This van has been a familiar sight around the local drag racing scene over the last few years and occasionally pops up at a car show or two. It belongs to a fella called Purple.
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Purple’s got a real name, but ever since a kid purple has been his favourite colour and for the last 20 years or so the nickname has stuck. As a youngster he was quite partial to the purple t-shirts of the day, he’s now got a purple tattoo and so it’s no surprise that the van is purple as well.
The panelvan named “The Vantom” is a play on the name of the popular comic hero and “purple crusader” the Phantom. It’s a 1970 XW Ford Falcon that Purple bought 11 years ago when he came across it for sale in Coonamble. It was a complete vehicle, in pretty rough condition and although it wasn’t running at the time, it wasn’t long before Purple had the original 6 cylinder engine firing again.
There was no real plan when Purple first bought the XW. He already had an XT van so he was initially happy to just have another panelvan. It wasn’t until he talked to good mate, Andre Johnson who reminded him that he’d always wanted to set up a car for drag racing, so why not the van.
With that in mind and not much of a bank roll behind him, Purple set about building a budget racer.
It wasn’t all about the speed though; for Purple it was more about the nostalgic look and set up of the van to look like it had been around well and truly since the 70s and to enjoy. As he said “it’s the most fun you can have going slow”.
The van is now running a Ford 250 6 cylinder pre-cross flow engine with a 500 cfm Holley carburettor and extractors and a standard 4 speed manual gearbox. The front disc brakes have been converted to drum brakes to reduce the drag and he’s got a standard differential with what he calls the CIG locker – a welded diff for improved traction off the start line.
He’s using an XE Ford radiator and twin Mitsubishi thermo fans which he found in a rubbish bin and “it doesn’t get hot – not even doing burnouts”. His best time so far is a 9.95 seconds at 110 km/h on the 1/8 mile drag strip at Bodangra Airport at Wellington.
On the outside Purple decided on a Fairlane front for a bit of old school custom look using the grille, front guards and doors from a ZC. He’s not sure what the original colour of the van was but the compliance plate says SPEC which he assumes is “special order” so it could have been anything.
Of course, he followed his namesake colour and painted the van in Ford Wild Violet but reduced down to give it a flat finish. The faded patina and sign writing all add to the nostalgic look. When it comes to wheels he seems to have a different set for every occasion but his favourites are the big deep dish US Indy Racers on the back and he just can’t wait to run them down the drag strip.
Purple has done all the work on the van himself and for those who know him, he lives and breathes for his cars – especially Fords.
He was originally a Holden lover, having grown up with his brother cruising around in the back seat of his dad’s XU1 Torana always egging him on to go faster. As he got older he started hanging out with mates with cars and for some reason they mostly had Fords so that’s the way he headed. Now he’s into anything pre-1974 but mostly still Fords.
Purple is a member of the Central West Car Club which meets regularly on the first Wednesday night of each month at the Parkes Leagues Club.
Coming up soon is their annual Charity Car Show on Saturday, October 15 at Pioneer Oval in Parkes. It features cars and bikes and a there’s always a few other things like stationary engines and trucks or tractors and caravans.
There’ll be market stalls as well and this year they’ll be hosting the Parkes Antique Motor Club’s annual swap meet on the same site.
For more information about the club or the show go to www.centralwestcarclub.com.
See you there.
