Nissan Silvia S13 drift car with AU Falcon front built in Tasmania

Remember seeing all those pictures of Ferraris, Skylines, and other performance cars with photoshopped AU Ford Falcon front ends?

Those memes gave a 25-year-old drifter from Tasmania an admittedly crazy idea. His recently-damaged S13 Silvia drift car (powered by GM’s 6.0-litre L76 V8) needed a new front end…

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After seeing the result of this crazy idea, we had to contact him and ask ‘why’?

“I had a pretty big prang at the start of the year in January at Powercruise Tasmania at Symmons Plains,” Forck tells MOTOR.

“I ended up nose first in the wall, bending the chassis and wiping off all the front panels. When I was tossing up between re-shelling the car into another S13 or something completely new, the price and availability of S13 panels was a big issue.

“Around that time, I had the crazy idea. What if I did what everyone was photoshopping, and put an AU front on it? At the time I had a $300 AU Falcon as a daily driver, so I knew parts were cheap, everywhere, and from a quick measure it might just fit!”

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Forck got in contact with a workshop that does track prep and car mods. The results are what you see in the pictures on this page.

“When I talked to Craig from Lodder Industries, he was almost keener on the idea than I was! Once thing led to another, the chassis was straightened, then tubed, then the AU front attached with custom AU to S13 front guards.

Forck says the rest of the car has been changing and “slowly evolving bit by bit” over the years.

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“One thing led to another, and when my daily-driven S13 was just a bit too much for the street, it was turned into a track car.

“That car has developed over the years to be what you see now. I now mainly compete in drift events (Drifting Tasmania and DCA) but also take it to Time Attack and the odd hill climb.

“It’s now powered by an L76 (pretty much an LS2 with LS3 heads), big cam, a bit of head work all supported by forged pistons and rods. The power is put down through a T56 gearbox and everything’s adjustable underneath.

“It is putting down 316kW at the wheels, without the 50hp shot of NOS. It has a 6-point CAMS-approved roll cage, race seats, and stripped interior, but it’s still registered on special interest registration.”

Photo supplied by Forck

Forck has made the most of a rough situation, using what he had at hand at the time, all while managing to do it with a sense of humour. We can’t think of anything much more Australian than that.