BEAST MODE

SIMON ANDRUS PUT TOGETHER HIS DREAM XB FALCON PRO STREETER AND UNLEASHED A 620HP BEAST

- CRAIG PARKER

MAKING THE TOP 60 AT SUMMERNATS WAS A DREAM COME TRUE, AND NOW THAT I'M GETTING FEATURED IN THE MAG, I'VE ACHIEVED EVERYTHING I WANTED TO

GROWING up, all Simon Andrus wanted to do was build a tough, clean streeter that could get unveiled at Summernats, make the Top 60 and get featured in Street Machine. Well, it may have taken a little while, but Simon can now cross that hat trick off his bucket list thanks to this incredible XB Falcon sedan.

“I’m stoked,” says Simon. “Getting unveiled at Summernats and making the Top 60 was a dream come true. At Showcars Melbourne, I won the Rare Spares Choice award, plus Best XA-XC at the Geelong All Ford Day. And now that I’m getting featured in the mag, I’ve achieved everything I wanted to!”

The Blue Oval seed was planted from the start, as Simon comes from a Ford family. “My grandfather and father both worked at Ford’s Geelong plant,” he begins. “My older brother Jason built an XY, while my cousin Austin built an FC LTD. Both were tough old-school Fords. I learned a lot watching their builds, like to ‘do it once, do it right’.”

But of all the Fords, the XB was Simon’s favourite. When this one popped up on the Rusty Wrecks Facebook group in 2015, he knew it was the perfect candidate for his own build. It was an Antique Beige six-cylinder with Saddle interior, and Simon practically stole it from the owner, paying a measly $4000 for it! “It really was a good buy – 100 per cent original, so clean, very little rust and mint interior,” he says.

SIMON ANDRUS 1976 FORD XB SEDAN Paint: Glasurit Apollo Blue