Vid: Falcon Wheelstands

Photos by Chris 'Single-Peggin' Sorgsepp

It’s often the case that great projects just fall into your lap and that’s exactly how one of Sydney’s most regularly raced crowd pleasers came to be. This tale begins with Chris Papadopoulos finalising the take-over of a new workshop, a workshop that just happened to be the life-long home for a certain factory-second XW Fairmont.

As a pure bred Fordophile, Chris of course jumped at the chance when offered said mint XW for the practically pocket change amount of $650 and just like that, he became the second owner of this immaculate Fairmont.

The plan for the Fairmont was to become a tough streeter and after giving the old 302ci a bit of a tickle he got just that, regularly running mid-10s. That just wasn’t cutting it for Chris though so the Fairmont was wheeled into the shed for a complete transformation.

The XW was stripped back to bare metal and the virgin metal was pristine. “It was immaculate,” says Chris. “It was in just perfect condition.” Anticipating massive power, Chris decided to have a crack at mini-tubbing the car himself. Hacking into an original XW Fairmont is definitely not for the faint hearted but Chris managed to pull it off, with the fat drag slicks sitting under the guards perfectly. While Chris was hacking away under the car, his mate Shane designed and fabricated a six-point chromoly roll-cage to keep things nice and safe.

With the tubs complete and roll-cage fitted, it was up to cousin Nick to get the Ford looking pretty. Wanting to keep the factory look Nick covered the flanks in a smooth coat of silver, adding in the black GT-style stripes and blackouts around the body. More than ten years on and the car looks fresh as a daisy and shows that with proper preparation and good workmanship, a quality paint job can last the tests of time.

With the final shine put on the Ford, it was ready to have its new heart transplanted in. Chris started the combo strong with an American NASCAR block, filling it with all sorts of forged goodies. This is where you would expect a pair of those fancy alloy-type heads to come in but as you can see by the numberplates, that’s not the direction he wanted to go.

“I stuck with the cast 4V because no-one else seemed to be doing it,” says Chris. “I wanted to see how much power I could make out of them. Plus, I had them lying around already.” Northern Dynamics whittled their aerodynamic magic and turned the heads into ‘Xerakias Specials’, filled with Del West titanium valves, PSI titanium springs and retainers and managing to flow a good 750HP!

This engine combo has served strong year after year and has seen Chris and his car become an extremely reliable team, running mid 9-second passes on the reg. Check out this video from just last weekend, with Chris reeling off four massive wheelstands and three 9.48s!

Chris certainly doesn’t mind giving it a good thrashing and the fact that it’s still kicking after all these years proves the merits of racing a reliable combo. Even when we shot the car, he couldn’t resist giving it a bit of a skid as you can see below.

So next time you’re out at Sydney Dragway, keep your eyes peeled and prepare yourself for Chris’ signature wheelstands!