What if there was no supercar scare(Evan Green was hit buy a bus the nite before he wrote THAT peice)?

What if CAMS stuck with the current prod car racing regs?

What if FORD was BALLS and all into racing and had an ever increasing race budget over previous "PHASES" because business was booming?

What if the Phase IV XA sedan was a big success and Holden had ramped up it's budget in order to win back BATHURST?

In other words the SUPERCAR race was in full overdrive!

As I sit in my garage with a beer looking at my completely dismantled XA Hardtop(I've been doing this every now and then over the past 5 years,dose'nt time fly)trying to work out which direction to take,the above WHAT IF has crept into my head lately until now there's barely an hour passes that it dose'nt cross my mind.

I know what I don't want to build.......
Another GT clone.
A mad max clone.
A big dollar bling mobil.
Or a big HP drag car that I'll have touble registering.

But I do know that it has to be BLACK on BLACK(MAD MAX had a big influence on me).
I'm a big fan of 70s touring car racing,so I like to build my cars with that sort of flavour.

Sooo.... I know it's alot of WHAT IF's but hey this is my fantasy OK!

Here's some of my ideas so far,

Everything has to have a factory type look about it,which is good because I can modify factory parts myself.After all alot of Phase IV components looked almost homemade(ie,the story of the phase IV sump).

I plan to cut and shut 2 power by ford rocker covers with 2 other factory rocker covers to make them taller to so I can run roller rockers.

I'm thinking of running QUAD WEBERs(it's only 1 more than a E49 so it's in the realm's of possibility's).

Other stuff will be 31spline axles,detroit locker,rear disc brakes etc.

Gearbox will have to be toploader 31spline like phase 3s &4s ran I suppose which is going to be a bit pricey.

Engine wise,it's abit harder,maybe electronic ignition,4 bolt mains,CAM SPEC's anybody?.....I,m thinking about 450hp should be about right,4V heads but there maybe other options.

Body wise I would like to run somekind of shaker,maybe a Torino style or a modifyed Boss 302 or even the front or reverse style shaker that came out on some american mopars.
Light-weight bumpers,a modifyed rear GT spoiler(that actually works)perhaps with Gurney flaps.Also a decent front air-dam,maybe again Boss 302 mustang style.

The other thing I need to mention before people start to panic,I WON'T be putting huge PHASE V stickers up the side.I'll be keeping that look very under stated as on previous phases.

So that's what I've got so far........like I said this all has to have a factory look to it as if it was a factory special!I'm a big fan of Holman&Moody,GT40s,Shelby specials etc and the way they went about tuning normal cars into race cars.

But I need more ideas as to what they may or may not have done.

Anybody who would like to contribute their 2cents worth is more than welcome(thats why it's on a forum)....
or if you think I'm out of my mind,thats OK too!



Let the ABUSE begin!!!

Thanks Jim,I tried to do some research on the web but there is bugger all out there,thought somebody might have dreamed this up already!
I've seen a few goes at this but it is important to me that it looks like something Ford may have come up with.
The Castrol Coupe has always been a favourite of mine and I learnt a fair bit from the articles in Street Machine(I have every issue)setting up the suspension by Kevin Bartlett(living legend)as he raced an XA and won Bathurst in one with Gossy.
As I said the colour scheme has to be Matte black on Gloss black and something similar to the GT.
I seem to remember seeing an article years ago in a mag,an interview with the guy(can't remember his name)who designed the hardtop.In the article was also some rough sketches he drew back in day of what Phase V graphics he wanted on the car.They were slightly different to the XAGT Hardtop.I know I have that magazine but I'm buggered if I can find it(I've been buying magazines since 1981 and have'nt throughen many out).

If anybody remembers this magazine article and what issue it was in I'd be really stoked.

I also thought about the spacers for the rocker covers but I think the extra work involved will be worth it and it won't be obvious unless you know what your looking at.

Having quad webers has always been a bit of a dream of mine and I know there are better setups out there but they seemed to be the gun setup back in the day and alot of winning race cars used that setup,also the induction sound is pretty bloody horn.

THANKS.

Xd phase 5 on YouTube

Cas,THANKS for the imput.

I already have an XY shaker top that I've had lying around for years.The reason I'm not going to use it is I don't think it really suits the XA Hardtop shape and I think Ford would've updated the shaker design along with the rest of the car.

As for Ford building a supercharged Mad Max clone I agree with you 100%,that was never my intention(you may have miss read what I wrote)The fact that the Mad Max film came out well after all hardtops had stopped being made by Ford also makes this impossible.

The only influence I am taking from Mad Max is the colour!

Like I said it has to be black on black,after all there have been a couple of RPO 83s built in this colour combination.

As for the bang for buck you get out of big Jap bikes,again I'm with you all the way(I've had a couple of Katana's in my garage since the 80s)Theres nothing like winding the thottle open on a 1000cc plus jap bike!!!

I just recently bought a KTM 620 thumper which would have paid for a nice set of Webers!......could'nt help myself....