ADELAIDE bloke Phil Edmondson has brought his turbo V8 XB hardtop to Street Machine Summernats before, but this year he decided to up the ante and subject it to the rigors of the Burnout Championship. “I went in the Guinness World Record attempt last year, but this time I thought I’d go in the actual competition.”

“I wasn’t sure how it would behave and after seeing Daniel Blok’s accident last year, I was a bit nervous about damaging the car,” said Phil. “It was fine though. I sat on around 6000rpm in top gear the whole time with the boost set at 12psi. It got a bit hot but only took a few minutes to cool down again with the electric water pump and thermostat.”

The car is a genuine street and strip animal, running an SVO Windsor-style block, with a Cleveland crank and displacing 383ci. “The heads are CHI 3Vs, with a CHI manifold, ID2000 injectors and intercooler pipework by Jonny TIG,” says Phil. “The turbo is an 88mm Borg Warner. The computer is an EMS and BoostinOz does the tune.”

The XB has been the subject of a fair bit of development, Phil reckons. “It has run a best of 9.98-seconds at 139mph, but it is making a lot more power now, around 700rwhp at 17psi on E85. The car has been built to take plenty of grunt and abuse. It has a transbraked Powerglide, Strange diff centre in a fabricated housing, 35-spline axles, full floaters and a McDonald Brothers triangulated four link. It just needs more power! [laughs].”

To that end, Phil is about to pull the motor out for a cam change and a bump in compression. “It’s currently only 8.8:1 as it was originally built for 98 unleaded instead of E85. I’m hoping for a much more power at the same boost levels.” Phil is also getting an ANDRA-spec cage so he can take on Street Machine Drag Challenge later this year.