Early 1974 saw the first completely new Torana body with the arrival of the larger LH, which deleted the two-door option. Despite the larger external size, the car was relatively cramped by mid-1970s standards. It resembled other GM products of its generation, notably the Opel Ascona.
With all mechanical and body parts Australian designed and built (except the Opel sourced 1900 four cylinder engine), this series was the first Holden to be offered with four, six or eight cylinder engines. It was also one of the few cars in the world so built.
The LH was designed as a replacement of the long wheel base six cylinder LC and LJ series and the six cylinder version accounted for the bulk of the sales. The new car capitalized on the previous series' strong points such as good power to weight ratio, good handling, solid build and reliability. The new, contemporary body gave more interior room than the previous Toranas and also had many improvements in body serviceability with bigger, stronger bumpers and bolt on front sheet metal (previous models had front guards and aprons welded on). A wagon Torana was considered, and while apparently there was a prototype built, it never reached production.
Trim levels were S and SL for the sedan, available in virtually all configurations: 1·9 (from Opel), 2·85, 3·3, and 4·2 L engines. The SL/R was available with the 3.3 L six cylinder engine with an optional 4.2 L V8 or the 5.0 L V8 also called the SL/R 5000. A further option for the SL/R 5000 was the L34, only 263 built, For touring car racing, and Bathurst in particular, Holden released the Torana SL/R 5000 L34 option package in mid 1974. If you thought the normal SL/R 5000 was a quick car, the L34 was something else again! Externally, it could be identified by bolt on wheel arch flares and bigger 14 x 6 steel rally wheels, but the real news was under the bonnet. The motor was based on the standard 5.0 litre (308) block, with stronger rods and pistons, heads with modified ports and bigger valves, roller rockers, two piece tubular exhaust headers, modified inlet manifold and twin coil / twin point ignition. It ran a high pressure fuel pump with the standard Rochester Q-jet carby modified with a manual choke. Additionally available on this engine was the so called High Output package. This was full on racetrack gear with an engine oil cooler, an even larger camshaft, a 780cfm vacuum secondary Holley carburetor and other minor modifications. The drive train consisted of the GM-H M21 four speed box, fine spline heavy duty rear axles, HQ 10 inch rear drum brakes and 11 inch ventilated front discs, both with the HQ wheel stud pattern. Other external appearance changes were the deletion of the black stripe on the front guards and also the sill panels and rear beaver panel were no longer painted black. In addition, the rubber bumper bar strips, boot mat and centre console were not fitted. This model raced in Australian touring car racing until superseded by the A9X option.
The S model had a front bench seat and nine inch drum brakes all round and fairly basic trim and instrumentation. The SL had front bucket seats, carpeting, walnut grain dash, clock, power front disc brakes and rubber bumper bar strips. The SL/R gained full instrumentation, radial ply tyres, rally striping and a four speed floor shift manual (lesser models had a three speed column manual, with the four speed manual and the Trimatic auto both optional).
There were two limited build fixed option packages offered in the LH. Early 1975 saw the Torana G-Pak. This was similar to the HQ SS and came as a Torana S with a 3300 engine, M20 four speed transmission, power front discs, front bucket seats, SL/R instrumentation and wheel trims and exclusive G-Pak striping and badging. It was available in three colours only (red, yellow and green).
Late 1975 saw the Plus 4. this package was introduced to provide sales interest in the four cylinder range and came with front bucket seats, full carpeting, clock and power front disc brakes. It was identified by large 'Plus 4' decals on the rear guards and rear panel and 'Torana' decals on the front apron and rear panel. It was offered only in red, yellow or green with colour coded SL/R type wheel trims. The front and rear bumpers were painted black to match the wide side striping.