THE third-year apprentice mechanic entered his slick XY Falcon in the Carnage Dial Your Own class and had a blast over the three days of road-tripping and racing. We caught up with him during the event to find out more.

This is one clean XY; have you had it long?

It’s my first car, and I’ve had it for around three years now, but we only finished it a week ago. I was looking for an XC Falcon initially, but we found the XY under a house in Brisbane sitting next to a Monaro. It was a 250ci six with a three-speed column-shift, and I’m the second owner. But it was pretty ratty; it needed a lot of work done, because it hadn’t had any maintenance while it had been there for 24 years. I actually went through the car mechanically and had it on the road for around 18 months, still in its original green. Then, three months before Drag Challenge, we pulled it down to bare metal to respray it Seduce Red from the FG Falcon range.

How tired was the body after nearly a quarter-century off the road?

There was rust in the usual areas like doors and guards, which we fixed up, and we found some sections of bog that we fixed, too. It was all done after hours at home, and then Pat O’Shea [of Pat’s Pro Restos] sprayed the colour on. We also put new door cards and a new steering wheel in the interior and resprayed the seats, because I couldn’t afford to do new seats at the time.

The GS stripes and 500 trim give your XY a clean look!

I like it because it is something different. I think there are too many GT replicas, and I wanted something I could happily hop in and drive.

What’s been done under the bonnet?

It has a 2V 250ci six, which we’ve done a little bit of work to. It’s a tidy 70s-style set-up with a cam, 350 Holley, extractors and roller rockers. Behind it is a C4 and BorgWarner diff running 3.5 gears. We’re only running 17s at this stage.

Are you planning a cranky SBF for the XY, like Pat’s nine-second XR?

This is my daily driver, so once I’m off my P-plates, it’ll get a Windsor. But I have a dragster at home with a billet Hemi that should go 7.70s, and that gets more of my attention. The idea is to have the dragster ready by the end of the year, and I’d love to build a trailer and tow it behind the Falcon.

That’s a fairly serious weekender! Are you from a Blue Oval family?

I’m definitely from a Ford family! My dad Greg is a mechanic, so I’ve always been around it. Dad has a blown altered, too, and he helped out heaps through the project. I’d like to thank him and also Ben Veraart and Pat and Kasia O’Shea for all their help.

Aged around 21 or younger and have a neat ride? Send some pics and info to:
Young Guns, Street Machine, Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, Vic 3166
or email us at: [email protected].