First published in the December 2002 issue of Street Machine

Ever since people started doing up cars, there have been thousands of projects started that just never get finished. Mark Pracilio’s XM Falcon coupe was nearly one, but after 14 years of ups and downs he got there, and when asked what pushed him over the line, he says, “Having the help from my friends and family meant a lot to me.”

It didn’t start that way. Most people told him the more up-front lines of the XP, to many the first great Falcon, were the way to go, but Mark found the roundness of the XM more appealing.

“I really like its unique shape,” he says. “After all, it was the first Aussie coupe.”

And after hunting high and low, he stumbled across a very original coupe owned by a local surfer. It was exactly what he was after so he paid the man with the cash saved from working three part time jobs and drove it home.

Later on, having used the car quite a bit in his new job as an apprentice sparky, he felt it was time for a respray. Into the panel shop it went, off came various panels and work commenced on repairing some minor rust, but not long after getting stuck into the job, the panel shop went bust, taking with it Mark’s down payment. This was a major setback, but rather than go to court the shop owner agreed to personally help him to finish the car.

Then that arrangement fell through and Mark was forced to bring the car home to his mum’s place
where he decided to have a crack at doing the bodywork himself. He’d picked up a few skills along the way and fabricated a new driver’s-side guard using a combination of XM and XP coupe and sedan panels. Mark then constructed a full-size rotisserie and painstakingly hand-finished every panel before coating them in a custom blue/green Dulux mix, followed by several layers of clear. Many laborious hours were spent in the engine bay removing seams and strengthening the necessary places in order to cope with the 302 Windsor that was to replace the old six-pot.

With that and the bodyshell finished, Mark stockpiled the necessary trim parts to take it back to its original glory. Paul from Supertrim in Melbourne came in very handy, having many replacement and new/old stock items. This included brand new XM Futura bucket seat skins and an original hood lining still folded up in its FoMoCo packet. But 35 years in storage had left huge creases in it from end to end, so Mark had a mate help him stretch it into place and then secure around the window edges with the contents of his mum’s peg basket. Over the next few days Mark softened it up with heat lamps and steam from the kitchen kettle and it came up a treat.

A three-year assignment for his electrical trade further north didn’t diminish his eagerness to complete the car. With his new position came a decent income and he was constantly on the phone to guys such as Tony from Superoo in Armadale and Wayne from Classic Falcon in Canberra, organising delivery for all the necessary parts. Every visit home was an opportunity to get parts powder coated or chromed ready for when his three-year contract was up. As it happened, it was a good use of time and it paid off with virtually everything bar the running gear ready to go on his return.

Mark and friend Don decided the 302 sitting on the engine stand might be a bit dodgy, so they stripped it down to give it some more grunt. An avgas-drinking 700 double pumper Holley sitting on an Edelbrock Victor Junior manifold soon adorned the top end, and then compression was raised to 11:1 via a set of TRW forged pistons. The standard conrods were shot-peened and polished, while the crankshaft was shot-peened and Nitrided for extra strength. A Crane 280-degree cam is met by Speed Pro lifters and pushrods actuating the Ferra 1.6/2.02 valves seated in a pair of ported and polished Dart II heads. The sump is a high-capacity winged Bandit from which oil is drawn by a Speed Pro high-volume pump. Fuel is supplied to the Holley by an Edelbrock high-volume pump, then burnt with the assistance of a Crane Hi-6 ignition box with Accel coil and distributor combination.

Mark followed Welshpool Automatics dude Peter’s suggestion to use a heavy duty C4 with a custom shift kit in conjunction with a Dominator 3500rpm-stall converter, and fed this through to a 3.5:1 LSD nine-inch diff out of a V8 XW Falcon. With the transmission fitted up, it was time to lower in the engine, but the standard starter motor was in the wrong place preventing a simple drop in. It took the supplier two goes to send the right part and when it arrived the engine dropped straight in, although all Mark’s hard work in the engine bay was now mostly hidden by the small-block V8.

Super Pro Urethane bushes are used throughout the suspension, while the standard height has been reduced two inches via reset rear leaf springs and Lovells lowered coils up front. Koni adjustable shocks absorb the bumps, while the factory steering setup is assisted by a Selby 27mm heavy-duty sway bar for better cornering.

Rolling on 15×5- and 15×7-inch rear Cragar rims, the grippy black rubber things are a combination of Yokohama AVS 185/65/15s and Bridgestone Potenza 215/60/15s. Stopping the XM from careering through crowded pedestrian crossings is a mixture of XA Falcon front discs and HQ calipers, while the rear uses the drum brake set-up that came with the diff. These are actuated by an XA master cylinder and a VH44 remote brake booster neatly hidden under the front guard.

“I can’t cruise without my tunes,” says Mark and an Hawaiian honeymoon was the catalyst for a massive car audio shopping spree. He bought so much gear that airport customs officers asked him if he was opening a car stereo shop!

Most recently Mark found the standard radiator was not keeping things cool enough, so he went for a custom aluminium unit with the standard Falcon fan which has sorted the problem.

Since completion, the XM has cleaned up at a bunch of events, with the biggest gong the People’s Choice award at a show with around 1500 entries – not hard to see why.

There are no real changes for the car on the horizon at this stage, Mark just wants to keep on cruising. Well, if we had this immaculate restoration of the first of the all-Aussie Ford coupes, that’s exactly what we’d be doing, too.

The first Aussie Coupe

Ford Australia released the XM in February 1964 with the slogan ‘The new Falcon with certified golden quality’ and journalists at the time reckoned they weren’t far off the mark.

It was the fourth year of the Falcon, introduced in 1960 to target Holden’s popular FB range, and after ball joint and clutch problems in the XK and XL models, Ford needed to produce something special. The XM was just that.

The biggest styling difference was the introduction of the two-door hard-top, the first coupe built by Ford Australia, while other improvements included uprating the power in the two existing engines and adding a Super Pursuit unit. However, Holden’s launch of the EH in 1963 was devastating to Ford sales and, after selling more than 47,000 units in its short life, the XM soon gave way to the XP – the car that stopped the rot and put Ford back on the map.

Mark Pracilio
1964 Ford Falcon