There aren’t too many XP coupes cruising the streets these days, let alone toughies with tasty paint and cranky engines. But Tarone Palmer’s hardtop is one such example, and even though it took the best part of four years to build, the results speak for themselves.

First published in the August 2025 issue of Street Machine

Tarone grew up around Shepparton, one of Straya’s premier wellsprings of burnout cars, show-stoppers and tough streeters. “I always liked XPs growing up – not the four-doors, just the coupes,” he says. “I had the chance to buy one when I was younger but had to pass at the time. Then one of my mates saw this one for sale on Facebook in Melbourne, and after another mate checked it out for me, I ended up buying it.”

However, the XP in question didn’t come into Tarone’s possession in the pristine form you see here. Someone had done it up in the distant past, so it sported the obligatory tired 302 Windsor between the shock towers and a decaying purple paintjob, accompanied by cancerous sores in the quarters and gutters.

Tarone dragged his new acquisition into the shed and stripped it to its dacks, before handing it over to Dozza and Braydon at Ryan McDermott’s Paint & Panel to correct the sins of the past. The door skins and lower quarters went in the bin and were replaced with fresh steel, while the all-important roof line was treated to new guttering where the tinworm had eaten it away. While they were at it, the boys deleted the chrome strips along the sides and rear of the body; then, after straightening everything, Dozza slathered the XP in copious quantities of luscious DNA Custom Paints Candy Cobalt Blue. “I’ve always liked blues; when we were kids, my twin brother had a red BMX and I had a blue one. Now he’s got a red ’66 Mustang that’s supercharged and I’ve ended up with a blue car,” Tarone laughs.

A super-sanitary streeter is all well and good, but Tarone wanted the hardtop’s driving experience to be an eye-widener as well. To that end, the worn old 302 was turfed in favour of a fresh 580hp Windsor from Pavtek Performance. A 4.125in-bore, short-deck Dart block was filled with a Scat crank and rods and SRP pistons for a capacity of 363 cubes. CNC-ported RHS heads house Ferrea valves controlled by Isky springs, and a custom-grind solid cam calls the shots. Topping the combo is a Victor Jr intake wearing a 2.5-inch spacer and a Holley Sniper 2 all-in-one EFI set-up. Tarone went for the self-learning throttlebody injection to improve cold starts and driveability, and he enlisted the help of Peter ‘Big Chief’ Haravitsidis to take care of the tune.

When Tarone bought the XP, it already had a C4 and a nine-inch hanging from leaf springs, but the whole driveline went in the bin so he could start afresh. The Windsor now sends its output to a manualised C4 built by Burko Transmissions through a Hughes Pro Series converter, and then a three-inch chrome-moly tailshaft passes the twist to a McDonald Brothers nine-inch diff. Tarone’s mates Radish and Mark from East End Performance tubbed the back end to make room for some decent rubber, then ordered and installed the triangulated four-link. Stopping power is supplied by Wilwood discs fore and aft, including the swap to a manual Wilwood master cylinder.

To finish the underside, Kyren at Midland Mufflers knocked up the twin 2.5-inch exhaust with added electric cut-outs should Tarone decide that the coupe ain’t quite loud enough.

The cockpit of this low-flying aircraft looks almost stock to the untrained eye, but slide your peepers around it and you’ll spot a few things worth noting. Most of the fittings are original, including the cluster, though vital signs and speedo output are monitored via the Holley screen on the column, a couple of cheeky gauges under the dash, and the monster tacho strapped to the A-pillar. Tarone wasn’t a fan of the front seats the XP came with, so he found some retro-style buckets that wouldn’t spoil the pillarless hardtop’s stylish lines. Finally, Nathan Lia at Lia’s Canvas retrimmed the pews, door cards, parcel shelf and headlining in white vinyl.

Though the XP’s build was relatively trouble free, Tarone decided that it had been in pieces for too long and gave himself less than a year to go from a bare metal shell to a completed project in time for Street Machine Summernats 37. Thankfully, the hardtop was ready to go with three days to spare, so he was able to relax and enjoy cruising it around Canberra for its first major voyage. “I spent those three days popping into the shed just to stare at it – it looks better than I ever envisaged it,” Tarone says with pride.

TARONE PALMER
1965 FORD FALCON

THANKS
Peter ‘Radish’ Raditsas for all the help and guidance along the way; Mark Rachele at East End Performance; Ryan ‘Dozza’ McDermott and Braydon Pankhurst at Ryan McDermott’s Paint & Panel; Clint McInnes at CRM Auto Electrical for the wiring; Chris Doonan’s Service Centre for the fittings and hose; Barry McDermott for fitting the windows; Nathan Lia at Lia’s Canvas Centre for the trim; Scott Bryant for fixing the chrome trim; my brother Jonse for his help assembling the car.