Resident Evil

The number plates aren’t just for show – dale Jeffrey’s SL/R 5000 houses a 700hp beast under the bonnet.

- Boris Viskovic

A QUICK glance at Dale Jeffrey’s Torana doesn’t give you any clues that there are 700 horses hiding under the bonnet. Even the reverse-cowl scoop doesn’t draw your attention; after all, these were standard fitment on A9X Toranas and the stretched version from Alfa Motorsport Fibreglass looks right at home on the blacked-out bonnet. With its factory-style Satin Mist paint and SL/R 5000 blackouts,you could easily think it’s just a tidy Torana with a nice set of wheels on it. But if that was the case, we probably wouldn’t be featuring it in Street Machine.

Nope, there’s a little bit of something special hiding under the bonnet in the form of a 440ci LS-based monster that Dale bought off someone who figured a house renovation was more important than going really fast. Clearly that guy isn’t aware that you can’t race a house! His loss was Dale’s gain, as he picked up an LSX long block for $11,000 – delivered.

What he got for his hard-earned coin came with a pretty impressive parts list. It starts off with a GM Motorsport LSX block with a Callies 4.125in stroker crank, Callies H-beam rods and a set of JE forged pistons. The heads are also from GM Motorsport – CNC-ported LS3 units to make the best use of the big Comp Cams solid-roller that measures up at 780thou lift and 272/278@0.050 duration. Keeping those valves controlled is a Jesel Pro Series shaft-mounted roller-rocker set – all topnotch stuff.