Dave Flohr tells of the epic, nine-year story of resurrection and transformation of his XB Falcon once dubbed ‘The Turd.’

First published in the April 2025 issue of Street Machine

“I’ve owned my XB since 2002. She was always a rough old girl and was nicknamed ‘The Turd’ before I gave her a nine-year, ground-up rebuild!

“The catalyst for that was when the crank broke in the old 393 combo it had, which had run 10.60s. I started by stripping the car back to bare metal, and then Scott Schwerin at Excel Panel & Paint took care of the panelwork. Jason Seng at Jase Race & Restoration laid down the Tropicana Green paint with gold GS stripes, and helped me with the final fit-up and a bunch of other stuff throughout the build.

“Chris at Evans Trim Shop retrimmed the interior to factory-style Fairmont GS specs, with the race seats trimmed to match and a Holley Pro Dash mounted to the column. The six-point, weld-in rollcage was fabricated by Heath Bellette at HBR Race Cages & Fabrication.

“It now runs a grout-filled, studded and girdled 393 Clevo housing Scat H-beam rods and crank, and SRP pistons. The ported CHI heads are topped by a port-matched intake converted to take 1000cc injectors, all crowned by an Aeroflow throttlebody.

“The valves are worked by a Crow custom solid-roller cam to suit the injection, and it’s all controlled by a Holley HP ECU. I assembled the combo with the help of Kev at KPM Performance Engines; he also ported the heads, specced the cam, set up the injection up and tuned it. It made 540hp at the hubs on E85.

“Behind the Clevo is a full-manual C4 built by Trev at Tricky’s Transmissions, while the converter is a bolt-together 5800rpm stall by James Horan at Full Race Fabrication. Scott Cortina at Gazzard Brothers sorted the rear end out with a sheet-metal 9in diff, split mono-leaf springs, double-adjustable shocks, traction bars, sliders and anti-roll bar, as well as the double-adjustable coil-over conversion up front. Anthony Briggs and I built the exhaust system, comprising HPC-coated Pacemaker Competition four-into-one extractors, 3.5in mandrel-bent pipes, Hooker Aero Chamber mufflers, and 3in tailpipes.

“Now I’m enjoying cruising the wheels off it with my family and the mates that helped with the build. Hopefully it will run into the low 10s as a tough aspirated street car.”