The burnout world was shocked when Hall of Fame inductee Peter Grmusa put his legendary ATRISK XR Falcon up for sale and announced his retirement from the sport.

The XR did indeed move on, but Peter’s retirement doesn’t seem to have followed through. Summernats’ J-Bens paid him a visit down in Melbourne recently, where Peter let slip that plans are already in motion to see him back on the pad in anger.

“I retired, and then my daughter Alyssa called me a loser for having no car to bring to Summernats!” says Peter in the video. “So we’ve got a few things on the go; it got me fired up to have another crack.”

Although the XR is gone, Peter ended up keeping its trademark 702ci big-block behemoth of an engine. It’s now making its way into his pink XA sedan known as NORISK, with plans to return to the pad next year.

“You heard it here first: I’ll be coming out of retirement,” he says. “We’re aiming to debut the car at Rockynats next year. It’s the last comp I won, so it’d be cool to do it again there.”

That does mean the XA won’t be at the upcoming Street Machine Summernats 36 (4-7 January), but Peter has plans to bring it to the next one.

“Summernats is good to cruise and take a streeter and whatever, but the skid scene is just another level, and you can only experience that if you’ve got a car at Summernats,” he says. “We’re doing this one with a back seat and a bonnet so we can do Skid Row, which I’ve never done, and some cruising.”

The XA Falcon has always been a favourite of Peter’s, so it was the perfect car to make his return in. The last time it hit the pad was just over 12 months ago at Summernats Slam at Heathcote Park Raceway, when it was running a 372ci small-block Ford.

Right now, it’s in the fabrication stage to accept the 702ci mammoth, which required deleting the front towers for clearance and strengthening the rear end. Peter hopes to have it in paint early next year, ready for its debut at Rockynats in late March.

He’s also got a neat XD Falcon on the go, which in Peter’s mind is a ‘mild’ street car. “We’re looking to finish that soon,” he says. “It’s getting a 557-cuber and mini-tubs. [It will be] a street car with around 900 horses.”

Sounds like there’s plenty on the go for Peter in his ‘retirement’, and we can’t wait to hear that 702ci V8 thump around the pad once again next year.