There’s no doubt the greatest Ford Falcon of them all was the XY GT-HO Phase III, the homologation special developed for the Bathurst 500 back in the early 1970s.
Despite several attempts, a successor never made it into production.
Four XA Phase IVs were built in 1972 before the ‘supercar scare’ prompted Ford to scrap it.
Then, in the early years of this decade Ford Performance Vehicles got serious about a Phase V, using the locally-developed Miami supercharged V8 as the donor powerplant.
But that project – already struggling to add up as a business case — was abandoned by the time Ford pulled the plug on Falcon production and it wasn’t that long before FPV itself had become a thing of the past.
But a group of former FPV engineers never forgot the GT-HO dream and never gave up on it. Still together today at Premcar, the independent engineering consultancy that FPV evolved into, they beavered away in the background…
Until now and the release of the Holy Grail package.
Including the engine, chassis — which Premcar cheekily dubs Handling Options (as the HO in GT-HO originally stood for) — and ADR-compliant exhaust upgrades, the Holy Grail package (HOly Grail, geddit?) costs a substantial $45,000 on top of your existing Miami-engined FPV or Falcon XR8.
But expense does buy exclusivity as just 100 packages are being made available.
There’s no tarting up by the way, only a couple of exterior badges, a numbered badge inside and a stylised power graph in the engine bay. This kit is all killer and no filler.
The engine modifications costs $24,885, the chassis upgrades $14,790 and the bi-modal performance exhaust $4500. They can be ordered separately, but most people are taking the lot. Based on our experience, that’s definitely the go.
Premcar offers a 12-month/20,000km warranty on all its work and it will honour the remainder of the Ford warranty on your vehicle.
Holy Grail is for you if you love the Blue Oval, have a picture of a Phase III mounted on your wall … and a Miami Falcon in your garage.
For all the goodness of the final FPV GT-F and the farewell Ford Falcon XR8 Sprint, the longest-lived nameplate in Australian automotive history still left a bit on the table when it departed.
The Holy Grail fixes that. With 483kW, 753Nm, sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber and Shockworks coil-over dampers, this car is the complete performance package. It drives like no other Falcon before it.
Like the awesome 474kW/815Nm HSV W1, it is an appropriate epitaph for a glorious era.
The Holy Grail package can be ordered now, but installations don’t begin at Premcar’s Campbellfield HQ (where FPV used to be based) until March.
You can drive your car to Campbellfeld to get the week-long conversion process done, but Premcar can also help organise shipping at an additional cost.
Premcar is urging customers to come and collect the car themselves when the work is done so they can meet the team, take the happy snaps and, of course, drive the car away.
This is Premcar’s first significant pitch to the public after years of working behind the scenes for automotive brands, especially Ford. But it now promises there are more projects like this underway from its Special Vehicles Team (SVT).
The aforementioned Ford fanatics obviously, but anyone who enjoys driving a really well-sorted rear-wheel drive muscle-car will enjoy its talents.
And so will anyone who appreciates a quality engineering job.
So let’s spend a little time on the latter bit. Based on the Coyote naturally-aspirated V8, the Miami engine was developed by the guys at Premcar with Ford back in the days when they were still FPV (which was a 51/49 per cent Prodrive/Ford joint-venture).
The engine was set-up intentionally to have the ‘headroom’ to reach the Holy Grail’s stratospheric power and torque outputs. Key additions are a (triple-pass air-to-water) intercooler, a new-design cast aluminium intake manifold, revised ECU calibration, significant cam timing changes and a new steering pump.
The ultimate power figure and torque numbers don’t come on overboost as per GT-F and Sprint; they’re on-tap all the time, except in first gear which is sensibly torque limited. The rev limit rises to 7000rpm, nearly 1000rpm more than the standard Miami engine.
From the twin-plate clutch back there are no drivetrain reinforcements. It’s this headroom thing. Premcar says any Miami-engined car already has the drivetrain durability built-in to cope with Holy Grail.
Meanwhile, the focus of chassis development was to get more of the best rubber available under the guards and contacting the road.
That tyre is the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 – so tick that box – and the rear measures up at 295/30R19. Remember that FPVs were running around on 245-section Dunlops not that long ago.
A bent trailing arm ensures the rear tyre fits, while manually-adjustable locally-developed monotube Shockworks coil-over dampers all-round are the other key upgrade.
Shockworks is owned by Brett O’Brien, a former FPV employee who knows these cars inside out.
The GT focus of the old FPV models was taken seriously enough that some handling edge and body control was sacrificed to provide a more comfortable ride.
O’Brien and Premcar chassis tuning chief Andrew Lynch haven’t had to make those sorts of compromises with Holy Grail. For instance, spring rates rise from 70Nm to 100Nm at the front and 50Nm to 90Nm at the rear compared to an XR8 Sprint.
Just about anywhere it wants to!
The Holy Grail rumbles into action malevolently and explodes like a battleship cannon shell when the throttle is pressed to the firewall. It’s all accompanied by a supercharger whine that Premacar’s left loud and proud. Ford, by contrast, used to like it turned down.
This engine is so memorable, so invigorating and so relentless. It simply marches onward at an ever-higher speed.
The test car – Premcar chef engineer Bernie Quinn’s own XR8 Sprint – still trilled its rev limit warning as the tacho swing through 6000rpm, but convincingly charged on to 7000rpm. It is genuinely capable of sub-5.0sec 0-100km/h times.
But use small amounts of throttle and look for modest response and you get classic supercharger lagless progression. In those circumstances this thing feels as gentle as a kitten.
Only the heavy manual shift would you discourage you from taking it to the shops. Go for the auto if that’s your thing.
While the engine’s impressive, it’s the Holy Grail’s chassis that truly surprises.
“I didn’t know the Falcon had this in it,” was how one media colleague put it after his laps. This from a bloke whose flogged every Falcon from AU onwards. And he’s right.
This car does not tip and cant, it sits flat and absorbs cornering inputs. It rides across kerbs without getting unsettled and turns on it nose with a sharpness that defies memory.
And then, as touring car champ and Holy Grail test driver John Bowe proved far better than I ever could, it can be effortlessly rear-steered in clouds of blue tyre smoke.
Underlining just how good the chassis now is, in Premcar’s own testing at Winton it was 10 seconds quicker than an FPV GT fitted only with the engine upgrades, cutting well under 1 min 40 sec.
Of course the Phase III remains the greatest Falcon of all. But if the Holy Grail had actually turned up in Ford showrooms as its 21st century Phase V successor I doubt anyone would have argued it was cut from the same inspired cloth.
Standing alone, simply as a Falcon, it’s the best I’ve ever experienced. It is passion untrammelled allowed to deliver a car uncompromised
Amongst the satisfaction and pleasure there is a poignancy to all this too. This car represents what we have lost with the gutting of the Australian car industry.
Spending a day at Broadford with the Premcar crew was to be forcefully reminded of that. There was no marketing-driven drivel devised by spin doctors and delivered by someone who just as easily could be selling insurance.
Instead, these dedicated, talented Australians displayed an infectious love for what they do, rightfully proud of their ability to deliver a great car with only limited resources to draw upon.
There were people like that at Ford, Holden, Toyota and Mitsubishi in the old days and now you’ll find them at places like Walkinshaw Group, Multimatic, Herrod Performance and, of course, Premcar.
Long may they keep fighting the good fight and building cars like the Holy Grail
How much is the 2019 Premcar Holy Grail?
Price: $44,175 (plus cost of donor Miami-engined FPV/Falcon)
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Output: 483kW/753Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual/auto
Fuel: N/A
CO2: N/A
Safety rating: N/A (Ford Falcon five-star ANCAP 2013)