My in the build racecar from day one to finish

OK so I have bitten the bullet and I am now the proud owner of a 2003 Ford Falcon BA Xr8.
Now its not in the best condition the previous owner had high hopes of turning the car into a street racer and well to put it mildly they have nearly fucked this car. The side intrusion bars have been cut out of the doors, the interior is gone, there’s metal cut out everywhere inside the boot has been converted into a fuel tank at some stage and then removed, the body kit and some minor panels are gone and the engine has sat without an intake manifold and is full of water.

But there are some good things. The car has large 1 inch send and return fuel lines to handle efi. It is a factory 5sp v8 and the gearbox is in great condition, there is two diifs and rear cradles as well as spare drive shafts. It was also a police vehicle so it has larger brakes and better suspension and everything under the car is new and all the bushes look good. Its a boss 260 which I have parts for and knowledge with and its too far gone to ever be street legal.

The overall plan is to fit a new rear half chassis with a 9 inch and shortened axles.Fitting a 20L fuel cell and the rest of the fuel system. Take the c4 equipped nitrous mod motor from my current drag car and fit into the new one, converting this engine from carb to fuel injection and then from nitrous to a vortec blower. Wiring and all electrics will be transplanted from the old car to the new one. Take the coilovers from the current car, fit these to a new 10 point rollcage setup, put new fibreglass doors, front fenders, bonnet and boot on the new body. re-paint.

The car arrives tomorrow so I will get pics up then basically I am going from a small tyre car based on a street chassis to a big tyre car with a spec built chassis and from a small fogger nitrous system and twin carburetors to a direct drive Vortec blown mod motor.

Hopefully each week I can update this with progress (no matter how minor it may be)

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yes… if you will. with pics please :slight_smile:

Has the car arrived yet?

yes its here it throw up some pics thanks for reminding







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So the car is in much rougher condition than I at first was advised.
Luckily there is no rust anywhere in the body or chassis.
I did not know about the dents in the rear quarter panel (no biggy but annoying)
I haven’t pulled the heads of the engine but by the look of the water pump housing its not going to be pretty inside either.
Finally sorry for the poor quality I took these from my old phone will update more next week after stripping the car.

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Ok so an update…

I have removed the engine and transmission. All 4 doors have been removed and nwed to be replaced as the previous owner thought cutting out the side intrusion bars would be a good idea. The front guards have been removed and the electronics have been tested then labeled and removed.

I decided to take the heads off and to my disgust discovered that the engine has no pistons/rods or crank in the block the camshafts are also missing and the bores are rusty…not fucking happy as this means this block is ratshit and i have to buy another one or completly resleave this block as i have sold my old engine.
pics tomorrow if u get a chance

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Are you working on this alone?

Yep just me and dad handing me tools on the weekends

i dont make enough monwy to pay people to build my cars… however i cannot tig weld so very shortly the car will be leaving my dafs shed to have a rollcage and new rear chassis and wheel tubs made. I am hoping to make 900-1000hp on the nitrous and running the 8.5-8.75 second range down the quarter mile but thats another year away at least

Wow you are working really fast then, loving the updates :smile: so it’s pretty much a shell right now? I’m guessing you’re planning on upgrading the drivetrain, for sure you already talked about the engine…

2 days per week until its finished or I run out of cash.
Drivetrain is easy I have a ford c6 gearbox and will be using a carbon tailshaft and 9" ford diff with cut down axle shafts and coilover suspension. I have a pair of Berkley carbon kevlar racing seats from the old car and all the electronics and computers are from the old car. I need to fabricate a fire extingisher system, wheely bars, put new glass all round, weld the rear doors shut, cut the rear floor out reshape and then weld back in, set up new front suspension using new mounting points attached to the rollcage and modify the front steering and outer arms to suit the A.P Racing brakes and 2 piston calipers, redo the reat boot so i can fit my fuel cell and the twin surge tanks fit the fuel pumps run the main 1" fuel line, run the seperate 1/3" nitrous fuel lines, mount the bottles run the lines and redo the brake lines and rear tailight wiring.

Then i need to build a 5.4 ford 4valve mod v8 to handle 500hp worth of good old NX N2O. Or i could save my money for another 2-3 years and pay someone else to do it lol

edot. And over here a ford mod motor block is about $6000 so i have to try and find another xr8 or buy a $1000 junkyard block from the states but pay $4000 to get it here

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Well not much has happened with this. The reason is I have been doing alot of researching and calls to America. I will be ordering a new frame with a 14pt rollcage to suit a ladder bar rear end from swracecars.
Alao whilst talking to the people from Jon Kaase the cost of building a new 5.8l mod ford v8 is going to cost twice as much as a turn key big displacement custom crate…so I have decided on three possible engines

http://www.jonkaaseracingengines.com/html/600_ford.html

http://www.jonkaaseracingengines.com/html/jon_kaase_custom_built_boss_nine_engines.html

http://precisionraceengines.com/featured-products/ford-557-stroker-turn-key-race-crate-engine-900-hp

so i have a big decision ahead of me 600ci or 557ci and the car will be coming to France with me to live next year so this will be hitting euro drag strips hopefully by the end of next year.

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