W
ITH its six-point rollcage, Kirkey
seat and 275-wide Mickey Ts,
Jarrod Wood’s XT might look like
a full-on strip car, but as the saying
goes, you shouldn’t judge a book
by its cover.
“It’s actually a tough streeter,” Jarrod says.
“We built it to have fun in; something that
anybody can jump in and drive.”
In 2017, Jarrod and a few mates decided to
join the fun of Street Machine Drag Challenge.“We were there for the beer and biscuits,” he
says. “It was more about having fun. Other than
setting the timing in Adelaide and changing
the tyres, we never put a spanner on it. We
were on the beers by five o’clock every day;
it was great!”
Prior to DC, the Falcon had only raced at
Heathcote, where it didn’t need a rollcage.
However, to be Drag Challenge-approved
it had to pass ANDRA tech inspection, so a’cage was a must. “It’s full bolt-in,” Jarrod says.
“It takes about four hours to bolt it in, or take
out. I’m hoping to get the car engineered with
the ’cage – minus the door bars. That’s why we
moved the top bulkhead bar back, so the sun
visors would still work. The ’cage doesn’t affect
the operation of anything in the car.”
Let’s wind the clock back even further. Around
nine years ago, Jarrod purchased the XT as
a going concern. Not long after, it suffered a
series of issues, starting with a blown engine.Jarrod’s good mate Gary Myers took time out
from his busy tyre-frying and SMOTY-winning
schedule to build Jarrod a tidy street engine.
Unfortunately, the rot didn’t stop there. Soon it
had a busted gearbox, whiny diff and peeling
purple paint – full rebuild time!
The quality of the car belies Jarrod’s modest
financial investment. “I can’t afford to pay for
a car like this,” he says, “so I try to do most of
it myself. Everything else I look to do contra.”The top end of the XT’s 688-horse mill is a
prime example. Jarrod did some work on Eddie
Abelnica’s Touring Car Masters car; payment
was the CHI cylinder heads and intake off
Eddie’s ballistic red XB hardtop.
Body and paint was a similar deal. Jarrod’s
pretty handy in the body department; Gary’s
Mustang has benefited from his handiwork a
number of times. However, when it came to
laying on the new Silver Fox duco, he struck a
deal with Nathan at Auto Panel Repairs, WaggaWagga. After all, as Jarrod says: “Half the fun
with cars is hanging it out in the workshop with
mates. Most Friday nights we all catch up for a
few beers at one place or another.”
One of those haunts is Smith’s Speed Works.
It’s run by Craig Smith, who was responsible
for a ton of work on the car, including the
chrome-moly ’cage, mounting the Kirkey seat,
extractors, 3.5-inch exhaust that runs up and
over the diff, and the new engine.I DESIGNED THE SIDE STRIPE MYSELF. EVERYONE DOES THE SAME
THING; I DECIDED TO MIX IT UP AND FOLLOW THE LOWER BODYLINE