  Black hole (BH)--torus systems are promising candidates for the central
engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and also possible outcomes of the collapse
of supermassive stars to supermassive black holes (SMBHs). By three-dimensional
general relativistic numerical simulations, we show that an $m=1$
nonaxisymmetric instability grows for a wide range of self-gravitating tori
orbiting BHs. The resulting nonaxisymmetric structure persists for a timescale
much longer than the dynamical one, becoming a strong emitter of large
amplitude, quasiperiodic gravitational waves. Our results indicate that both,
the central engine of GRBs and newly formed SMBHs, can be strong gravitational
wave sources observable by forthcoming ground-based and spacecraft detectors.
