WE SPOTTED Dean Valentine’s XC Falcon sedan at the recent West Australian Hot Rod and Street Machine Spectacular, and with a tough 393ci Clevo, 18-inch wheels and a custom trimmed leather interior, it’s a neat bit of gear. But while none of that stuff is exactly what you’d call ground-breaking, Dean has gone high-tech in other areas, and he believes that his Falcon is the first car in Australia to be fitted with a biometric central locking system.

Dean has had a tiny RFID transponder inserted under the skin on his left hand, so that when he puts it up next to his door lock – or where the door lock used to be – a sensor reads the signal from the chip and operates the central locking. Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s already quite commonly used in building security.

The good news is that pretty much anyone can insert the transponder, although Dean opted for someone with a fair bit of medical experience: “I’ve got a mate who operates on brains, so I got him to do it,” he said. “The chip comes in a small glass capsule about the size of a grain of rice that is pre-loaded into an injection syringe. It’s no different to stabbing yourself with a screwdriver when you’re working on your car, so I just kept it clean and had a Band-Aid on it for a week and haven’t had any problems.”

If you want to find out more, head to dangerousthings.com ­and look for RFID and Transponder Implants.