After Harry Firth defected from Ford to run the new Holden Dealer Team racing program in 1969, Holden then entrusted Harry to develop the car to replace the Monaro GTS as Holden's 'racer of choice'. Harry, convinced that a small lightweight car was the way to combat Ford's attack, set out to develop the LC Torana into a race-bred weapon.
Ending up with the the LC Torana GTR XU-1 as the racing homologation special, Holden began the lineage of 1970s high performance Holden Torana road cars that have become legend in Australia.