When you see a picture of this car it is hard to say that it has been developed 40 years ago. Clean and straight lines are still the reason to consider Holden Torana GTR-X as a very beautiful car. And for us it is hard to imagine that a car like this have been developed in Australia.
In the middle of 1969. the Australian branch of General Motors engineering department was given a task of developing small series sports car that would be cheap enough in the production. Moreover, as the basis for this car is needed to be used existing components of the available models.
And so in 1969. The Holden Torana GTR-X was born. For the base of creation of this car was used the serial car GTR-Xu, which was derived from the Vauxhall Vivas model, which was very popular in Europe in sixties. The two seated Torana GTX-R was planned to be equipped with 3.0 liter six cylinder raw engine, which developed 160 horse power and 285 Nm high torque. Wheel power was transmitted to the rear wheels with a four-speed manual transmission.
In the tests Torana GTX-R was able to reach 210 km per hour. The 160 horsepower engine in those times was a very good achievement. But the most important character was the Torana GTX-R weight. It was 1043 kg (2300 pounds) only, which made it possible for this car to ensure comparable dynamic performance.
Car body was mostly made of fiberglass, and its design provided the unusual purity of lines for those times. Similarly the style was retained in interior where all required gages were placed in a simple design aluminum panel. In addition, the vehicle occurred some quite revolutionary solutions for sixties - ergonomic seating with high back and very good lateral aid, as well as a height adjustable steering wheel.
Torana GTX-R was already very close to get on the production line and there were built several models for pre-production tests and even had a video advertisement. But after all the company decided not to produce it. They were not convinced of the project's financial success.
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