JAMES MACKIE XY FALCON
JAMES Mackie is well known for his sacrilegious re-powering of an XY with an LS1, using the combo to skate drift tracks with smoky aplomb. XYYNOT has had a few different guises over the years, including the iconic black-over-orange GT clothes it wore when we featured it in the mag (SM, Oct ’16), but it owes its current spray-canned paintjob to James’s desire to shake things up.
XYYNOT isn’t just a drift car though; James built it to compete in just about any motorsport event that would let him in the gate. Sure, it’s far better set up for drifting than your average XY Falcon, but you won’t find a fancy quick-change IRS or trick suspension under this little monster.
The LS1 is a much milder recipe than you might expect of a competition car, with nothing but rods, pistons and a VCM cam to beef up the bottom end, all screwed together by Rodbilt Engines. It’s forcefed air by a Harrop TVS2300 blower and spits out 380kw at the rubber.
Behind the LS, a Mantic twin-plate clutch transfers drive to the T56 ’box, and under the bum is a shortened Borgwarner diff with a spool, 3.9:1 gears and 31-spline axles.
The suspension is mostly stock XY, with a set of adjustable Shockworks dampers controlling every corner, and fat custom sway-bars. The front springs are 800lb/in items out of a mate’s XF race car, with XF knuckles that have been modified for more steering lock. Reset standard leaves hold up the back end.
It’s pure track car inside the cabin, with race buckets, an extensive ’cage, stuff-all sound deadening and a hydraulic handbrake for more control when the XY isn’t pointing straight.
At OSUSC, James was streets ahead of the rest of the Vintage pack in the auto test, and even nipped at the heels of the Harrop development Porsche – how’s that for an old Falcon? The man doesn’t go easy on the XY, and he took every chance he had to go sideways. Sadly, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory when the grippy tyres and heavy rims (and probably the years of lead-footed abuse) tore an axle in half before the end of the first day. Fear not, though, XYYNOT will be back on track before you know it.