DARK STAR

THANKS TO 440 CUBES AND 855 HORSES, PETER HARAVITSIDIS’S XY GT TRIBUTE IS AS QUICK AS IT IS MEAN

- CRAIG PARKER

THIS beautiful black XY stopped us in our tracks when we first clapped eyes on it at Meguiar’s MotorEx 2018. The miles-deep Onyx Black duco and righteous stance were complemented by one hell of an engine bay, filled up with 440 cubes of Ford’s finest Windsor, tunnel-rammed and topped by a pair of EFI throttle bodies.

According to the show board, the XY belonged to one Peter Haravitsidis and was apparently destined for duty in the Pacemaker Radial Aspirated class at Drag Challenge. To be honest, the car looked way too tidy to be subjected to such torture, but we were excited as hell at the prospect of Peter showing us what his creation could do at DC 2018.

Of course, old mate Murphy had other plans. On the eve of Drag Challenge, Peter’s XY was not playing ball; a few roller lifters had stopped rolling. Exhausted from getting the car ready, a dejected Peter had pretty much thrown in the towel. But his wife came to the rescue, making an emergency call-out to Peter’s mates: Jim, Dean, JP, Con, Christos, Nick and Angelo. Dubbed the Man Cave Crew, they got stuck in, replacing the lifters and completing a full diagnosis on the valvetrain.

After all that, just finishing the event was going to be a major victory. Talk about exceeding expectations: Despite a complete lack of shakedown runs, testing and track tuning, Peter finished runner-up in class at DC ’18.

“Everybody involved put a lot of effort into getting there,” says Peter. “Being a brand-new build, to come runner-up to Al Vella’s very fast and very well-sorted Capri was a massive achievement.”