Bird Of Prey

TOM JURIC BUILDS THE 800HP PRO STREET FALCON HE DREAMED OF AS A 16-YEAR-OLD

- Boris Viskovic

TOM Juric was mad about cars from a young age. As a teenager, he dreamed about building a wild pro street Falcon, but life as a uni student meant that an EF with AU Tickford alloys would have to do for a while.

“It was a piece of junk, but I loved that thing; I cruised it to death,” Tom says. “I dumped it on its arse and put a big stereo in it – all that stuff you do when you can’t really afford much.”

That was followed by a pretty nice VH Commodore that was an unfinished project; a painted roller that Tom slotted a healthy 308 in and finished off.

Things went quiet on the car front for a little while as Tom focussed on work and his career. Then the itch came back.

In 2013 Tom bought this XY Falcon off eBay; it was – supposedly – ready to paint. “There was more bog and spray filler than there was metal,” he recalls. “The floor was buckled and it was so bad that the guys at the panel shop were looking for another shell. I said: ‘Bugger it, let’s do it.’”

That decision resulted in Tom ordering the entire Rare Spares catalogue of Falcon replacement panels and tasking Tim Bubb and Kane Armstrong at Ol’ School Garage with bringing the car back to life and looking better than ever.

It’s pretty obvious this isn’t just another XY GT replica with a killer engine combo – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but what isn’t automatically apparent is the amount of custom bodywork that was performed on the car. The work is pretty substantial: deleted fuel filler and rain gutters, re-profiled rear wheelarches, deleted rear window moulds and reshaped front window moulds. The bumpers have also been tucked in nice and tight to the body, and there is more custom metalwork in the boot and engine bay.