ALTERED BEAST
TOMI VATAVUK’S XB IS AN EXERCISE IN DETAILED DESIGN AND HOMEBREWED ENGINEERING, WITH 433 CUBES FOR MOTIVATION!
Retaining some GT flavour with a contemporary twist, this XB is packed with innovative thinking
PRACTICALLY everyone on the planet agrees that XA-XC coupes are right up there with the best-looking body shapes ever smashed out of sheet steel. However, there’s a lot less love for the humble more-door version out in the modified car world. Tomi Vatavuk’s stonking sedan bucks that trend, and demands much more than a cursory glance. Tomi’s family played a significant role in developing his passion for 70s Falcons from a young age: “My brothers are eight and nine years older than me, so I grew up being that annoying kid following them around,” he says. “They always had tough cars. There’s a video of one of my brother’s mates in an XC doing doughnuts in a car park, and I was in the back seat! I must have been about 11 years old.”
It was about the same time that Frank Piccolo’s blown orange XB GT (SM, Jul-aug ’92) took out the coveted Street Machine Of The Year award, fuelling Tomi’s desire for an XB of his own. In 2001, after years of dreaming and saving, in the end a few hundred bucks and a case of beer landed him this very sedan. “It was a Skyview Blue Falcon 500 with three-on-the-tree,” says Tomi. “The weekend I bought it, me and my mate drove it up to Sydney to go to a Pantera concert!” A ‘vulgar display of power’, if you will!
Tomi drove the XB as it was for the next few years, before he decided it was time to build the car he’d always wanted it to be. “I mounted it to a rotisserie and stripped it – sometimes I’d work on it all night and I wouldn’t sleep at all!” he says. Tomi’s good mate Johnny Musladin (whose own much-modified EH was featured in SM, Jun ’96) stepped up to handle the serious metalwork. Everything between the rear seats and the rear of the boot was cut out and replaced with mini-tubs, drastically
raised frame rails and a custom-rolled boot floor.
Underneath, the stock diff and leaf springs were turfed in favour of a fabricated nine-inch and triangulated fourlink with Ridetech coil-overs for handling the bumps. The front of the XB didn’t miss out on the upgrades either, with more Ridetech coil-overs controlling Ridetech upper and lower arms. The vague steering box and linkage were replaced with a Retrorack billet rack-and-pinion set-up, and a set of Stubtech drop spindles allow the sick ride height while retaining suspension travel and geometry.
Just like everything else underneath the XB, the big stoppers were far from a bolt-on proposition – Tomi and Ross ended up milling their own rotor hats and caliper brackets to mount the DBA discs and FPV Brembos. The brakes are actuated by a standard Ford master cylinder and booster, with vacuum provided by an electric pump hidden in the boot. “I wanted to pay homage to the Falcon GTS of the 70s, but go way beyond them in terms of performance, handling, comfort and finish,” says Tomi.
Speaking of comfort, have a Captain Cook at that interior! The trim patterns and shapes were inspired by those of the Ferrari 458 Italia and Lamborghini Huracan. The dash is the standard unit, albeit trimmed in Alcantara and filled with Speedhut gauges, and a great deal of effort went into making a heating system that works well and is hidden from view – Tomi even 3D-printed his own heater vents, plenums and tubes. Cardboard, MDF and modelling foam were used to create models of the door trims and other custom interior parts, from which moulds were made for the carbonfibre end products.
Outside the cockpit, that sensational combination of Maserati and Mazda silvers puts a cheeky twist on the classic Falcon GT blackouts. “I think they need the GT stripes to break up the colour, but I thought black would
be too much of a contrast,” says Tomi. There isn’t enough room in this mag to list all of the work put into the body, but keen eyes will quickly spot mods like the carefully tucked bumpers, the missing door locks and the custom rear undertray that takes design cues from the GT bonnet.
Of course, what would be the point of all that top-notch gear keeping the chassis rails off the road if there was nothing under the bonnet but a worn old 302 Clevo for propulsion? After several engine builders left Tomi feeling less than well assured, he met Bill Kaglatzis at BK Race Engines and instantly knew he’d found the right man for the job. Bill stuffed a 9.2in-deck Dart block with some tasty spinning bits from Scat and Comp Cams and added a beaut sump from Jeff Johnston’s Billet Fabrication to control the slippery stuff. Up top, the Clevor wears Trick Flow Powerport heads, a milled-down TFC single-plane and a Quick Fuel 950cfm carb, while ICE ignition gear sparks off nearly 700hp. Fred from Protrans screwed together a tough C4 to transfer power from the engine, while Mick at M&A Engineering sorted out the Strange nine-inch.
With Tomi’s goal of 70s style with modern underpinnings amply covered, he’s keen to hit the road in the XB any chance he gets. “The car has turned out exactly as I envisioned it when I was 19,” he says with pride. You can’t ask for more than that!
I WANTED TO PAY HOMAGE TO THE FALCON GTS OF THE 70S, BUT GO WAY BEYOND THEM IN PERFORMANCE, HANDLING, COMFORT AND FINISH