DAMIEN Reeves has had his Ford XT Fairmont for about 15 years, and this year’s Street Machine Drag Challenge was all the motivation he needed to treat the car to a birthday. He painted the whole thing and built a stout 302 Windsor with a Harrop HVT1900 blower to top it all off. “I did the supercharger set-up myself using an AU Falcon bottom-half container machined down to suit the Harrop,” Damien said.

Running the thing is a Fuel Tech FT500 EFI system with a more modern coil-pack set-up rather than the old dizzy, and Damien tunes the car himself. On 15psi the car made 380rwhp, which hits the rear tyres through a 3500-stalled Ford C9 transmission and nine-inch rear end suspended by a set of CalTracs.

Unfortunately a string of rained-out race meets meant that Damien couldn’t get in any track testing before Drag Challenge. “I registered for an event at Calder but that was rained out, then the same thing happened at Heathcote, and I even towed the car up to Sydney for Grudge Kings – that was rained out too!” Damien said. “So Day One at Calder was my first run with the new set-up.

“The first pass it went 11.81@111mph, then it went 11.9 and it wasn’t too happy, so we decided to give it a rest and hit the road to Heathcote.” Unfortunately the Fairmont didn’t make it. “We were driving along and it was getting warm, then it just lost all oil pressure so we had to stop. We bent a rod, so it was game over.”

But rather than just throw in the towel and go home, Damien and his brother Shannon, who was along for the ride, decided to try and get Shannon’s maroon Fairlane running and continue the event. So they worked all night on the car and were able to make it to Heathcote and make a pass. The Fairlane is an all-motor 10-second barge that’s powered by a Windsor with Clevo heads, measuring in around the 411ci mark.

Damien and Shannon followed along for the rest of Drag Challenge, raced at every track in the Fairlane and did it without the slightest of mechanical hiccups.