F
OR me and my mates, Geelong All Ford Day 2018
started off just like the previous ones: looking for a pre-
dawn injection of caffeine before completing the trek to
Ford Australia’s spiritual home. Boots had been packed
with carefully chosen car-care products, folding chairs,
sunblock and jumpers. Jumpers in February? Well yeah;
last year the event was almost washed away and people had
icicles hanging from their eyebrows. Conversely, the year before
that everyone got cooked extra-crispy by the sun reflecting off all
the chrome in 38-degree heat. Yeah, thanks Geelong.
The cruise down to AFD is almost as important as the show
itself. People travel in groups, ranging from a single car with two
occupants, to whole car clubs decorating the bitumen with 20
or so lovingly prepared examples of Henry’s finest sheet metal.
Stop at any main-road servo within a hundred clicks of Deakin
University’s Waurn Ponds campus before 9am on All Ford Day
and I can guarantee you’ll find a bunch of like-minded travellers
refuelling themselves and their beloved Blue Oval conveyances.
Unfortunately the trip can be a cruel bastard too, as evidenced
by the three entrants we passed parked on the side of the road
with their bonnets up.
The line of cars queuing to enter All Ford Day stretched all the
way back to the Waurn Ponds exit – 1.5km of Fords! The show is
held on the lawns of the Waurn Ponds Estate, nestled amongst
the bush and dotted with small lakes. A veritable sea of Fords
of all shapes, sizes and colours stretched away from us as we
arrived and headed for our club display. Friends were greeted,
boots were unpacked and cars given a quick touch-up, and then
it was time to start perusing the acres of Blue Oval badges.~ A ~
This slick XB Fairmont hardtop
belongs to Wayne Johnston,
who brought the car down from
NSW. Metalflake paint and 15x8
and 15x10 Minilite-style rims
make it stand out from the array
of other tough Falcon coupes on
display at the AFD~ B ~
Scott Wiggett’s ‘Wiggymobile’
XD has been around for
decades, much longer than
the nine years I’ve religiously
attended AFD! It’s running a
warm 383 Clevo backed by a
TKO and 9in, all wrapped in
that ruler-straight XD Fairmont
body. The old-school Simmons
rims and fat sticky rubber
are an indicator of the car’s
handling prowess~ C ~
Paul Ellis would be up for the
Best Engineering award if the
AFD had one – his FG G6E Turbo
sends power to all four of its
feet! Paul built a jig out of an
FG front cut and spent two
years cobbling together a crazy
combination of BMW xDrive
uprights, Holden Adventrafront diff, a suitably toughened
Adventra transfer case and
Territory driveshafts. The car’s
300rwkW of shove is split 38:62
front and rear, and Toyo Proxes-
wrapped Enkei rims apply it to
the pavement~ D ~
Twelve years of Shaun Besim’s
hard work has resulted in this
super-clean EB. The injected
5.0L was treated to a few
goodies to warm it up and
drenched in black before it
was slotted into the smoothed
engine bay. That retina-
scorching colour is a special
brew that Shaun has dubbed
Ultimate Green~ E ~
Ken Sandem is the justifiably
proud owner of this righteous
1964 two-door Compact
Fairlane. The car sports a set of
tubs, big ’n’ littles pinched from
two of Ken’s other cars, and
holy-grail patina. Motivation
comes from the original 289
Windsor for now, but there’s
a ProCharged Dart-based 427
ready to be slotted in to back
up the ample external attitudeJohn Kerr brought his famous ’64
Mercury Comet down from Sydney on
the back of his M700 Mercury truck.
The latter is a fascinating piece of
gear, powered by a Paxton-blown
361 FT motor – essentially the truck
version of Ford’s FE big-blockFRIENDS WERE GREETED, BOOTS WERE UNPACKED AND CARS
GIVEN A QUICK TOUCH-UP, AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO START
PERUSING THE ACRES OF BLUE-OVAL BADGES
ALALALALAAALALALLLLLLLL DADADDDADAAAYYYYYYY
~ 2
018 ~