First published in the January 2008 issue of Street Machine

It’s every man’s dream, twins,” says burnout legend Mark Dall’Acqua. “One for drags and one for burnouts — what more could you ask for?”

Mark’s well known to Street Machine readers. His cars have been featured many times over the years, from his blown red and gold XT GTs (Sept ’87 and July/Aug ’88) through to his white and green 351 Clevo-powered Escorts (July/Aug ’89 and Jan/Feb ’93). Over the years he’s scrawled his signature on burnout pads all across the country and joined the exalted ranks of the Burnout Masters by winning the Summernats burnout competition twice, at the ninth and 15^th events.

He’s a man who has been there and done that and these days building crazy, powerful cars is all part of his business at MD Conversions in Sydney’s west.

Mark’s always been a revhead but things really started to get crazy when he decided to repower his ex-wife’s Escort with a 351 Cleveland. At the time the RTA people didn’t want a bar of it but the rules were clear and without a way to block registration they passed the car with a warning: don’t build another one.

But of course he had to build one for himself, and then some mates wanted in too. That’s when things got out of control. Mark built 11 of the little suckers before the NSW RTA changing the rules and slammed the door.

“They actually changed the legislation to lock me out,” Mark says.

So what chance is there of building one now?

“Not a hope in hell,” he says. However, in addition to the V8 Escorts, Mark has also built around 30 V8 Capris and more than 40 V8 Cortinas.

“If people keep asking for it, I’ll keep doing it,” Mark laughs. “We do all that engineering that no other bastard will touch.”

So these are two of the 11 Escorts Mark’s built. The green one you’d recognise from dozens of events, while the red one is a car he put together as an Individually Constructed Vehicle (hence the ICV 351 numberplates) for a mate back in ’91.

“He kept it for a few years and then decided that selling it back to me would be the best way to get a house deposit,” Mark says.

The red car was campaigned in burnouts for a while with the tunnel-rammed engine before Mark decided to pull it right down and build it back up to current drag specs; “Drag racing is in my backyard. I’m looking for something to do when there are no burnouts on.”

Amazingly, the two Escorts are very close in specification but Mark says a couple of differences make them very different cars to drive. In the red corner there are 4.11 gears in the bum and 15psi boost flowing through 4V heads sitting on 393 cubes. That’s good for more than 450rwhp and the aim is to punt the car down the quarter for a bit of fun.

Over in the green corner, the old faithful beast runs 3.25 gears and 12psi boost flowing into a pair of 2V heads atop a 378-cube donk. Mark reckons that the 2V heads hold more water to cool the combustion heat, which makes them better for the burnout engine —just the thing for spending three minutes or more at 7000rpm!

Fitting the relatively large Cleveland engine up front takes a bit of work with the gas axe but Mark has the procedure all sorted out.

“The firewall mods are the hardest thing but they really do handle quite respectably for what they are,” he says.

With the engine sitting right back into the recessed firewall, the only parts that poke forward of the front axles are the water pump and harmonic balancer. “I built one with the motor forward but it was a pig under brakes.”

But why Clevelands?

“I loved my blown GTs and that’s what the GTs came with.”

Yeah we know — plenty of early GTs had perfectly good Windsor engines too but that’s Mark’s excuse and he’s sticking to it.

“I’ve never had the urge to change — I’m so geared up to build them. I’ve got four built bottom-ends under the bench. I love them all; they’re all different combinations. It’d be too tortuous to change to Windsor’s now,” he reckons.

Big engines in tight engine bays usually create a cooling nightmare but temperatures are kept under control in both cars thanks to large custom radiators fitted with twin thermo-fans in addition to eight-bladed engine fans. The cars also run the same size wheel and tyre combos, although the red car is blessed with better anchors thanks to a set of Wilwood four-pot brakes up front. At the back, the two cars share the same tubbed set-up (other than the diff ratios) with full-spool centres fitted to nine-inch housings along with Romac floating hubs and Romac competition disc brakes.

Transmissions are both two-speed Powerglides which is a bit of a departure from Mark’s previous love affair with the bulletproof top loader.

“Death is forever,” Mark says with a laugh. “It’s too hard grabbing a fist full of gears with a manual. Autos are quicker and there’s less chance of dying with them.”

Sticking with the theme of going with what you know, both cars were panel-beaten and painted by MR Rust & Body Repairs. The green car wears Sherwood Green while the red car is simply red according to Mark.

On the inside, the red car copped a full set of Auto Meter gauges while the more original green beastie combines the RS2000 dash with a selection of Auto Meter gear. Again, both cars were treated the same for trim, going to Deville Motor Trimmers in Seven Hills. Each runs Scheel buckets — leather trim in the green car, cloth in the red one — along with fully ANDRA-approved chrome-moly 12-point ’cages. 

“ANDRA and the RTA — it’s hard to get them to love you at the same time,” Mark says with a laugh. ANDRA likes extensive rollcages in tech-inspected racing vehicles while the RTA hates them with a passion and would probably outlaw them completely if it didn’t interfere with the rally guys.

These little cars are Mark’s only vice. As he says: “I don’t drink, don’t smoke. Imagine how much money that saved me over the years!”

No word on how much the cars have cost, though. In the future Mark just plans to keep having fun. “I’m probably due for a rest after all these years but I don’t seem to find time to do it.”

MARK DALL’ACQUA
1975 ESCORT RS2000 (Green)

MARK DALL’ACQUA
1975 RS2000 (Red)

THANKS
Bill Laney, Max Wedge Performance; Ratnam, MR Rust & Body Repairs; Bruce, Charleston Exhaust; Peter & team, Inline Performance; Ron, Trade Diagnostics; Richard, Active Transmissions; Ray, Propeller Shaft Services; Jeff Ramsey Engineering; John, Consulmotive; Steve Sober, Wholesale Suspension. Special thanks to Terry Cartright, Rohan ‘Hunch’ McDonald, Terry Straw, Luke Allsop at Stix, Rocket Industries and Mamo Teuma for support and help.