We saw plenty of cool Fords at the 2021 Ford Powered Nationals at Heathcote over the weekend – but one car that was impossible to miss was Kyle Breed’s bright green, jacked-up FG Falcon ute.
The FG is the workshop ute for Kyle’s business, Pro Mech Automotive Solutions, based in Ballarat. The firm loves working on modifications, so it comes as no surprise that the workshop is unique.
“The way I see it is, what’s the point of a work ute that’s only one inch off the ground and can’t go anywhere as soon as it turns to dirt?” said Kyle.
We believe this to be the first RTV-style FG Falcon crafted together, Kyle using a hybrid of Territory parts and a bit of RTV gear to get the FG sitting nice and tall.
“The front is all Territory stuff, as well as the subframe and suspension — and I tell you, it wasn’t easy to get it in there,” said Kyle. “The rear uses RTV hangers with reset leaf springs, and we’ve also put Caltracs bars in there for racing.”
So at this point you may be asking, why jack it up to go drag racing? Well the ute has actually been lifted for a little while now, with Ford Nats being its first time down the strip.
“This ute actually spends more time with mud up the side of it than it does clean, it normally doesn’t look like this,” said Kyle. “It’s built to go off road, but we decided to take it racing just for the hell of it.”
It was originally just an aspirated LPG XR6, before Kyle and the Pro Mech crew decided to turbocharge it not long before Ford Nats.
“It’s still got the original LPG engine, but with Dominator valve springs, head studs, timing chain and oil pump gears, as well as a de-comp head-gasket,” said Kyle.
The original exhaust manifold has a J-pipe and a Borgwarner S360 turbo, which yielded 400rwkW and 1300Nm on 20psi, using the standard ECU and E85. The rest of the driveline is a BTR four speed auto built by Pro Mech, with the original FG diff.
Kyle swapped out the rear pair of muddies for some drag slicks and hit the strip. The best we saw from the FG was an 11.3 @128mph second run, but Kyle has plans to push it a bit further.
“The goal is to run a 10s with it, so we’ll get it on the hubs [dyno] soon for a bit more power, then after we’ve run the 10s we’ll finish the conversion to the AWD Territory gear and make it a real beast off road.”
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