Among a sea of tough cars at Motorvation 39, Bailey Djuric’s XY Falcon ute was a standout. Basking in the late afternoon sun in the staging lanes on Saturday, the paint looked like an oil slick and the gold GT stripes were popping. It looked way too nice to throw around in a skid competition. But once that high-steppin’ NASCAR motor fired up, the sound of 800-plus naturally aspirated horses was all that mattered.

First published in the May 2025 issue of Street Machine

This car was not only one of the best-presented at Motorvation, but it was one of the best-sounding as well. Designed to live at 9000rpm all day long, the dry-sumped, high-compression, bulletproof NASCAR engine is the perfect combination for a durable and reliable burnout motor. And did I mention it sounds amazing?

Bailey’s driving style was quite accomplished, too. The way he kept the XY singing right around 9000rpm, just tickling the 9200rpm limit on very few occasions, was genuinely impressive. But this wasn’t always the case. Bailey admits he was once one of those limiter-bashing guys.

“When you’ve got your cheap LS $10,000 bunky, it’s a different story; you need it there for safety,” he says. “But you don’t sit on the limiter with something good!”

You can’t just mail-order one of these motors. Everything must be sourced second-hand and the engine rebuilt. Pretty handy then that Bailey works in the family business, V&A Performance Centre, alongside his brother and dad. The shop is quite well known in WA, especially for tough Fords, so it was probably pretty hard for Vlado, Bailey’s dad, when his son was playing with that LS stuff. Of course, V&A will work on anything, and have plenty of tough Holdens through the doors as well.

Vlado’s late brother Alex was well known for his silver XC ute, PRO 351, that ran 11s at Ravenswood back in the 90s. Bailey and the family had hoped to get the XC back and return it to its former glory, but it wasn’t to be, so the XY was the next best thing. The car had been sitting around in primer for some 20 years. All of the bodywork had been done, but it got pushed to the side while other cars took priority.

“I started bugging dad a couple of years ago and he finally agreed to let me do something with it,” says Bailey. “First thing I did was send it to Leigh Fallon at Lethal Industries for all of the fabrication. He did the front end, tubs, rollcage and tanks in the engine bay, and then it went to Calmack in Mandurah for paint. There was only one small part where the primer had an issue, which is pretty amazing after it had sat for so long.”

Bailey had contemplated painting the car Electric Blue to match the sedan and race car they have, but he really wanted a gold GT stripe, and the best way to get it to pop was against a black background. Along with the gold Simmons rims, it’s a timeless combination, harking back to the black and gold JPS livery of old.

Once the car was straight and shiny, it came back to V&A to get put back together. Apart from the wiring – which was expertly handled by Jason from LS Wiring – everything was done in-house at V&A. A braced nine-inch filled with a Strange centre, 31-spline axles and 3.5:1 gears got the nod out back, while in the middle, a fully manualised, reverse-pattern C4 transmission with a transbrake and 5000rpm Dominator converter was screwed together by Peter Veersma.

In the engine bay sits the crown jewel – that screaming NASCAR engine. It’s a Ford Racing Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) deal built on an R452 block, which isn’t exactly the latest technology – it’s what was raced from the early 90s before they moved to the next generation of engines, the FR9, in 2009. “No one can get the latest stuff; you have to use the older stuff and rebuild it,” says Bailey. “It’s pretty crazy stuff when you get to work on it.”

It’s neither a Windsor nor a Cleveland, although it has been described as using the bore centres of the Windsor and the oiling and water galleries of the Clevo.

The cooling system is a massive part of these engines, and the Ford engineers spent a lot of time figuring out how to keep stuff alive at 9000rpm for 500 miles at a time. To that end, the rocker covers were plumbed with an oil line so that the valve springs could be kept cool with oil sprayers. There’s also another line to feed oil squirters that spray the underside of the pistons. Not surprisingly, the valvetrain is all Jesel gear. Unrestricted, these engines are capable of making over 900hp without power adders. Nuts!

We did a story on these mills back in SM, October 2016 [and another one on the Mopar equivalent from May 2025 issue! – Ed], within which was a quote warning against using nitrous because of how close the top ring land is to the top of the piston: “It is best being used as the Roush-Yates guys intended: naturally aspirated and singing its lungs out.” And what a fine tune it sings!

TOP QUALIFIER

Bailey pulled off a pretty amazing feat at Motorvation 39, top qualifying in both the Pro and Open classes, as he had double-entered with the ute as well as his blown HX Holden, WLD GTS.

It didn’t go quite so well in the finals, with the ute getting the tyres off a few seconds before the 60sec minimum, otherwise he would have surely been a contender. The HX’s skid appeared pretty flawless, but perhaps not good enough to make the podium.

Regardless, both cars performed exceptionally and are excellent business cards for V&A.

BAILEY DJURIC
FORD XY FALCON UTE

THANKS
The old man (Vlado); V&A Performance; Leigh Fallon at Lethal Industries for the fabrication; Calmack for the paint; Jason at LS Wiring.