[1] A single Holden Monaro GTS350 was entered for Kevin Bartlett and Spencer Martin, the car retiring after suffering brake problems, crashing and catching fire.

Concerned at the ongoing development of rival Ford's V8 powered XW Falcon GTHO Phase I, in 1970 Firth opted to run a much smaller race car based upon the Holden Torana with a 6-cylinder engine.

The big brake light car concept brought about by Firth with high-performance small motor dominated Holden's thinking moving from the cumbersome Kingswoods to the Torana-like fleet of foot Commodore of the eighties.

In 1972, Harry Firth began developing a V8-engined version of the LJ Torana GTR XU-1, to be able to compete with Ford's anticipated XA Falcon GT-HO (Phase IV) and Chrysler's mooted 340 cui V8 Charger at Bathurst (Chrysler continue to this day to say that the Charger R/T V8 was a myth and that their intention was to continue with the 265 cui Hemi-6, but Ford's GT-HO Phase IV was no myth as 4 examples were built with two surviving as of 2015).

Brock claimed that while the V8 was faster in a straight line, its handling was in fact terrible due to the extra weight and that the XU-1's chassis was never built to take the greater torque of the V8 engine.

1974 also saw Dick Johnson make his one and only start for the HDT when he drove the team's spare LJ GTR XU-1 Torana (#2) in Round 6 of the ATCC at Surfers Paradise on 19 May.

The L34 option was homologated for racing in 1975 which cured the V8's oil surge problems and Bond went on to win the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship whilst also competing in rally events for HDT in a LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34.

The 1977 touring car racing season also saw the debut of the LX Torana, the new A9X performance option replacing the L34 version and available in both four-door "SL/R 5000" sedan and two-door "SS 5.0" hatchback body types.

After a solid eight years as team manager of the HDT, and a 29-year career in motor racing that had begun with preparing the 1948 Australian Grand Prix winning BMW 328 for Frank Pratt, 59-year-old Harry Firth retired at the end of the 1977 season.

After Bond left the team at the end of 1976 to join Allan Moffat Racing, the Torana was brought to Melbourne where driver/engineer Ron Harrop was given the job of preparing and driving the car.

It was a wise decision by Sheppard for Brock dominated the season, becoming the first driver to win the 'triple crown' of the Touring Car Championship, the Hang Ten 400 at Sandown and the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 (with Jim Richards) at Bathurst.

Brock was narrowly defeated by privateer Torana driver Bob Morris for the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship, but went on to dominate the Hardie-Ferodo 1000.

This led to a situation where Brock and the HDT virtually had the only race ready car for the start of the 1980 ATCC, which had to conform to CAMS new engine emission regulations which meant the Toranas and Falcons of previous years were out (or had to be significantly modified, running drum brakes on the rear wheels instead of 4 wheel discs and the "low emission" engine heads which produced less power), and the new Commodore and XD Falcon model were in.

Brock won Bathurst again in 1982 with former Formula One driver Larry Perkins who had been a mechanic/driver with the HDT in the early 1970s under Harry Firth before embarking on a career in Europe until returning home in 1977.

The team's 1985 season started off in January with the Wellington 500 and Pukekohe 500 races in New Zealand where Brock and Perkins failed to figure in the results their under-developed Group A Commodore.

They again went to Bathurst as favourites but missed out on a place in Hardies Heroes due to Moffat's crash on the top of The Mountain which resulted in the car needing a complete new front end.

That year the Bathurst 1000 was a round of the World Touring Car Championship and Eggenberger Motorsport's turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500s dominated the race, finishing 1–2.

However, by 1988, the naturally aspirated, 2.3L BMW M3 was no longer competitive against the much faster Ford Sierra's (especially in the ATCC where shorter races saw the 300 hp (224 kW; 304 PS) M3's unable to challenge with the 500 hp (373 kW; 507 PS) Sierra's) and Brock, Jim Richards, David Parsons and emerging talent Neil Crompton (also one of Channel Seven's lead commentators) found themselves fighting for scraps rather than the wins the JPS team had achieved in 1987.

For the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, the nature of the track and the improvement from the Sierra's (plus the introduction of the new Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV and Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R turbo) saw the M3s even less competitive than they had been previously.

Rouse also supplied the team with the latest technical information for the cars and was Brock's co-driver at Bathurst in 1989 and 1990, the pair recording a DNF in 1989 and a 4th-place finish in 1990.

At the end of 1990, Brock concluded a deal that would see him close his team and take his sponsorship to Perkins Engineering to race a Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV.

This device was a small box with crystals and magnets encased in an epoxy resin, which Brock claimed improved the performance and handling of vehicles through "aligning the molecules".

Brock instead told Holden through the media that the relevant specifications were available in a magazine article which detailed the Director's pre-launch tour of Europe and North America in 1986, where it was compared to cars from BMW and Opel.

In 2010, for example, a "Polarizer"-equipped HDT Director was expected to be sold at auction for over A$300,000, compared to its original list price of A$87,000 that rendered it the most expensive new Australian-made car when launched in 1987.

While it was thought that the V8 Monza coupe would be appealing to Holden fans, especially as it resembled the appearance of the popular hatchback Toranas of the late 1970s (visually the car was essentially the Opel Monza GSE with the VK Commodore's distinctive 5-slot grille (to give it a more Australian look), the reasons that the car was not brought to market included that it was by then an old mid-1970s model and the projected high production costs would not have made it a viable project.

[9] With the HDT modifications to the Monza coupe which included the 180 kW (241 bhp) Group III 5.0 litre V8 engine (which was in fact lighter than the 3.0 litre 6 cyl Opel engine it replaced as well as being set back closer to the firewall for better weight distribution), a 5-speed manual Borg Warner TG5 transmission and Corvette styled front disc brakes (later adopted to the Holden VL Commodore turbo and V8 models), the sale price of the car was projected to be approximately $45,000.

[10] Despite 8 pre-production orders being taken for the car upon its public debut at the 1984 Canberra Motor Show, the sale price would prove to be another reason that only one HDT Monza was ever built.

[12] During the early 1980s, General Motors–Holden (GMH) approached a Victorian workshop—sometimes referred to as Specialty Tuning or Spencer Bros in Mitcham—to develop a performance upgrade for the first-generation Holden Jackaroo.

This resulted in what became known as the STII Performance Kit, which included a custom exhaust system (with Lukey mufflers and Perry headers), a revised camshaft profile, and, in some cases, a Weber carburetor conversion.

[citation needed] These new branded Monzas were built to different specifications, with the most powerful and highly developed type being the R/T variant, which had seen track work on most club days at Eastern Creek.