When Steve Blaxland first bought this 1983 Falcon it was never intended to end up like this, but as things go his plans for a simple rebuild changed. Steve, who hails from Forbes but now lives in Parkes bought the XE 7 years ago in Wellington.
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“It was a factory 351 V8 needing full restoration and my original plan was for a tough street car,” Steve said.
“It had a damaged rear quarter which was in need of a lot of work, which is when I decided on the idea of a race car.”
I wanted something I could use on the track so rather than an exact replica I've added some modern mechanicals
- Steve Blaxland
Steve is a Dick Johnson Racing fan and had previously owned a green XD when he was 17 in Forbes so the obvious choice for him was to replicate the famous Greens Tuf race car from the 1980's.
“I wanted something I could use on the track so rather than an exact replica I've added some modern mechanicals while keeping the look as close to the original as possible,” Steve said.
He even visited the Bowden's car collection in Queensland to check out the original 1984 race car which was built to replace the Greens Tuf car which was famously written off on Mt Panorama during the 1983 Bathurst qualifying when Dick Johnson clipped the wall and crashed into the trees.
Steve's car has a V8 supercar diff and race suspension from the U.S. and a 450 hp 393 cubic inch V8 with a Jericho Nascar four speed transmission which Steve has built to compete in street sprints, hill climbs and track racing.
He plans to debut the XE this June at Eastern Creek, Sydney in the Muscle Car Masters Hammertime. Steve has built the car himself in his shed at home including rebuilding the engine and mechanicals and the bodywork. His dad, Ian, who is a retired spray painter painted the car in Forbes. Steve initially couldn't find the original style race wheels so he opted for a set of gold Simmons wheels, 18' x 10' at the front and a massive 18' x 13' at the rear.
Steve has recently joined the Central West Car Club which is based in Parkes and meets regularly on the first Wednesday of the month at the Parkes Leagues Club. For more information you can find it on Facebook or at www.centralwestcarclub.com
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