ART OF WAR
WITH A MENTAL 1600HP MOUNTAIN UP FRONT AND A MIND-BLOWING WRAP JOB, WAR-BIRD IS ONE OF THE MOST INSANE XP FALCONS EVER CONCEIVED
WAR-BIRD’S 1600-PLUS NEDDIES HAVE EVERY TYRE WITHIN A 10-BLOCK RADIUS QUAKING IN ITS TREADS
AT A glance, it may appear that brothers Heath and Marc Waddington from the Rod Shop in Castlemaine, Victoria, are slugging it out to see who can outdo the other. Heath fired the first shot with his gobsmacking bare-metal REAL DEAL Torana (SM, Jun ’17). Marc returned fire with WAR-BIRD – this incredibly striking XP.
But it’s actually not sibling rivalry that was the catalyst behind this outrageous Falcon.
“I bought it to revamp all of the Rod Shop’s XM/XP engine and chassis kits,” Marc says. “It was stripped, fully sandblasted and primered with no running gear – a perfect test bed.”
After dropping it onto the Rod Shop’s chassis table and pulling the right-hand rear quarter back into alignment (it was 7mm too high), the XP soon became home to various Yank V8s, Fomoco sixes, even a few Japanese inline sixes and a Lexus V8. The rear was also outfitted with myriad diff combinations – and of course chassis kits.
Once the Rod Shop kit revamp was done and dusted, Marc started tossing about ideas of what he could do with the bare shell. “I had no concrete plan,” he says, “but I’d never built a tube-frame chassis, so I decide to have a go at one.”
After ripping out the entire floor and getting some pointers from the Rod Shop’s R&D crew, Marc set about cutting, bending and welding a double tubular chassis. Surrounded by talented welders, Marc tacked it all together and left the final TIG work to the pros.
By now, the XP had well and truly morphed into a serious track car, with the chassis and rollcage all incorporated into one massively stiff, massively strong structure. With a dozen 6.5-metre lengths of 2.4mm-wall mild-steel tubing, WAR-BIRD is a tad on the heavy side. However, Marc wasn’t too worried; after all, a bit of extra weight is a good thing for salt racing, which he was now keen to have a crack at with this car.
“I left the factory front rails untouched,” he says. “That way I could use one of our double A-arm street front ends. I could have gone the optional power rack, but the manual rack is plenty light. My young fella is only seven; even he had no problem turning it when we were pushing the roller around the workshop. Also, REAL DEAL uses the same rack and it steers really well.”
The tube chassis called for a custom four-link
set-up out back, which was fashioned using an off-the-shelf universal kit. The smooth-back nineinch with three-inch axle tubes is also an in-house jobbie. It’s filled with an alloy centre, 31-spline axles, full spool and 3.0:1 gears. Holding up each corner are Viking double-adjustable (compression and rebound) coil-overs.
All this chassis and suspension work enables WAR-BIRD to slam down over its American Legend Talon wheels, which the Rod Shop is a dealer for. To tie the wheels in with the exterior theme, Marc took advantage of American Legend’s custom finish options and ordered the 18x8s and 18x12s with a satin bronze centre, with contrasting satin brushed lips.
The chassis and suspension work left the XP’S engine bay void of shock towers and firewall. Marc initially filled this gaping hole with a Chrysler V10 out of a Dodge Ram, in line with his salt-racing aspirations. The V10 was plenty different and attracted a ton of attention, but one ride in Steve Nogas’s KILLA-B burnout car changed everything.
“He’s unreal,” says Marc of Steve’s prowess at the wheel. “He’s half asleep and you’re shitting yourself!”
That ride in Steve’s legendary Camaro changed Marc’s world, as well as the direction of his XP: it was now going to be a nasty-arse skid pig. It just so happened the 565ci blown, injected big-block out of Steve Edsall’s ROGUE VE Commodore was for sale. Australian burnout engine whiz Brett Niddrie (BNR Engines) was then tasked with giving the methanol-slurping big-block a full going-over.
“Brett’s the Don Bradman of horsepower!” Marc laughs. “His engines win all the comps and if there’s ever any issue, no matter what time of day or night, he helps you out.”
Brett gave the big-block a bigger crank, a new fuel system and a monster 14/71 PSI blower. “We went the PSI and the Big & Ugly
[injection] to put more power into it,” Marc says. Too true – WAR-BIRD’S 1600-plus neddies have every tyre within a 10-block radius quaking in its treads.
Park WAR-BIRD next to a stock XP and you’ll note a host of subtle differences. The bonnet has been extended down to meet the grille. The front bar has been smoothed off and now sits flush to the grille’s underside. And despite the fact that the incredibly realistic wrap job makes the body look like it’s beaten to shit,
A RIDE IN STEVE NOGAS’S KILLA-B CAMARO CHANGED THE DIRECTION OF MARC’S XP: IT WAS NOW GOING TO BE A NASTY-ARSE SKID PIG
there’s actually pretty good bodywork hiding under there.
Rather than one big panel, the all-new floor is actually made up of several smaller panels that fill in the voids between the intricate bar-work. In the rear, there’s a massive set of tubs that pretty much come up to the window line.
The 1600hp mill drinks around 160 litres of methanol during a three-minute burnout. That’s why WAR-BIRD’S boot is virtually all fuel tank. As for those seatbelts securing the tank, they were donated by one of the many R&D cars sitting out back. “We had new buckles sewn on them, then bolted them in pretty bloody tight,” Marc says. “They work great.”
Having worked on the car for over three years, it was a massive eight-week push at the very end to get it all done. Good friend Matt Czerny from Vinyl Wraps & Graphics was looking for a suitable canvas for his entry into the Worldwide Wrap Recognition & Appreciation Party (WWWRAP) at SEMA 2017, and the XP was his chosen vehicle (see breakout, p41).
It was all hands on deck to get it done, with Rob Dekert from Unique Body Smash preparing and painting the engine bay, boot and cabin in record time, including colourmatching the rollcage and dash to the matte bronze finish on the American Legend wheels. Marc’s dad Kelvin even chipped in, picking up the spray gun to lay on the exterior paint. The group were rewarded for their efforts with Best Overall Design at the WWWRAP ceremony in Las Vegas.
Despite Marc starting the build with no set plan, WAR-BIRD ended up not only being a world-beater visually, but also one nasty burnout beast to boot.
“It’ll spend six months to a year on the show scene,” Marc says. “Then once we’ve finished skidding REAL DEAL it will be WAR-BIRD’S turn. We’ll skid at every comp, bar Summernats – it’s just too hard at Canberra with us having the big stand and all. I won’t be out there trying to win anything, just having fun.”
With burnout royalty like Steve Nogas, Brett Niddrie, Steve Loader, Tom Beltrame, Peter Grmusa and Clint Ogilvie as friends and customers, Marc’s ‘just for fun’ approach could well be short-lived – time will tell.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what happened to the Chrysler V10, the lads are fitting it into an HT ute, to prove you can engineer a twinturbo V10 in a ute for the street. Having seen REAL DEAL and WAR-BIRD, it’s a sure bet the Waddington boys’ HT will be yet another jaw-dropper – watch this space!
ONCE WE’VE FINISHED SKIDDING REAL DEAL, IT WILL BE WAR-BIRD’S TURN. WE’LL SKID AT EVERY COMP BAR SUMMERNATS