MOTORSPORT: Riding in the Torana SLR 5000

Tony Edwards was seven years old when his Torana SLR 5000 rolled off Holden's factory floor in 1974. Nigh on four decades later, adorned in Caribbean Blue - one of the original SLR hues - it made its debut in this year's Touring Car Masters series with owner-driver Edwards at the wheel.

Picking the SLR 5000 up from fellow competitor Gary O'Brien last year, it was with some fanfare throughout the online enthusiast community that he began working on it in preparation for the eight-round 2011 Touring Car Masters series. The fourth round of the series at Sydney's Eastern Creek on Father's Day weekend was only the third outing for the car – the first SLR 5000 in the series.

After running his first couple of Masters series in an HQ Monaro, Melbourne-based Edwards took on the Torana last year. It promised much from the outset – enough to gain itself a spot in the series big-end C Class, even though its 308 V8 sits just below the 5.1-litre entry threshold.

The car rose fast through the ranks from its debut at this season's Round Two at Barbagallo in Perth. Despite some ongoing suspension issues, Edwards came into the car's third round placed sixth outright and either third or fourth on corrected points – organisers had not yet finalised XY Falcon driver Brad Tilley's points.

Much of the reason for this is an attractive power-to-weight proposition – it's around 170kg lighter than the HQ. "Yeh, it'll be a noticeably better car once we've got the underneath sorted," notes Edwards.

Now, however, Edwards and his team are struggling with some chronic understeer issues. No shortage of evidence there on the couple of laps we spent in the passenger seat – Edwards was doing a lot of inward wheelwork on virtually every exit.

Asked about it after the ride, he said there's plenty of work to do on it yet. "Yeh, with the spring rates, getting the front two roll centres to work together and taking the drive out of it on throttle," he said. "We've spent the morning working on the rear end – stiffening it up, putting more swaybar in, taking the roll centre up, but we haven't fixed it yet."

So how long will he need to get it right? "I'd like to see that in time for the Bathurst weekend (6-9 October). But that's not far away – we might be cutting it a bit fine there. I'm thinking by the time the Queensland round comes (21-23 October) we'll be right on the money."

As it happens, Edwards wasn't to see much excitement at all this round. A painful shunt from Bill Pye's Camaro coming off Eastern Creek's main straight into turn one in the first of three scheduled races bent the SLR's diff and sidelined him for the weekend.

Read a full run down and review on the Touring Car Masters.