63 Ford Falcon Sprint rally replica

[Leadfoot]

Spurred on by Paul B's amazing work on his 64 Falcon I thought I would post some details of the 63 Falcon Sprint I'm currently using and upgrading between events, here in the UK.

The car is a genuine 4 speed manual 63 Sprint that has spent most of it's life in Austin County Texas, so it had the usual hot climate issues of rock hard rubbers, no wipers or screen washers and ineffective heating. All issue I needed to sort out for the slightly damp climate here in South Wales. The good thing was an almost total lack of rust, just some surface rash underneath that's easily treated. The car has a 1979 302 5 litre V8 with 74 heads so it goes well but this may need to be changed back to a 260 to be period correct. I recon the car has at some time in the past done a bit of drag racing as it had some awful tramp bars on the rear springs and has a 289 Torker inlet manifold that I need to change for one that will give me better low range power.

I've had the car for just over a year and aside from the above I've upgraded the front suspension, Mustang GT coil springs, thicker anti roll bar, Shelby drop, and 4 pot disc brake conversion with dual master cylinder and adjustable bias. At the rear I couldn't fit Mustang leaf springs as they are longer and wider than the 63 Falcon's (but OK for the 64 Paul), so I had the original 6 leaf springs re-tempered and re-cambered by 3/4". I couldn't get poly bushes for the car in the US so I narrowed a set of Mustang heavy duty rear shackle bushes and had to source a set of Whiteline front eye bushes off a Falcon XK/XL from Australia. Koni shocks were fitted all round, the fronts also sourced from Australia with the correct top mount for the US Falcon.

I was fortunate to be able to get hold of a set of 15 x 5.5 Ford Galaxie Station Wagon steel wheels which were used on the rally Falcons back in 63.

The interior of the car had white upholstery when I got it, I've since fitted a set of Corbeau Classic front seats with custom mounts and four point racing harness. The Corbeau seats weighed in at 7Kg, 13 Kg lighter than the original bucket seats.

Next job on the car is to fit a set of rally air horns and period Lucas spot lights. Followed by an under engine brace onto which will be mounted the sump guard.

Lou.