MotorEx 2022 has been quite the debut for Dan and Kylie Morton’s Pat’s Pro Restos-built XY Falcon, which some are heralding as the best Aussie-built show car of all time. The covers came off the car before a horde of gobsmacked onlookers, and you had to queue up to get a good look at the car for the remainder of the day.
“To be honest it’s quite emotional,” said Dan. “Pat [of Pat’s Pro Restos] and I have built quite a close friendship during the build of the car, the more I look at it I realise that it’s better than I ever expected.” Dan’s goal was to end up with a car that blended old school metal with the finish of a high-end exotic, and the finished product is engineered and finished to absolute perfection.
“Pat’s gone well beyond the initial goal, and a lot of the engineering in the car is covered up and isn’t visible, but it’s all just as detailed as the outside. Pat’s cars have a certain style and I gave him a lot of freedom on the car and he hasn’t let me down.”
Pat O’Shea of PPR stressed the extent and quality of the engineering involved in the car. “We’ve called the car ‘Forged’ because it’s hand built,” he said. “It has a full chassis and the roll cage is grafted right through the car. All the body lines are changed; the only part that hasn’t been modified is the middle of the roof-skin. It’s literally a hand-built car; all the interior components, the CNC dash, everything is made from scratch.”
The Falcon is powered by a Jon Kaase 600ci billet V8 with stack injection, backed by a ZF six-speed, carbon fibre tailshaft and IRS rear end. Far from just pulling the engine out of the crate and fitting it, the PPR team fully deburred it, pulled it all down and had it re-clearanced and rebuilt, then dyno tuned to a meaty 900hp at 6000rpm.
Lamborghini seats were sourced brand new out of Italy, modified and retrimmed. They stand as the only off-the-shelf component in the entire interior; everything else is designed and made from first principles.
Interior goodies included a flat floor, trick centre console, custom door panels which incorporated Mercedes armrests and doorhandles, with CNC speaker grilles. The whole deal is trimmed in smoothed and embossed leather trim.
The car has certainly been the talk of the town at MotorEx, and come presentation time the results backed that up with it scoring a ton of tinware. “We managed a clean sweep today, so can’t be any happier,” said Dan. “The car won seven categories and Grand Champion. There are a lot of amazing cars here and I appreciate all the different cars and I wasn’t sure how we’d place, but all the work that Pat and the team have put in has come to the fore. I’m very proud of what we’ve done. It’s been a joyful experience.”
Come awards time, the XY scooped the pool, landing a spot in the Super Six and taking out gold medals for Bodywork, Paint, Engine Bay, Engineering, Interior and Design/Execution, plus a second in Display. All of which added up to the XY taking out the Grand Master title for 2023.
There is talk of taking the car to the US, how cool would that be!
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