Ford XG Falcon ute – reader’s car of the week

Patrick Stapleton's nine-second Ford XG Falcon ute

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Photographers: Steve Kelly


“MY original plan with my Falcon ute was to build it as a burnout car, before the decision was made to go the whole way and present it as a good all-round street machine. Body and paint were done by myself in the shed at home, along with custom interior and styling that goes with piecing it all together.

I made the choice to max out a small-block Ford, with a 9.5-inch-deck Dart Iron Eagle block, Callies crankshaft, Oliver rods, Diamond pistons and CHI Kaase C400 heads. This ended up making 851hp on Advanced Engine Performance’s engine dyno.

An ATI converter and Reactor billet aluminium flexplate feed the two-speed Powerglide transmission through a ’moly tube tailshaft to a Strange alloy centre, which is full spool with a billet pinion carrier and 35-spline Moser axles. Calvert split mono-leaf springs, shocks and CalTracs help the ute to hook up. My third outing to a test-and-tune at Willowbank saw the car behaving well and running an ET of 9.51@136mph.

I aim to have a 9.20 by the end of the year before a refresh, which will include more headwork by Gerry at Advanced Engine Performance. The goal for next year is a 1000hp naturally aspirated small-block that runs eights.”

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