The 600hp Blown 1986 Ford Xf Falcon Is Psycho

If you want to get a reaction from the crowd, tear your car apart and start over. This article on Leisa and Shane’s 1986 Ford XF Falcon PSYCHO was initially published in the November 2011 issue of Street Machine

RECOGNISE this car? Youre doing well if you can because since it made the Elite Hall at Summernats 13, its undergone more surgery than Robocop.

Back then, the machine that Tasmanian Ford fan, Leisa Chinnock bought from her employer after years of faithful service was a gunmetal grey company car. It was painted pink and worked over enough to make the Top 20 and scoop Top Sedan (SM, May 00).

Not bad, but Leisa and her husband Shane wanted the Wow! factor.

The XF as it appeared in SM, back in May 2000. Just a mild make-over then

We werent happy with the way the car went at earlier shows. We wanted a chop top, suicide doors and a flat floor, Shane says. We wanted it to have more impact.

They turned to Greg Maskell at Maskells Customs & Classics whod impressed them with the work hed done on Trent Brennans Capri (SM, July 2002). Furthermore, he wowed thousands more with his contributions to Gary Myerss Silver Bullet (Sept 04).

Rims were carried over but widened 5in. The rear bodywork was almost entirely reworked, with new steel bumpers, a beaver panel and a smoothed boot with an integral spoiler. Retaining the XF tail-light grilles was essential for the cars character but stock lenses are illuminated by LEDs in plastic mounts

“We were in the same motel at Summernats 2000, got talking and weve been mates ever since, Greg says. A couple of years later, Shane saw the Passion Purple paint on Trents Capri and told me: Youre going to paint our car that colour.

However, like the good guys always are, Greg was booked out for a year so they decided to get a local Taswegian to perform the initial fabrication. Greg acted as project manager and took over the job of finishing the car when his schedule freed up. And just seven years later, here we are!The first guy chopped it up and it sat there for four years, Greg says. Then Anthony Wilkins took over and got stuck into it. He chopped the top, did the two-door conversion, built the chassis and the suicide doors.

With the body packing a swinging boot, bonnet and doors, it was shipped to Gregs workshop in Shepparton, Victoria. But with Shane and Leisa based in Tasmania, there was still a lot of interstate collaboration. Hobart boy Dave Webb did a lot of billet fabrication work and fellow Hobartian Chris Tanner knocked up the gorgeous exhaust. Surely on a build of this scale, that would have made things tough?

It was a bit awkward at first, Greg says, but we got into a rhythm. I either made a drawing or posted a template, for all the billet pieces Dave made, such as the boot and bonnet hinges, the fuel cap and the speaker grilles. It worked pretty well. Distance doesnt matter when you have good people on the other end of the phone.

The reverse-opening bonnet and boot are operated with linear actuators controlled by the cars elaborate computer system. Press a button on the key fob and voila!

The real trick with this car was the bodywork. When you modify one thing, you have to modify everything, Greg says. When you modify the roof, you have to modify the pillars. Then you have to modify the quarters and the cowl and the bonnet. Then the character lines on the side look wrong with the roof chop and you have to alter them. So it looks like an XF but nothing on that car is standard XF.

Lots to see here V8 Supercar-style front tubs, billet wipers sitting in neat recesses, forward-tilt bonnet with billet hinges, and custom caps on the tubs for the radiator fluid and brake fluid, all fabbed by Dave Webb

The grille is narrower and longer, the bumpers are steel, and the tail panel is one piece instead of two. Everything is new, like where the exhaust pipe comes out and the floor pan where the exhaust is. Also new is the bumper bar, headlight extensions, cowl modifications, mirrors, custom glass, and electric actuators for the bonnet, boot and doors.

Equal-length extractors by Chris Tanner are things of beauty. The silver tube that clips to the head is a cover for the plug leads, which go through the firewall to the coil packs that are hidden under the dash

While they were at it, they made the car as smart as it is sexy. Greg got hold of Shepparton computer whiz Gary Lomer, who usually designs software to control industrial machinery, to create a touchscreen system akin to an iPhone. This was so that they could eliminate manual buttons on the dash. What he came up with is revolutionary.

Check out the custom front cross member and details under the car, such as the neat alternator bracket

It opens and closes the doors, boot and bonnet, controls the airbags, starts and stops the engine. Furthermore, it can control the thermo-fan and water pump, lights and windscreen wipers, Gary explains. Its wireless so you can log on to websites and theres potential to do engine diagnostics. You can operate a lot of it from a key fob but we wanted to keep it fairly simple to start with.

The flat floor flows seamlessly into a new beaver panel that features a neat recess for the exhaust. Single-exit exhaust looks simple but with the rear pan angling up at 45deg, it took three full days to fabricate

This is groundbreaking street machine technology. And Gary says he can do much more with iPhone connectivity and engine tuning. Thatll come in handy controlling the supercharged tower of power that fulfils another of Leisa and Shanes requirements.

Wheres the universal joint? Hidden unis were built by Adam Tremlon to Gregs design. The wishbone-shaped sway bar will be changed to a stronger design before the car does too many miles

We wanted a supercharged car and thought wed go a bit different with the 8/71 rather than the 6/71 that everyone else goes for, Leisa says.

They collected all the parts and then contacted Dennis Cooper in Hobart to put it all together. Hes a real Ford man who builds engines for the touring cars in England.

We had it on the dyno a few weeks ago and we took it to 5000rpm, where it was making 605hp with 7psi thats the street tune, Shane says. Thats all we need. We wanted to make it nice on the street. Were not racing it or chasing horsepower. Maybe one day well put it down the track but it wasnt built for that purpose.

The purpose was to wow people at shows and helping to achieve this, is the incredible interior, stitched by young Michael Carter, a part of Gregs team.

Hes got a mind thats continually coming up with different things and we were very pleased with what he did, Leisa says. He even came to Hobart to talk through what we wanted. Being so young, he wasnt what we were expecting. But he had a look at the car and brought samples of what he thought would look good and we were guided by what he recommended. We just said that with the roof chopped we wanted the seats low so it wasnt too over dimensional we wanted a kickass interior.

A look over the custom seats covered in luxurious German leather is enough to tell you thats another box ticked.

Leather-trimmed seats look like something that might be fitted to the first-class section of the next space shuttle, flowing out of the floorboards and featuring integrated aviation belts

With MotorEx fast approaching it was time to consider paint and Shane started to second-guess the Passion Pearl, making Greg anxious. Three weeks to go and we hadnt worked out the colour. So I rang him up and said we had to do it. His first thought had been Passion Pearl and so we ended up going with that. I tweaked it a bit and had to make up a name for it. I figured he had finally Made A Decision MAD so we called it Mad Passion. It really suits the car.

The unveiling at MotorEx justified the seven-year build and it earned a Gold Champion award for that stunning interior, with Bronze for bodywork.

The Lomatic touchscreen controls the entire car virtually the only manual switches are for the horn and indicators

The reaction at MotorEx was great, Leisa says. We said we wanted the wow factor and thats what we got. My mum wanted to punch someone for saying it was just an XF but others said it was the way they should have been made.

LEISA & SHANE CHINNOCK FORD 1986 XF FALCON

Colour: HOK Mad Passion

GRUNTEngine: Cleveland 351Induction: Enderle hat, EFIBlower: BDS 8/71Heads: AFD aluminiumPistons: VenoliaCam: Crower solidECU: EMSIgnition: Crank trigger converted to the flywheelExhaust: Equal-length extractors, twin 3in system

COGSGearbox: C4Diff: Full floating nine-inch, Detroit lockerConverter: Dominator 3500

SUSPENDERSFront: Tubular stainless steel double wishboneRear: Four-linkSprings: Air Ride Shockwaves Steering: Flaming RiverBrakes: Wilwood four-spots, 330mm rotors (f&r)

ROLLERSRims: Billet Specialties Psycho, 17×8 (f) 17×13 (r)Rubber: Pirelli P Zero (f&r)