One of the most legendary cars in all of Aussie street machining history, Tristan Ockers’s lurid green MINCER Ford Capri has rewritten the rules of what can be considered a street car, while also running sixes on the track. However, while that big-tyre, methanol-fed, blown big-block car is what most people think of when they hear the name, there was another, milder MINCER Capri that came before it, and this is its new heart.

First published in the March 2026 issue of Street Machine

“This motor is going into the OG MINCER, so it’s been designed to look as old-school pro street as possible,” says ProFlo Performance’s Paul Sant, who has built some of MINCER’s most famous engine combos over the years. “We wanted that retro look, which is why we anodised our billet rocker covers gold to look like old-school Moroso covers.”

Based around a 9.5in-deck-height Dart Windsor block, this angry 447ci small-block Ford packs a Scat crank and rods, with RaceTec pistons squeezing the air/fuel mix. You might think that 13:1 static compression is only for ethanol-blend or race fuels, but Paul knows it will live just fine on pump unleaded, despite the high ratio.

“I’ll say this for all the experts on the internet: you can run big compression on unleaded if you’ve got enough camshaft,” he says. “And this engine has a lot of stick in it. It’s a custom Bullet cam from America, ground to our specs. It’s got just over 800thou lift.”

The cylinder heads are Yates SC1 castings, which ProFlo purchased and ported in-house to provide the sort of lungs a high-rpm, big-inch small-block requires. The valvetrain is then rounded out by T&D rockers, Smith Brothers pushrods, and BAM bushed lifters.

No old-school V8 would be complete without a pair of Holley Dominator four-barrel carbs perched on top of a tunnel ram. These gargantuan 1050cfm 4500-pattern jugs have been dressed with velocity stack hats for more of the vintage flavour the Capri is bringing back, though the custom Bain Racing tunnel ram and billet carb spacers lend new-age smarts.

“We also had to use a cam sync, because it’s hard to put a dizzy in due to the tunnel ram,” Paul explains. “So, it has eight LS coils to fire it, and a FuelTech ECU to control the ignition. The side benefit is that all the gauges run off one screen coming out of that ECU, so you don’t need a stack of Auto Meters on the windscreen cowl!”

A four-stage dry sump keeps oil where it needs to be, while the front drive system mounts to the engine plate and uses a CVR electric water pump due to the SVO belt-driven timing belt set-up that replaces the traditional chain. It’s all built with quality parts to survive not just big horsepower but big revs.

“It made 861hp on pump gas, spinning to over 8000rpm,” says Paul. “It did 879hp on MS 109 race fuel, too. We all know how heavy Tristan’s foot is, so we made sure this motor is going to last.”

We cannot wait to see this forefather of the Aussie pro street scene back on deck and thumping hard with this carb-fed, aspirated, high-comp heart.

Total domination

Holley introduced the Model 4500 Dominator Series carburettor at the 1969 Daytona 500 on winner LeeRoy Yarbrough’s 427 FE-powered Fairlane. Boasting an industry-leading 1050cfm capacity, it was bigger than any other four-barrel carby at the time, and was soon used on everything from Sox & Martin Pro Stock drag cars to Boss 302 Mustangs in SCCA Trans-Am.

ProFlo Performance
Campbelltown, NSW