VIDEO: PSIPOP – BUDGET RACER RUNS MID-NINES

Boosted ED Falcon budget drag car runs in the nines with an ex-taxi motor

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IT’S HARD to beat the good old E-series Falcon when it comes to bang-for-buck. The Ford four-litre straight-six takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Take Kris Van Krieken’s PSIPOP, for example. With a boosted DOHC ‘Barra’ engine planted into the front of his ED Falcon, it has run a best of 9.43@155mph. Not bad for a six-pot taxi!

Kris started building the budget racer back in 2010 with a SOHC engine and a GT3582 turbo. “That was a $500 engine with a Jim Mock Motorsport head,” he says. “At that point the car probably owed me about $5000, and it ran 11.49@121mph.”

As with most go-fast projects though, the hunger to go even quicker was hard to satisfy, so Kris decided to upgrade to a DOHC Barra engine in 2012 – a fairly easy upgrade for EA-ED Falcons. “You have to lower the mounts about 10mm for bonnet clearance, but other than that they almost drop in,” Kris says. “I bought an ex-taxi motor for $100 and built it up right from the start. It’s got a standard crank, but there are Mahle pistons, spool rods, ARP main and head studs and billet oil pump gears. The computer is a Haltech PS2000 with an EMS six-channel CDI ignition, and it runs on pump E85.”

Initially Kris ran the new Barra combo with a GT3582 turbo, which pushed the car to 10.94@125mph, but the C4 transmission proved to be fragile and he decided to take it off the street.

Now PSIPOP runs a transbraked Powerglide auto with a 4800rpm stall and a spooled nine-inch, and the new ported head and massive GT42R have seen the power climb to 506rwkW (678rwhp).

“It’s not a street car anymore,” Kris says. “We’ve stripped it out and fitted a six-point ’cage. We’ve sort of blown the budget too. It probably owes me around $30,000 now I’ve bought double adjustable Strange shocks, turbular suspension arms and a Competition Engineering anti-roll bar. But knowing what I know now, I could probably build it again for about $20,000 – less if I cut some corners.”

The ultimate aim is the eight-second zone, Kris reckons. “We’ve got another 10psi boost to put in it and the goal is to get an 8.9 with it,” he says. “After running 9.43 at the Ford Forum drags, we’re pretty confident.”

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