THE ROAD WARRIOR

BRANDON ZITO'S SEVEN-SECOND, TWIN-TURBO LC TORANA MIGHT BE THE STREET MACHINE DRAG CHALLENGE OVERALL CHAMPION FOR 2025, BUT IT'S STILL A STREET CAR AT ITS CORE

- STORY IAIN KELLY PHOTOS CHRIS THOROGOOD

WITH A PB OF 7.42@191MPH ON THE QUARTER-MILE AT DRAG

BRANDON Zito's 1BADLC may look relatively mild, but this clean, green Torana finished the 2025 Street Machine Drag Challenge on the top step of the podium after five days of racing and around 1500km of interstate driving.

In addition to beating some of the quickest and fastest street cars in Australia, the lime-green two-door also won the Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown class, scored gongs for Quickest Chev-Powered and Quickest ET of the event, and took home a Four-Second Club hat.

With a PB of 7.42@191mph on the quarter-mile at DC 2025, 1BADLC certainly lives up to its rego tags, but it has gone through a near-complete rebuild from when it ran its first seven-second pass at DC back in 2019.

This is one well-travelled Torana, originally built by another DC winner way back in the day. “Mark Drew built the car many, many moons ago, and Drewy then sold it to John Groten in Perth,” Brandon explains. “My dad's neighbour, Noel Abela, bought it, and I was able to buy it from Noel in 2015 at the age of 22, because my dad has an LJ he's raced for many years and I wanted my own to join in.

Brandon resolved to tone 1BADLC down so he could still enjoy it on the street. After dropping the comp in the SBC, he netted a 9.20 ET in naturally aspirated trim, and then decided it was turbo time. “I wanted to go faster, so I built a completely new small-block, adding twin Garrett GTX3582 turbos,” he says. “I ran a best of 7.71, and that engine served me well, staying in the car for eight years.”

At the beginning of 2025, Brendan decided the Torana still wasn't swift enough for his liking, so it was time to step things up once more.