ON THE STREET KILLERRides TONY

Words - Paul Beck

Pics - Darren @ Trackside Images

A six-year nut and bolt resto turned a one-time work hack into a high-powered, street, strip and show full-tilt Falcon!

There’s only one way to tackle a complete rebuild on an old car – and that’s to strip it down to its bare bones and replace every single component you can so when it’s time to put the car back together, everything is new and should be good for hassle free cruising. Tony has employed the same standard, giving his XR Falcon Ute a thorough makeover, sparing no cost in the process and like most things, preparation is everything. And trust me, this Falcon Ute is as good as they get.

It’s the paint that first grabs your attention. Whilst Ford used a similar Gold to cover the sheet metal on the XR GT Falcon, Tony wanted to go one step further, making the colour on his reworked Ute much punchier than Ford offered back in 1967. Officially called Bronze Pearl, the new colour covers a smoothed-out body and engine bay and lays down the platform for the rebuilt XR. The paint is laid onto a body that is essential just as Ford had intended with the exception of the reverse cowl bonnet that is all steel and the mini-tubs down the back. Complimenting the body colour are GT-decals and badges. The one-time load area houses the fuel cell, enlarged wheel tubs and a coat or two of Line X tub liner.

Under the cowl bonnet sits a Jason Mansweto built single carb Cleveland that sports no less than 383-cubic inches producing an impressive 650hp...

The GT theme continues into the Falcon interior with the seats, and centre console reminiscent of the GT Falcon of yesteryear, in particular the XY series. Just forward of the custom dash sits a wood-rimmed XRGT steering wheel and the door trims are what you would have found when the GT rolled off the showroom floor in 1967. Not being too trusting of the factory gauges, Tony added a line-up of AutoMeter dials to keep him up to date with what is happening in and around the Falcon’s vital areas. These are housed in a custom carbon fibre facia. And to make it look like a factory inclusion, the console has been modified to accept the B&M Pro Ratchet shifter.

Under the cowl bonnet sits a Jason Mansweto built single carb Cleveland that sports no less than 383-cubic inches producing an impressive 650hp – more than enough for a tough street car like this. To reach that figure, Jason added a stroker crank and rod combo to the stout bottom end along with a pair of 4V heads and an 825cfm double-pumper Demon carb mounted to a Funnel web hi-rise intake manifold. Sparking the powerhouse into life is an MSD ignition system with the gases shown the door via a pair of ceramiccoated Pacemaker headers that flow into a three-inch mandrel bent exhaust. A full-tilt manualised C4 with 5000rpm Dominator converter backs the stretched engine and sends the power through a custom tailshaft to the custom big-tube 9-inch diff with 4.11-gears, tru-trac and 31-spline Moser billet axles.

The wheels of choice are 17x4 and 15x10-inch Outlaw Drag Intensity rims with appropriately sized rubber giving the Falcon that desirable Pro-Street look. Hiding behind the wheel combo is a completely overhauled braking and suspension setup. The front end scored XY ventilated discs with XF calipers along with Pedders springs while down the back, drum brakes take care of the stopping power. An XR GT big-bore, tandem master cylinder and remote XR GT brake booster are all part of the upgrades made. With the Falcon reassembled, engineered and ready to go, Tony has been making the most of that potent stroker Clevo, attending as many events as he can get to with others from the Oldskool Muscle Car Cruises. A trend that will no doubt continue on…