![]() The car we tested, based on a Falcon XR8, had its dampers set to position four of 12, which is towards the softer, more compliant end of the spectrum. ![]() No Falcon I’ve ever driven has turned in so sharply and been so responsive, or carried so much corner speed all thanks to that better rubber. Without question these changes elevate the Holy Grail well beyond anything FPV or Ford ever offered direct from the factory. Finally that installed 12-way adjustable coil-over dampers from Shockworks. In order to fit that wider rear tyre Premcar had to develop a new trailing blade for the rear suspension. They measure 8.5-inches wide at the front and a massive 10-inches wide at the rear. So there’s new 19-inch forged alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres – arguably the best performance car rubber. Premcar didn’t just add more power, they also introduced a range of upgrades to the chassis – because ‘HO’ stood for Handling Option, after all. How does it handle? Premcar SVT ‘Holy Grail’ based on a Ford Falcon XR8. The Holy Grail has so much power it feels like it will run on forever if you let it – it’s a fantastic engine that lives up the GT-HO legend.Īnd the noise! The new exhaust sounds so great when you unleash that performance, there’s a beautiful V8 growl coupled with the whine of the supercharger under the bonnet. Squeezing the throttle even halfway unleashes so much grunt it feels as quick as any FPV, and if you bury your right foot the speed continues to build and keeps building until you run out of road. The power and torque are so linear across the rev range so it never feels lumpy or stressed, it simply builds speed at an alarming rate. The result of these changes is the best engine I’ve ever experienced in a Falcon. There’s also a new exhaust upgrade, a 3.0-inch stainless steel bi-modal system that allows the engine to breathe more freely and sound suitably loud and aggressive. To achieve that Premcar added a new cast aluminium intake manifold, triple pass intercooler, isolated air-to-water heat exchanger and recalibrated the ECU to raise the rev limit to 7000rpm. That’s more power than the HSV GTS-R W1, which makes the Holy Grail the most powerful Aussie muscle car ever made. There’s a huge array of upgrades that take the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 from 351kW and 570Nm to an awesome 483kW of power and 753Nm of torque. Using the Miami as a starting point the Premcar team turned everything up to 11. Of course the Falcon continue to carry the flag for Ford in local motor racing for decades, and the FG model (on which the Holy Grail is built) kept on racing in Supercars even after it finished production. Allan Moffat used the GT-HO Phase II to win the 1970 Hardie-Ferodo 500 and won again in ‘71 with the Phase III.Ī small number of GT-HO Phase IV Falcons were built but before they could race the infamous ‘Supercar Scare’ newspaper article meant Ford Australia pulled the pin and the nameplate was never used again. The original GT-HO was built as a homologation special for local touring car racing and instantly became a legend. The Falcon GT-HO is a motor racing icon in the truest sense of the word. Then Premcar’s team spends five days turning it from an old car, into an instant classic.ĭoes it have any racing pedigree? Premcar SVT ‘Holy Grail’ based on a Ford Falcon XR8. In order to acquire the Holy Grail you need a Falcon donor vehicle, any XR8, XR8 Sprint or FPV GT with a Miami V8 is suitable. In short, Premcar believes this is the fastest, best-handling Falcon ever made – which is why it calls it the ‘Holy Grail’. So Premcar developed the ultimate upgrade package for the Falcon’s engine, exhaust and handling to elevate it to a level that makes it a spiritual successor to the GT-HO. It was responsible for developing the local hot-rod Falcons, in particular the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 known as the ‘Miami’. Premcar, for those unfamiliar, is the Melbourne-based engineering business that was the brains behind FPV. Which is why Premcar decided to do something about it. Instead the final FPV Falcon was the GT-F 351, which boasted an impressive (at least at the time) 351kW and 570Nm but wasn’t really the spectacular finale in the same way the HSV GTS-R W1 proved to be. The last one rolled off the Broadmeadows production line in 2016, so what’s the big deal here? Well, because of the blue oval’s financial pressures at the time, it didn’t give the Falcon, specifically the Ford Performance Vehicle (FPV) variants, a proper send-off. Yes, I know what you’re thinking – the Falcon is dead. ![]() The closest you’ll ever get to a Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase V.
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