SILVER LININGS

SOMETIMES WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG, THINGS END UP OH-SO-RIGHT, AS SLAV TODIC'S NINE-SECOND TORANA PROVES

- DAMION SMY

HOW does a bloke from Melbourne shopping for a VK Commodore end up with an LH Torana – from Perth? It wasn’t part of the plan, but it certainly was a silver lining for Slav Todic, who had no intention of ending up with such a tough-looking Torana streeter.

“The VK that I wanted, I’d had my heart set on for a while,” Slav says. “Once I got all the money sorted and everything ready to go buy the VK, it was gone.”

Happily, Slav now does have a VK build in the works (see breakout, p.75), but before that, he needed something special to distract him for a while. “I was looking for a VK for ages. I saw a few blue ones with LS2s in them and some others, but I love silver; I pretty much only have silver or white cars,” he says. “Then I’ve seen this silver Torana – my mate Pazzo [Daniel Nunziante of PSIDUP Fabrications] sent me the link to it. I didn’t like the wheels, but the colour was spot-on and we thought the car had potential; we could make a good-looking, tough car out of it.”

Perhaps wary of missing yet another project car, Slav bought the Torana sight unseen and had it shipped across to Melbourne. It had a 355ci Holden in it, which he says was “nothing special”, and despite a clean body without any add-ons, it was also running an SL/R 5000 bonnet scoop. “We knew we were going to build an engine for it, so I pretty much bought it for the body and the interior.”

The custom silver paintwork and smooth body was in little need of any work, and even the wraparound graphic from the LH’s nose to the window surrounds was exactly the kind of style Slav liked. The badges were removed and the grille and light surrounds were blacked out.