John’s 1976 XB Falcon is a rare and interesting car in its own right, never mind the plans that he has in store for it.

An original import to the U.K, 1976 was the last year of the XB range, so this car arrived quite a bit after the original shipment of XBs which came over in late 1973/early 1974. Of even more interest is that it is a six cylinder car with a three speed column shift manual transmission, plus it has the GT/GS grille with extra driving lights and the optional sports wheels, which appear to have been fitted to most XB Falcons that came to the U.K. These wheels do not seem to have been terribly popular in Australia, but were fitted here in an effort to ‘spec’ the cars up. The bonnet too is of interest, as, without the twin vents or scoops as fitted on the GT/GS, the photo above clearly shows the pronounced hump to the bonnet of the XB and the way it falls off towards the grille.

As for the future plans mentioned above, well, John is an equally great fan of the ‘Mad Max’ movies as Adrian, so he has decided to turn this car into a replica of the ‘Big Bopper’ car. You may remember this as being the Falcon that would not die at the start of the first movie, colliding in the opening chase sequence with a traffic pole, a van and eventually launching itself through a caravan.

John has been working away at his car for many months, stripping it down and gathering parts, both to renovate the basic car, and to turn it into the replica. It will certainly be a distinctive looking Falcon when it is finished and to see both it and the Interceptor together will be very interesting and cause much head turning.

John has a website and you can follow the progress of the car here.

Just in case some of you have not had a chance to check John’s website, here is a photo of progress as of 14/07/03.

So, that’s what they look like in Airfix mode. John may very well now be our ‘oh no, my car’s in pieces’ expert and be able to tell us exactly where everything should go.

Some more photos of progress on John’s car - 05/11/03.

Some recent photos - 12/3/04 - of progress on John’s car below.

The latest view of John’s car - as of 22/5/4.

The latest view of John’s car - as of 19/7/4.

Wow! - as of 26/7/04.

14/8/04

17/9/04 - (still) mobile - in Scotland. Congratulations, John.

Just about finished - 1/11/04

Visited John on the 3rd of April, 2005, and he is just awaiting a standard grille and new door cards for the car and he will be ready for summer. Truly stunning, John, and a credit to you. Congratulations.

John’s car and me.

The Mellerstain Classic car show, 5/6/05.

How does it sound ?

madmax2

John’s car looking magnificent.

A problem with a core plug meant that John had to remove the engine recently.

After a clean up.

Painted and ready to go back in.

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