The 1980s were a tough time for Aussie Ford fans. In 1982, the company did the unthinkable and discontinued the Falcon V8, handing the high-performance high ground to Holden for a decade and forcing the Blue Oval brigade to take desperate measures they could never have envisioned – they even had to cheer for Peter Brock!

First published in the May 2026 issue of Street Machine

Then came Jacques ‘Jac’ Nasser. A Ford veteran, he had joined the company as a 20-year-old financial analyst in 1968 and climbed the corporate ladder to eventually be appointed president and CEO of Ford Australia in 1989. Once there, he wasted no time in bringing the excitement back to Broadmeadows.

One of his first moves was to commission a one-off Falcon prototype – a hand-built EA that was sent to the US to have 351 cubic inches of Roush V8 stuffed between the strut towers. It became Nasser’s daily driver when it wasn’t being thrashed to within an inch of its life by Ford Australia’s development engineers. As part of its February 1991 road test of the car, Wheels said: “It is tangible proof that Mr Nasser is serious about building hot Falcons, and in the process rebuilding Ford’s fading performance image.”

While the prospect of a hot EA Falcon never got further than the GT 351 concept, with the arrival of the EB in 1991 there was once again a V8 Ford in showrooms thanks to the introduction of the ‘S XR8’. But this was just the beginning.

At the same time as this was going on, former racing driver Ron Dickson was investigating the possibility of running an Indy Car race in Australia. After negotiations with NSW Premier Nick Greiner stalled, he met with controversial Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who enthusiastically encouraged Gold Coast mayor Lex Bell to support the event.

With the race green-lit, Dickson contacted Nasser, who agreed to become the race’s official vehicle supplier. The only hurdle? Ford had nothing capable enough to serve as the pace car. An SVT Mustang performed the role for the first race in 1991, which merely highlighted the company’s dilemma.

For 1992, it stepped up its involvement, supplying Falcon wagons for the medical response cars, a fleet of Lasers for the celebrity race, and a Courier as the official ‘Indy Truck’. But the headline act was the new Falcon S XR8 pace car, the first ever non-American car to earn the job.

This wasn’t just any XR8, either, and we’re not referring to the eye-catching bodykit, lairy graphics or light bar attached to the roof. Ford’s official press release dated 2 October 1991 didn’t mince words: “The purposeful-looking pace car is the first special high-performance Falcon conceived and built in-house at Ford since the aborted GTHO Phase IV in 1973.”

A standard S XR8 was taken off the line and resprayed pearl white by PPG – a Volvo colour according to the car’s current owner Thomas McMillan – with the bodykit from the EA GT concept car and bespoke three-piece 17×8.5-inch Compomotive alloys wearing 235/45 Goodyear Eagle tyres. The interior also got an overhaul, with mauve seat inserts, a trimmed rollbar, Momo steering wheel and purple stitched gearknob. With the car now looking the part, the real work began.

The standard 5.0-litre V8 was turned over to Bob McWilliam at Phase Automotive, who used the engine from the recently revealed Shelby American Automobile Club’s Mk1 Mustang as a blueprint, chock full of bits from Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations.

McWilliam prioritised reliability over power, but GT40 cylinder heads, an SVO intake manifold, 65mm throttlebody and 42mm exhaust headers – basically the SAAC Mustang package – helped the Windsor breath better, while adding a hotter cam, shaving 60thou off the heads, increasing the rocker arm rates, and adopting a virtually straight-through exhaust spiced things up further.

The results were dramatic. The standard outputs of 165kW (221hp) at 4500rpm and 388Nm at 3000rpm increased to 204kW (274hp) at 5500rpm and 420Nm at 4000rpm. More revs, more grunt and lots more noise.

With the go sorted, it was Ford’s dynamics engineer John Molle’s turn to make it, well, turn. Lower, stiffer springs dropped the ride height by 25mm, stiffer Monroe shocks increased body control, and a larger 27mm front anti-roll bar reduced roll. Stiffer bushes went in, the rear Watt’s link was relocated to eliminate bump steer, and an extra 0.25° of negative camber (for a total of 0.75°) was added. A nine-inch diff and close-ratio gearbox were considered but deemed unnecessary, the standard drivetrain remaining in situ.

Fast Falcon aficionados might recognise the mechanical package as being eerily similar to the EB GT that appeared very shortly after the Pace Car – remember our earlier remark about the XR8 being just the beginning?

The man tasked with driving the Pace Car during its Gold Coast outings was American racing legend Johnny Rutherford, a three-time Indy 500 winner and 1980 CART champion with 27 wins and 23 pole positions to his name. It appeared thanks to a sudden rainstorm in 1992, and survived almost being taken out at the start by race winner Nigel Mansell in 1993.

Between races, the car – wearing the registration PACE1 – lived in the care of Dickson, accumulating 13,147km between 1991-94. With its official duties done, it ended up at Southport Ford on the Gold Coast. When a gentleman asked about an EB GT only to be told the dealer couldn’t acquire one, he was pointed in the direction of the Pace Car, which was purchased and kept by his family until 2003.

From there, it went to a couple in Forster, NSW, who were custodians for 18 years before selling it in 2021, with the odometer now reading 30,000km. Its current owner, 26-year-old South Australian Ford mechanic Thomas McMillan, bought the Pace Car in early 2025, and it joins another famous Falcon in the garage, with McMillan also owning the ED XR8 Sprint press car that adorned the September 1993 cover of Wheels.

McMillan’s age makes him a surprising ownership candidate for a car that’s substantially older than he is, but he admits to a real soft spot for this era of Falcon. “It was probably a bit of an impulse buy, but I thought, ‘This car screams awesomeness!’ It’s a one-of-one thing. I’m a passionate Ford guy. I’ve always liked the E-series Falcons and I’ve always been fascinated by the history of Ford in Australia. It was a case of, ‘What a cool piece of history I could have.’

“Even though I wasn’t alive when the Indy Car event was around with that car in it, I still take an interest. It reminds me of, even when I was a kid, the times were just simpler: barely any mobile phones and a lot less technology. The world was a different place and these old cars remind me of those earlier days.” Amen.

Despite its one-off status, McMillan isn’t shy about driving the Pace Car. Having driven it from Sydney to Adelaide after completing the purchase, he then scored an invite to Ford’s 100th Anniversary celebrations in Melbourne, necessitating another interstate trip.

“It did the 100th anniversary celebrations on the Friday, and on the Saturday Ford hosted an official cruise from Broadmeadows to the Geelong All-Ford Day. That was pretty cool, because I got to catch up with a few of the older ex-employees, and a few of them actually remembered the car, which was pretty special.”

When so many manufacturer specials end up stripped of what made them great – or worse, crushed – the fact that the S XR8 Indy Pace Car has survived largely untouched is both lucky and a credit to those who have cared for it over the past 35 years. Even better, in McMillan it has an owner that will ensure its story continues to be told. As he eloquently puts it, it’s a “one-off, irreplaceable part of Ford’s history.”

THOMAS McMILLAN
1992 FORD FALCON S XR8