THE PROMISE
STEVE ROUSSIS’S XY FALCON IS A NINE-SECOND ROLLING CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF A MUCH-LOVED WIFE, MOTHER AND FRIEND
Steve Roussis’s XY Falcon is a nine-second rolling celebration of the life of his much-loved wife
SELLING a 10-second XY Falcon is never an easy thing to do. “You’ll regret it. You’ll regret it. You’ll regret it,” Steve Roussis’s wife Ourania told him. She was right. “I sold it to a local guy, and within months I was saying: ‘Shit, I shouldn’t have sold it!’” Steve admits. But his eldest son, Dean, had a solution. “He said: ‘Dad, my mate’s got one; he never drives it. Do you want to have a look at it?’”
The replacement 1970 XY, Spring Frost in colour, shortly arrived at Casa de Roussis and the family started throwing ideas around.
“It was me, my wife and my three kids – we speak as a family. We discussed things like what colour we would paint the XY. That’s how we got the Raw Orange colour; my wife thought it popped the most,” Steve says. “We had a vision for what we wanted it to turn out like. We started stripping it at home, and pulled the engine out and everything at work.”
One significant part of the vision for this ‘new’ Falcon build was that it had to be even quicker than the old one. “I promised my wife that this car would run nines,” Steve says.
The family had its new project, the Xy-sized hole in the garage now perfectly filled. Life was great again – yet the worst news possible came during the Falcon’s build. Ourania, who’d been battling cancer, was now terminally ill. The XY instantly meant more than any car before it.
“We had to step up,” Steve says. “Everything about the build now revolved around my wife.” The family pulled together, as did Steve’s workmates at the workshop he runs, with favours, support and friendships tapped in the race to finish the car.
Aware of the circumstances, Johnny and the team at Marrickville Prestige Smash pushed the paint and bodywork to the front of the queue. The XY’S body was in excellent shape to begin with, which reduced prep time, before fitment of the reverse-cowl scoop, a Gt-holook front and details including chequered-flag headlamp covers.
Steve also took advantage of the superb starting condition of the interior, blending old and new for classic yet elegant comfort, capability and performance. The interior is essentially Falcon GT, with the seats and iconic XY GT steering wheel matched to a GT dash pod completed with Auto Meter instruments. “Let’s face it: the standard tacho doesn’t work. You rev the engine and it can’t keep up!” Steve laughs. All in all, it’s a smooth blend of classic XY GT looks, with even the modern audio system cleverly concealed.
With time against them, Steve went to Pavtek in Melbourne for a ready-made powerplant solution. That meant a 461ci carby-fed Ford V8 pumping out 701 horses. A fully-manual C4 transmission with a 6500rpm stall converter sends drive to an aluminium tailshaft with Mark Williams ends and a nine-inch centre with a 4.11 final drive for racing, swapped to 3.9 for the road.
The black Weld Alumastars are wrapped in Mickey Thompsons to rip into the quartermile and contrast with the orange paintwork.
I GO TO BUY BREAD IN AN 881HP CAR. IT’S A BABY TO DRIVE ON THE STREET
WE HAD A VISION FOR WHAT WE WANTED IT TO TURN OUT LIKE. I PROMISED MY WIFE THAT THIS CAR WOULD RUN NINES