There’s not much that hasn’t been done with the almighty Falcon hardtop over the past five decades. As one of the toughest shapes to roll out of an Aussie car plant, builders have turned XA, XB and XC coupes into everything from SEMA-grade stunners to out-and-out drag missiles. NSW bloke Scott Medhurst’s vision of what a two-door Falcon should be has brought together the best of both worlds, melding timeless style cues with an injected, big-cube Cleveland, resulting in an XC Fairmont with awesome street presence and heaps of shove.

First published in the October 2024 issue of Street Machine

That said, when the XC first came to Scott’s attention, it was in a sorry state. “I bought the car from a friend in Taree,” he recounted. “He found it stored in an old dairy on a farm. He had it in storage and was going to build a Cobra replica, but I convinced him to sell it to me.”

According to wife and co-conspirator Rachel, Scott jumped with excitement when he found the coupe. “He had a soft spot for this model, and couldn’t wait to get it home,” she says.

Scott had previously bought an unfinished XY from another mate, with the intent of finishing off both cars – one for each of his kids. Unfortunately, Scott copped a cancer diagnosis shortly after, prompting him to make a tough call and let the XY go, instead pouring all his energy into developing the hardtop.

As cool as a Cobra replica can be, Scott had bigger plans for XCBOSS while still throwing plenty of love toward the bodystyle’s heritage as an iconic racer. Much of that goodness can be put down to the 427-cube, Arrow-blocked Cleveland lump from ProFlo Performance. Head honcho Paul Sant filled it with a Scat crank, Lunati rods and SRP slugs, with a custom-specced Crow cam running the valvetrain. The top end wears a custom manifold from OAC Engineering, which marries hand-ported CHI 3V heads to a set of eight EFI throttlebodies. “That was Paul from ProFlo’s good advice,” Scott said. They’re hidden from prying eyes when the bonnet is closed thanks to some smooth surgery around its internal support structure.

A FuelTech FT600 ECU manages the injection, which includes a ProFlo crank trigger kit, MSD Cam Sync dizzy and GM-sourced coil packs, while am in-tank, 340lph Aeromotive Phantom pump and custom Bain Racing fuel cell ensure there’s enough 98 on hand at all times. The combo is making 500hp at the treads, with 650lb-ft of twist to play with. “It should run a 10-second quarter,” Scott said.

A manualised C4 and bulletproof Altra9-cased diff round out the equation, all connected with a chunky four-inch tailshaft and race-friendly loop.

Race-car energy carries through to the undercarriage, starting with a fast-ratio, unassisted steering box – just like Al, Colin and the other Ford boys wrestled up and down Mount Panorama in the 70s. King springs and Koni shocks drop the front end two inches below stock, with adjustable Strange billet shocks and Motorfab split mono-leaf springs out back. Hoppers Stoppers PBR front brakes and EA rear discs pull the big coupe up, while a fat Whiteline sway-bar helps it turn in.

“Scott was torn between a more modern approach and an original look, and threw around ideas of green, his favourite colour, and orange, his son’s favourite colour,” Rachel explains. “After chatting with me, we decided on a classic look of grey with black trim, and we went from there.” To that end, forget about any scaled-up tomfoolery in the wheel department – the Bathurst Globes are sized at a kosher 15×7 and 15×10, with 295/50 tyres and dish for days to fill the huge hardtop rear quarters.

Scott enlisted a mate of a mate to sort out most of the bodywork, and they soon became fast friends themselves. “They enjoyed bringing the coupe back to life; his mate’s ability and knowledge from his own car restorations was greatly appreciated,” Rachel says. “It was a shared interest and an enjoyable process for them both.”

They turfed everything from the firewall forward, replacing the plenum and dash panels with solid donor material from an XC sedan. The inner and outer sills, quarters, guards, bonnet and bootlid all needed rust work, too. Impressively, the full rotisserie rebuild took place in Scott’s home shed, as did the paint prep and final coat of Cromax Pepper Grey. There aren’t many big exterior mods to speak of, but subtleties like an H4 LED headlight conversion speak to XCBOSS’s willingness to eat up road miles.

Sadly, Scott passed away in March of this year. “Scott’s health declined quicker than we expected,” Rachel says. “And although the car was finished with some help from amazing friends and the ProFlo team, he was unable to drive it.”

We extend our deepest condolences to Rachel, Scott’s kids Ella and Rylan, and of his extended family.

SCOTT MEDHURST
1978 FORD XC FAIRMONT

THANKS
Paul Sant and Sam Caruana at ProFlo Performance; GT Ford Performance; Bain Racing; PWR; Altra9.