BLOCK PARTY SLR 8000

YOU only have to read the comments below any online Street Machine piece on Howard Bell’s iconic LX Torana to get a taste of the impact it had on a generation of enthusiasts: “Still got the poster!”; “Best Torana ever built”; “This would have been one of the tuffest cars on the road once upon a time”; and countless shared links between mates with, “Remember this?” What makes this car so legendary?

Howard Bell paid $6981 for a brand-new Mandarin Red LX SL/R 5000 at Dustings Holden in Burwood, Victoria, in April 1976. It was a 21st birthday present to himself. The dealership no longer exists, though its sticker remains on the Torana’s rear windscreen.

Street Machine was still years away from its first issue. Malcolm Fraser was Aussie PM. Significantly, though, Peter Brock had claimed his second Bathurst victory six months earlier, this time in a privateer L34