Earning a place in the Meguiar’s MotorEx unveil hall is a huge feat. Taking something as often-built as an XY Falcon with GT stripes and still making a stand-out impression? That’s a whole different game, but if anybody was going to do it, Southern Rod & Custom would be a prime suspect.

First published in the October 2024 issue of Street Machine

Serg De Rose first crossed paths with the SR&C lads when they fitted his late-model Mustang with a killer widebody kit, and his repeat visits eventually led to this XY’s inception. “We’d built one a year before that was nearly identical, but in yellow,” SR&C’s Scott Briant explains. “Every time Serg came in, he’d say he loved the yellow XY, so as soon as we finished the Mustang, we got into this one, and we knew exactly where we could improve on the last car.”

Like SR&C, Serg is based in Shepparton, Victoria, and bought the car from a mate in the area. “We actually went and got it for him,” Scott says. “It was absolutely rooted, and it had no front on it. When they say ‘barn find’, they’re usually talking shit, but it was actually in an open lean-to on a farm.”

Shop founder Shane Rowe, Scott and the rest of the team have taken the body to the incredible standard we’ve come to expect from SR&C. “We knock them out with a really good crew,” Scott says. “We’ve done that many XYs now that it’s almost like a production line!”

This car is unmistakeably Serg’s, though, right down to the trowel-wielding Grinch emblems, which reference his concreting business. Add a wild Lamborghini-derived pearl green and a static, wheel-tucking stance, and it becomes a GT tribute far removed from the type you see lined up at your typical show ’n’ shine.

Richard and his staff at Epping’s Pavtek Performance are SR&C’s go-to guys for beefy and reliable small-block Fords, and the cracking mill in Serg’s XY exemplifies their talents. The 393-cube, all-Cleveland combo runs ported CHI alloy heads and a solid flat-tappet cam, and cranked out 675hp@7250rpm on the Pavtek engine dyno. It’s fed and managed with a Holley Terminator X EFI system, including a digital read-out smartly mounted on the centre console.

SR&C prides itself on offering full in-house builds, and everything from the steering and suspension to the interior were fitted by the business’s subdivisions, Chassisworks Australia and Option Auto Interiors. A United Speed Shop front end does away with the engine bay’s shock towers, and the Competition Diffs-built nine-inch wears a Chassisworks four-bar kit and Watt’s link.

The interior similarly blends retro GT motifs with modern accents; the abundance of Italian leather, Dakota Digital instruments and three-spoke Momo wheel make it a much nicer place to be compared to crusty Falcon 500 vinyl.

On the back, the 20×12 Simmons wheels are so big that the tubs encroach on the inner metal of the rear doors, which have been heavily reshaped to accommodate them. Paired with a new custom floor, it makes the car look impractically low at first glance, but that’s really not the case. “It still has full travel,” Scott says. “It looks super low, but it’s still 112mm off the ground, so it’s roadworthy. When we did the photos down at the Shepparton mall, Chris [Thorogood] wanted a shot with a full car-load of people. We probably did 10 laps of the mall, which has a really steep driveway, and it didn’t scrape at all. The wheels are tucked under nicely, so you can still get full lock on the front.”

The two-year build now wears full rego plates, screwed on a few months after the MotorEx 2024 reveal. “I registered it at VicRoads two weeks ago and drove it straight up to the front,” Scott says. “Everyone went, ‘Holy shit,’ and half a dozen people came out to take photos. The VicRoads here has a lean-to where you park the unregistered cars, and the thing would’ve rattled the whole building – it sounds angry as!”

As for the unveiling itself, the XY proved a real eye-grabber, if not a bit divisive to some Falcon traditionalists. “It can be very hard to please XY people in general, because 90 per cent of them want a standard look and go, ‘Don’t do it like that,’” Scott laughs. “There are too many XY purists! Serg has taken a car that was probably going to end up as scrap, and look what he’s done with it – he’s made it survive.”

Of course, the only thing that truly matters is that Serg himself adores the final product. “He’s rapt,” Scott grins. “He’s overseas at the moment, and he’s just hanging to get back and drive it. We’ve registered it while he’s away, so as soon as he’s back, it’s game on!”

SERG De Rose
1971 FORD XY FALCON

THANKS
Southern Rod & Custom; Burko Transmissions; Pavtek Performance; DeBeer Refinish; Option Auto Interiors.