DARK & STORMY

DRENCHED IN ACRES OF BLACK AND PUNCHING OUT NORTH OF 800HP, ROB HERRINGTON'S ALL-MOTOR XY IS A STREETER TO FEAR

- JACK HOULIHAN

IT'S NOT too often you see a stripped-out XY sitting in a driveway these days, so when you do, chances are the owner is worth having a yarn with. Rob Herrington did exactly that, his chance encounter on the street sparking both a new friendship and a massive ratcheting-up of his Falcon project into a deep-black, 820hp powerhouse.

"I bought the car just over five years ago from up the back of Lake Eildon," Rob begins. "The original guy had put it in a shed in Echuca after completely stripping it to bare metal and undercoating it. The door couldn't be closed, so over two or three years, the weather got in and rusted the front guards, engine bay and front half of the roof - it pretty much destroyed the car." At this point, the brief for the XY was fairly humble. "It was originally just going to be a stock 351 with a Top Loader in it," Rob explains.

"I was doing the car in the driveway, and Jason Hoctor drove past with his boys and started talking to me about the car. We became mates after that, three or four years ago."

Jason's known for turning out some pretty high-end metal, including his own eight second WINDSOR Cortina, so he guided Rob through the long panel-prep journey after gapping up the panels himself. "He'd come 'round, have a few beers, fix a couple of things here and there, point out some issues, tell me how to fix them, then leave it with me until the next beer!" Rob laughs. "I'd done a couple of cars before but never to this level, so I learned a lot from Jase; I spent a good 12 months blocking it to get it good enough to paint."