BLUE BLAZES

OUR GRUNT HUNT GIVEAWAY BLUE 202 PROUDLY SERVED IN JEFF FOLEY’S UC TORANA FOR 20 YEARS

WE’VE given away many cars, engines, and even a couple of motorbikes over the 40 years of Street Machine’s existence – not to mention a Space Invaders game and many trips to SM Summernats. Some of the bigger-ticket items get sold straight away by grateful owners who need to turn them into cash. Others, like HQFORU, take a few years to find their true custodian. But sometimes one of our giveaways stays with the same owner for decades, like Jeff Foley’s Haltech-injected 202! He won the beast in 2000, fitted it to his UC Torana hatch, and has only now sold the six to slot in a 304.

Jeff was a 24-year-old trainee draughtsman on a paltry $17,000 wage when then-SM editor Seddo called him with the good news. “I was working in the office and the receptionist told me she had a bloke called Geoff Seddon on the phone. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ I was pretty stunned,” he recalls.

After taking delivery of the engine (initially sans ECU and instruction book), Jeff weighed up his options. “I was thinking about selling it, as I wanted a V8,” he says. “But my brother said I’ll probably never own an engine built like this again, and it’ll go like a V8 anyway.”

Convinced, he set about finding a suitable recipient for the donk. “I wanted a Torana coupe, but they were all dungers and way too expensive at $1400 for a rough LJ GTR and $1000 for a rough LX SS,” he recounts. “Instead I bought a good and going $650 UC hatch, as I wanted to street machine it and wouldn’t be too concerned about chopping up a future classic. I wish I had just gone with one of the other cars in retrospect!”