First published in Street Machine’s Australia’s Toughest Fords magazine #8, 2006

We’ve all heard horror paint shop stories, but Jai and Corrina Schluter’s takes the cake.

“When we went to pick up the Hardtop, the gap between the door and the sill was non-existent – we had to use a razor blade on the paint to open the door,” Jai says. “Corrina was in tears.”

That’s what happened when they gave a young painter a shot at painting their XC-fronted XB hardtop. Although the materials were supplied by Border Crash Supplies they were still out of pocket for the labour and, amazingly, the guy wanted more money to fix the botched job. You can imagine the answer they gave him.

After that, the car was taken to Elite Body and Panel in Wodonga where the nightmare of the shock paint job was given the flick.

“They not only rectified the damage, they gave us an award-winning paint job,” says Jai.

“And Border Crash Supplies were really good about it… they supplied all the materials again. Without Shawn and Wayne it sure wouldn’t be what it is now.”

So how good is the job now? Well, it made the Top 60 at Summernats 18; it won Top Engineered and Top Coupe at Springnats; and has won a stack of trophies from smaller shows such as Albury All Ford Day. It’s pretty damn good.

Elite Body and Panel applied litres of Sikkens Killer Tomata mix in the correct proportions and then covered the lot in a three-layer Gold Pearl overlay. When sunlight hits this baby it’s time to drag out the sunglasses.

The Killer Tomata name came about when Jai’s five-year-old daughter Taylah-Leigh reported, “It looks like a big tomato, daddy,” when the car came home from the paint shop.

This car is more than just a paint job; it’s a genuine 9sec weapon that competes in ANDRA’s national Super Stock series, and has since 1996. Jai was competing in one of Australia’s toughest categories back when most people his age were learning how to reverse park.

Super Stock is a class filled with rules and limitations (read more below) and the Modified Sedan class Jai races is more restricted than most.

He’s limited to a single four-barrel carb and flat-tappet cam, and only allowed to use approved cylinder heads, which means that a whole bunch of development has to be done to maximise the performance. Jai’s lucky to have another sponsor here in Danny Selva from Selva Racing Power.

“Danny makes power, he doesn’t buy it,” says Jai, “He likes to develop an engine from nothing into something that you can race.”

With restrictions excluding the use of roller cams, fancy heads, or multiple carbs, Danny has been fighting an uphill battle to coax as much horsepower from the combo as possible.

There’s some trick gear in this engine because there has to be – it runs to 8200rpm on the gearchange. Those kinds of revs are high for a small block; for a big block it’s very serious. To keep the engine revving they’ve destroked it slightly, keeping the cubes down after factoring in the 50-thou overbore. MGP aluminium rods and Ross pistons mate to offset-ground journals to give a final displacement of 462 cubic inches.

As we’ve mentioned before, the cam is limited to a solid grind and we didn’t get the specs – it’s secret squirrel stuff, but we can tell you it’s on a Crow Cams billet. Down below the block a three-stage dry-sump system keeps the oil away from reciprocating mass using an oil pan built by Anthony Selva at Ol’ Skool Rod ’n’ Kustom.

Up top, the heavily ported A-460 Motorsport heads and matching intake have received Danny’s magic touch and at the moment it’s topped off by an 1150 Dominator. That’s set to change, with Ray from AED prepping a 1200cfm Dominator carb with some wild mods for even more power. The new pump should make a difference because the old one was jetted up to the max and still couldn’t provide the fuel needed.

Last time it was on Danny’s dyno the engine made 783hp at the flywheel, which is about 30hp more than it was making when the car ran 9.58 at 141.98mph. That remains the quickest run to date but with the new carby on board they’re hoping to run even quicker.

At a race weight of nearly 3500lbs, the big hardtop is a lot of metal to launch off the line, so the auto and converter have to be spot on.

Jai speaks very highly of Geoff Dell from The Converter Shop; “He’s a handy guy to have on your side,” Jai reckons.

Geoff was responsible not only for the 6800rpm converter, but also for introducing Jai to Bob Grant from Bob Grant’s Automatics. Between the two of them they’ve come up with a transmission and converter package that lifts the front wheels high off the deck if wheelie bars aren’t fitted.

We asked why Jai doesn’t set the chrome-moly Super Duty Engineering wheelie bars built by Carlo Luisi a little higher for more spectacular launches. The answer is the vehicle weight. There is so much weight and momentum in action when the Hardtop lifts the front wheels that if the front end was given more room to lift, the wheelie bars would bend like wet noodles. It’s got nothing to do with the strength of the bars and everything to do with physics in action. Maybe they should start teaching drag racing in high school – the kids would be sure to pay attention then.

When this car was built it was an XB Hardtop, but you wouldn’t believe it now. Every external panel was replaced to modernise the look of the car back in the 80s when it was one of Australia’s first Modified Sedans. These days the whole car been rebuilt with the motto that, “if it doesn’t make the car go fast then make it look good”.

Under the back end there’s a braced 35-spline nine-inch with a Mark Williams aluminium centre holding it all together. The factory leaf springs are long gone. Nowadays a custom ladder bar and coil-over set-up supports the rear with its 14in-wide Weld Aluma wheels with 32in-tall slicks.

There’s a parachute mounted on the rear of the car made mandatory by the fact that the big Hardtop can storm down the quarter at more than 140mph, or 225km/h in the new money. You know you’re going fast when you have to dump the linen to slow down.

In Modified Sedan a rear seat is optional but Jai and Corrina have installed a modified rear seat to give the interior a full street appearance. Trimmed kevlar buckets, re-covered door trims and cloth headlining complete the streetcar look.

While the rules demand a street appearance, the Schluters have gone way beyond what’s necessary to produce a car that not only delivers the numbers but looks good doing it.

They’ve built the car to keep the weight down but haven’t gone overboard about it since the car actually has weight bolted to it at certain points to keep it legal. The rules say they have to carry 7.5lbs for every cubic inch capacity, so there’s no point getting carried away with lightweight gear.

Right now the car is taking a short break from racing as Jai, Corrina, and Taylah-Leigh get set to welcome a new family member. After a short break they plan to fire up the racing program and hopefully set more national records.

One thing’s for sure: the Schluters will be back at the track and racing before too long. There are even plans to build Taylah-Leigh a junior dragster. Which only goes to prove that drag racing is a true family sport and the Schluters a true drag racing family.

SUPER WHAT!

Super Stock is some of Australia’s toughest racing and it’s filled with teams on hefty budgets. It seems strange to see a small family team racing in such a high-temperature category but Jai and Corrina wouldn’t have it any other way.

With national indexes (indexes are half a second off the national record for each class) deciding the startline handicaps, racers in this category have to run near-record times to have a chance of winning. And they have to be careful, because resetting the national record makes their job even harder.

Super Stock has many classes using a variety of rules to keep things under control but, as with any limited category, the cost of development becomes a major expense.

“People look at some of the ‘streetcars’ running nines and eights and think we’re not doing anything that special,” says Jai.

JAI AND CORRINA SCHLUTER
XB FALCON HARDTOP

Jai’s thanks

First, thanks my wife Corrina and daughter Taylah-Leigh (my polishing buddy) for making this possible. I would like to thank my team for their efforts – Shawn Taskis, John Zanghellini, Carlo Luisi, Ryan Taylor who also did the website.

Thanks also to mum and dad, Danny Selva from Selva Racing Power, Shawn and Wayne Taskis from Border Crash Supplies, Bob Grant’s Automatics, Geoff Dell from The Converter Shop, Autobarn Albury, Doug from Queensland Ignition Leads, Anthony Selva from Ol’ Skool Rod and Kustom, Carlo & Melissa Luisi from Super Duty Engineering.

Also Crow Cams, Rod Rainford, Michael Brody, Ray from AED carburettors, Paul Crossley, HPC Coatings Brisbane, Phil Spencer from Racers For Christ for all the prayers and inspiration, thanks Rocky, and anyone I’ve forgotten… sorry and thanks.