Watershed: noun wa·ter·shed \ a time when an important change happens.
Chris Varney’s watershed moment happened when he finished reading the April edition of Street Machine Magazine…back in 1997! This put him on a journey that would eventually take him 18 years to complete.
The 1997 article which changed his life was an Expression Session concept by Jeff Haggarty, who would eventually go on to become Holden’s lead designer. And so began the life of Chris’s 1971 LJ Torana MOD ROD.
To say the original car has been modified a bit would be an understatement. The polarizing custom job is extensive to say the least. It was finally unveiled at the 2015 Meguiar’s MotorEx in Sydney and although 18 years of blood, sweat and tears went into the build, Chris worked non-stop to make sure everything would be ready on time. “I’m busting my butt to get it done and madly trying to put it all together,” he said before last year’s exhibition.
While the radical result was…..well…radical, there were a few things that weren’t negotiable. First, the very front and rear of the car had to be kept totally Torana. Second, it had to be street legal once the blower was removed from the 350 small-block Chevy. And third, Chris wanted to keep it all General Motors. “I could have put a nine-inch in it, but I ended up using a VN housing that was modified to use the Torana trailing arms. I kept it the stock width and it worked out perfectly for how I wanted the wheels to hang out,” said Chris.
The pictures tell a thousand words about the mods to the HOK Brandywine body, but just as much work has gone into parts of the car you can’t see, like underneath for instance. “If someone looks under the car – although it will be tough to do because it sits so low – they won’t see anything except a couple of oil coolers,” explains Chris. “Everything has been run through the chassis rails or through the centre console to keep it really clean underneath. The sidepipes are functional but it will have a different set of extractors and a full exhaust for rego.”
For the interior, Chris decided to keep the Torana theme for the dashboard, even though Jeff Haggarty’s original concept sketch was from an FJ. The original seats had to go though and were replaced with bucket seats all round.
Originally Chris had hoped the Mod Rod would be ready for his daughter’s high school formal. That came and went. Then he hoped it would be ready for her wedding. But, perfection takes time so that came and went too. Taking his two granddaughters to school in the Mod Rod was the next target, and lucky for them, after 18 years, Chris finally completed his journey. Good things come to those who wait.
If you have your own watershed moment which puts you on a path to restoring an old classic, Rare Spares is the place to go for all the parts you may need. With literally thousands of parts in stock, chances are if you need it, we’ll have it. Check us out at www.rarespares.net.au
