

 L34 ad 1.PNG   129.63K   21 downloads

Here is the Bob Jane race L34.

 Bob Jane race L34 AMC 17.png   332.72K   19 downloads

Here are some other orange L34s advertised over the years (some ads may be for the same car).

 L34 ad 2.PNG   71.71K   20 downloads

 L34 ad 3.PNG   106.46K   12 downloads

 L34 ad 5.PNG   275.39K   17 downloads

[Torananut]

And some more.

 L34 ad 4.PNG   185.92K   13 downloads

 L34 ad 6.PNG   233.02K   14 downloads

 L34 ad 7.PNG   310K   14 downloads

 L34 ad 8.PNG   234.65K   15 downloads

[unclefestal34s]

Hi guys, it seems after having a look through some old ads i found there may have been more orange L34s than i first thought.

The car i was looking for was this one. I tried the phone number a few years ago and it was disconnected.

 L34 ad 1.PNG   129.63K   21 downloads

Here is the Bob Jane race L34.

 Bob Jane race L34 AMC 17.png   332.72K   19 downloads

Here are some other orange L34s advertised over the years (some ads may be for the same car).

 L34 ad 2.PNG   71.71K   20 downloads

 L34 ad 3.PNG   106.46K   12 downloads

 L34 ad 5.PNG   275.39K   17 downloads

the last 2 ads are the same car