First published in the September 2009 issue of Street Machine
Wanna stand out from the street machining crowd? It’s easy — just don’t build the same car as everyone else.
Melbourne’s Scott Hayes subscribes to the ‘dare to be different’ philosophy. After all, when was the last time you saw someone supercharge an XP sedan?

Don’t get us wrong — the early hardtops are bloody beautiful cars but with so many of them on the show scene, you could be excused for thinking they came out looking that good.
But as we said, Scott was looking for something a bit out of the ordinary.

“I knew a bloke who knew a bloke; he had this car. I thought a sedan would be different.”
Early Falcons are how he likes to roll so when this XP popped up he jumped on it.
“Yeah, I just like that era,” he says. “I like the older stuff more than the later ones.” So he paid his money and picked up the tubbed and primered shell as a roller.

“It was set up as a drag car — it was tubbed when I got it, and I did all the rest. It had been sitting in a shed for 12 years or so.”
As unfinished projects go, the sedan had its good and bad points.
“It wasn’t really in that good nick when I bought it,” Scott says. “Only the tubs and stuff were finished; the rest of the body was pretty rough. It had a bit of rust in the usual spots, like the sills and around the windows.”

It’s what you would expect from a 40-year-old car; anything that’s seen some road miles is going to have more holes than a WWII bomber. But Scott didn’t muck around; he got straight into making things right.
Ricky and Adrian at Australian & American Restorations handled the bodywork, including the two-pack paint. The paint is a custom mix based off a Mercedes colour, according to Scott, and it suits the XP perfectly. Almost like a factory hue, though no XP sedan ever looked this good off the production line.
Scott knew that John Taverna Chassis had tubbed the car years earlier so he thought that would be the natural place to go to get the diff sorted out. John fitted a 31-spline, drum-braked and braced nine-inch into the custom four-link rear — just the thing for the blown bruiser Scott was planning to fit in the pointy end.

“I didn’t want to have a Cleveland in it,” he says, “mainly because it would have had less room than what’s in there now.”
With that in mind, Scott started raiding parts catalogues and websites for all the bits he needed. Scan down the spec list and you’ll see he’s sprung for all the goodies. A new Windsor-style Dart block, original 302 Boss crank, some SCAT H-beam rods, Ross forged pistons and a custom Crow cam all found their way to Steve Ermstrang at S&S Dyno & Performance.

“I just wanted to keep it at 302 cubes — it’s got plenty enough horsepower as a 302,” Scott says. “It’s got all the good stuff in it; nothing cheap on it at all.”
Steve at S&S gave the four-bolt bottom end the love and attention it needed to handle the extra grunt but it’s the top end that gets everyone’s juices flowing. And it’s a bit special.

You see Scott managed to lay his hands on a set of ridgy-didge 302 Boss heads. Cool, except that finding a blower manifold to suit is near impossible these days. But not totally impossible — Scott found the whole set-up on the ’net.
“The blower and everything came from the States; I didn’t buy any of that in Australia. Manifold, blower and linkages, I bought them all secondhand on eBay. Luckily it wasn’t crap.”

But the ultra-rare Offenhauser intake manifold gave Scott a few nervous moments. For a while there he thought he’d done his dough.
“I was supposed to receive the manifold in six weeks but I didn’t get it until after three and a half months. I’d thought I’d lost it and it cost $800. Then the bloke I bought it off wouldn’t answer emails or phone calls. I thought: ‘Oh well, I’ll have to write it off,’ but one day a bloke arrived at the door with a box and it was the manifold. I was lucky as it’s very rare. It actually came off a 70s drag car the bloke had — it’d been sitting in his shed for about 20 years.”

With the GM blower set-up to pump some 10 or 11psi, the little 302 creates all the power that Scott desires. And as a bonus, it still runs happily on pump fuel.
“It’s wild — really wild! It’s great though; I love it.” But he hasn’t had a chance to put it on the dyno yet to see what it is actually putting out.

Once he’s done that, he’s planning on giving it a run at Heathcote, which is about the only place he can stretch its legs, thanks to the absence of a rollcage.
He’s had some quick cars before — he used to have a low-10sec drag car — but reckons this is the wildest one he’s ever owned. In the meantime, he’s happy to just drive the wheels off it: “I take it out when I can. It gets a lot of attention wherever it goes.”
And just in case it isn’t getting enough attention already, Scott’s considering some further eye-popping mods, thanks to a little pressure from the painters.


“Ricky and Adrian are trying to talk me into painting flames on it. I’m thinking about it but whether it’ll happen or not, I don’t know.”
Whichever way Scott chooses to go, this XP’s guaranteed to continue stopping traffic.

“People stop in the road just to have a look. It gets scary — you think they’re going to have an accident. It’s so loud everyone just stops.”
Dare to be different? Yup, that’s definitely mission accomplished.
WHO’S THE BOSS
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday was the catchcry at Ford in the late 60s but on the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Trans-Am circuit, it was getting thrashed. If it wanted to win, the 302 Windsor needed serious help. With the 351 Cleveland not far from production, one of Ford’s boffins decided to try the Cleveland-style head on the Windsor engine and the results were encouraging.
From there, the 290hp 302 Boss Mustang was born and while Ford didn’t win the Trans-Am series in 1969 it was successful in 1970.

The common misconception is that Boss motors are 302 Windsors with 351 Cleveland heads. Ford’s Windsor V8 runs water through the intake manifold while the Cleveland does not. So while the 302 Boss heads are Cleveland 4V castings, they have water ports feeding into the intake manifold — a typical Cleveland head doesn’t have these ports.
To spot a 302 Boss you’re looking for eight bolts holding down the rocker covers, same as the Cleveland, but the top radiator hose will be going into the intake manifold instead of the block.
Ford also made the 302 Boss engine available in the Mercury Cougar Eliminator in ’69 and ’70, before replacing it with the 351 Boss in 1971. Unlike the 302 Boss, the 351 Boss uses a Cleveland block and heads and was rated at 330hp.

SCOTT HAYES
1965 XP FALCON
Colour: | Custom mix |
GRUNT | |
Engine: | 302ci |
Block: | Dart Sportsman four-bolt |
Induction: | BG Demon 650 x2 |
Intake: | Offenhauser |
Blower: | GM 6/71 |
Heads: | Boss 4V cast iron |
Pistons: | Ross forged |
Crank: | Boss |
Rods: | Scat H-beam |
Cam: | Crow solid |
Ignition: | MSD 6AL |
Exhaust: | Custom stainless, twin 3.5in system |
SHIFT | |
Transmission: | Ford C10 fully manualised |
Converter: | 3800rpm |
Diff: | Nine-inch, braced, 31-spline |
BENEATH | |
Brakes: | XF Falcon disc (f), XY drum (r) |
Springs: | Pedders (f), Spax coilovers (r) |
Shocks: | Pedders (f), Spax (r) |
Bushes: | Nolathane |
INTERIOR | |
Wheel: | Billet half-wrap |
Seats: | Grey & black custom (f), none (r) |
Gauges: | Auto Meter Ford Racing |
Stereo: | JVC CD, Boss speakers & amp |
Shifter: | B&M Pro Stick |
ROLLING | |
Rims: | Weld Prostar, 15×3.5 (f), 15×12 (r) |
Rubber: | Yokohama 15×3.5 (f), 15×12 (r) |
THANKS
Steve Ermstrang, S&S Dyno & Performance; Ricky & Adrian, Australian & American Restorations; Geelong Chrome; Darren Azzopardi, interior; Andrew, Alter Start; and of course Julie — thanks so much!
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