At one point I had an XR6 Turbo engine for this build but something about it never quite had we fully committed to it, I've always been a V8 fan and I really wanted to build one for this so I sold off my Barra turbo setup and sourced this! A 2001 series 3 AU XR8 roller cam Windsor, it came out of a falcon with 120,000 km's on it and it looks to have had a fairly easy life, I really wanted a late model Windsor as the later Tickford engines had the best flowing OEM cylinder heads and are a great starting point for the type of build I was planning on doing.
Unfortunately for this build and pretty much all builds the budget is the biggest limiting factor, so I really wanted to start with a solid base that wasn't going to need to be fully pulled down and rebuilt, my plans were to pull all the accessories off and get rid of the efi setup, once that was done I went shopping for bolt on parts that could help free up a few ponies from the little Windsor, a Ford Performance camshaft was the first part on the list, the cam we chose was there E303 its not the latest and greatest cam on the market but its cheap and its been proven many times over and it fits our application of track use. Up top a set of Scorpion race series roller rockers and a Trick Flow valve spring upgrade kit complete the GT40P heads, everything we use is purely to complement the engine its not a big high comp full built race engine and we aren't pretending it is either, majority of what we have changed is purely for reliability and to help squeeze out a bit more power.
In stock form the Au XR8 was good for around 200kw at the flywheel, we are hoping that with the mods we have done the car might make close to 300rwhp. I could have gone out and built a full forged high comp stroker to start with but I wanted something I could really learn to drive with and not just overpower the race track everywhere after all the rear tyres cost around $550 a piece!
A set of Ford Racing rocker covers complete the engine perfectly, gives it a nice tough look, but at the same time they aren't just an aesthetic piece as we needed the tall clearance to clear the roller rockers.
Topping off the engine is a Pro Flow dual plane intake manifold with a 2-inch spacer and a 785cfm Holley. we chose to ditch the EFI setup as it's too hard to tune with and from what we have seen they can be a tad bit restrictive, maybe down the track we may swap the carby out for a smart EFI setup similar to what NASCAR now runs on there cup series.
Before chucking the engine in the car we added an RTS high volume sump, Melling high volume oil pump and a ford racing water pump that we still might have to change.
Majority of the bodywork on the car is complete, the driver's side quarter panel had a couple of awkward rust spots that we have cut out and replaced and pretty much now all that is left to do is rub back the quarter and get it in primer.
The rest of the car is in primer and 99% ready for paint with just a few small things left to do like drill the whole for the bonnet pins and mount up the rear drag wing we have made for the boot, but we will show all that in the next blog post. Ive gotta say a massive thanks to Trent Bennett for giving helping me slap the engine together!