With a ProCharger sticking out the front and chutes hanging off the back, it would be easy to think this Falcon Sprint was just for the strip, but that couldn’t be further from the truth
Having sold his tough Pro Street Falcon sprint about 15 years ago, Justin Walker always intended to buy another — he just never imagined it to be this one. Thankfully, through the right mix of circumstances, he ended up being at the right place at the right time and was able to land a deal with the owner, who wasn’t quite sure if he was ready to sell. Despite the rarity of ‘65 Falcon Sprints, the transaction didn’t take place overseas but right here in NZ, as it had been imported by fellow serial cool car owner Dennis Beaver a few years prior.
Dennis purchased it purely as a race car after it had run countless low eight-second passes abroad. He continued that tradition here, running a best of 8.3 at 168mph before the ProCharger started making noises and needed to be shipped to Australia for a rebuild.
It was just after that Justin was introduced to him, with the purpose being for Justin to check out the car purely out of his love for the shape. The one he’d sold years before was a tough piece of gear too, running 15×15-inch convo pros and a full cage; it screamed Pro Street, and Justin says now that he really should have kept it. At the time, he had other cars on the go, and something had to give. Although he’s tried to buy it back multiple times, the current owner understandably isn’t keen to let it go. So, when Justin laid eyes on the bright yellow Procharged version, it was love at first sight. “I thought it would make a good race car,” says Justin, but in the back of his head, he had a plan of thinking it would make for an even cooler street car. It wouldn’t be an easy task getting it street legal, as even the basics needed for street reg, such as lights and wipers, were missing. Undeterred, he tells us, “They publish a book with all the rules,” followed by, “ ‘It’s not easy, and you just need to be persistent’.” Clearly, he was too, as the car is now not only teched for racing but is certed, WoFed and reged too.
As some parts are interchangeable with Mustang items, Justin was able to find a number of the bits he needed locally, while the rest needed to be brought in from abroad. Anything that couldn’t be purchased was fabricated, with Justin doing every bit of the work himself in the shed at home. A fair bit went into that side of things, too, with the previously floor-mounted intercooler system needing to be moved to the rear seat area to allow room for his lovely wife, Brooke, to ride along. The four-inch piping now runs down either side of the Kirkey passenger seat, while the ice tank that feeds the system resides in the boot next to the custom fuel cell.
As the car runs a custom front suspension system, Justin needed to remanufacture the A-arms to bring them up to LVV specification and replace the steering column for an acceptable item. While working on the interior, additional work was required to repair the tunnel where it had been cut out for the shifter and to rewire everything needed for street duties. Once that was done, there was plenty of work to be done to build a street-legal exhaust system. He opted for a twin three-inch system and worked his magic to tuck everything up as high as possible to give the car as much clearance as possible when it was slammed out.
While this all sounds pretty straightforward, sadly, it didn’t all go according to plan. The noise initially coming from the ProCharger was masking more serious issues, like a loose flexplate. With many of the flexplate bolts sheared, the torque converter was the only thing really holding the flexplate in place. Holding no grudges against the previous owner, Justin is well aware that on a car like this, shit happens, but it did result in a whole lot more shed time than had been anticipated, meaning that he’d miss out on the last summer race season. The crank was full of broken bolts, so it needed to be redrilled and tapped to accept larger half-inch items. While the engine was in bits, a look at the heads showed that a previous backyard porting job had gone wrong, and the best option was to swap the damaged heads out for new AFR items. Further inspection revealed the bottom end to have bent gudgeon pins, so, you guessed it, the pistons and rods were replaced, too. Thankfully the tall deck Dart Windsor block itself could be retained, and Justin wasn’t far away from experienced engine builder Steve Hildred who could screw it all together.
With the engine assembled and back in the hole, the F2 crank-driven ProCharger, EFI setup, 125mm throttle body, and MSD ignition system could be refitted. The car’s custom radiator is wide and short to enable the crank-driven ProCharger and bellmouth to sit where they need to be, which obviously brings a grin to those who know what they’re looking at.
With the motor back in the hole, Justin was finally ready to hit the road, or so he thought. Sadly the transmission had other ideas and promptly shat itself before the car was even off the hoist. Besides throwing his toys out of the cot, the best solution was to keep the ATI Super Duty case and rebuild it with new internals.
Thankfully, there were parts of the car that didn’t need to be sworn at, such as the rear end. The 9-inch diff that it came with runs Moser 35 spline axles and a Strange centre and are in the car today exactly as they were when it was purchased. Likewise, most of the paint remains the same, with the hood being the biggest exception. When Dennis owned it, it ran a teardrop scoop, but Justin was after a subtle but more modern look — if there’s such a thing as subtle on an in-your-face Pro Streeter. That sleeker custom scoop isn’t the only fibreglass part, as both front and rear bumpers are also lightweight fibreglass items.
The finishing touch to the build was to swap out the retro race wheels for something that would bring the car into the modern age. For that, Justin had a set of 17×4.5-inch and 15×12 RC Comp wheels custom built to his desired offsets, speccing them to sit out as wide in the guards as possible. As the delay on the wheels arriving grew from a month to multiple months, the goal of debuting the finished car at Repco Beach Hop 24 began to look increasingly unlikely. Finally, a couple of weeks out from the event, the wheels were ready, so he bit the bullet and had them air freighted. Understandably, he was nervous about whether they would fit right, but they slotted right on, and at last, the car could be certified for street use and loaded on the trailer to head to the event.
Despite it running on a strict diet of Avgas, Justin and Brook clocked up more miles cruising around the event than almost any other car, using up 180 litres of the good stuff in the process. The telltale sound of a gear-driven ProCharger hanging off the front of an angry motor would bring people out of shops and cafes to take a closer look any time it drove past. The wheelie bars and parachute on the back show that there is every intent to race it. All going to plan that will happen early next drag season, and there’s every chance the car will go even quicker than the low eights that it ran previously.
Despite this and how impressive the car looks, it was only really a side project to his long-term XW Falcon ute build. With the persistence and dedication he’s used to see this one through, we can’t wait to see that, as it’s set to be his wildest build yet!
Vehicle: 1965 Ford Falcon Sprint
Engine: 430ci Windsor, tall deck Dart block, Ross pistons, forged rods, Scat steel stroker crank, ARP fasteners, AFR heads, T and D rockers, aluminium intake manifold, F2 crank mounted ProCharger, MSD 6AL ignition, 125mm throttle body, custom headers, twin 3-inch exhaust, aluminium radiator, twin 10-inch fans, Big Stuff 3 ECU, ice/water intercooler
Driveline: ATI Super Duty 2-speed transmission, Ford 9-inch diff, Mosser 35 spline axles, Strange centre
Suspension: Tubular A-arms, coilovers, rack and pinion steering, ladder bar rear
Brakes: Wilwood master cylinder, Wilwood calipers, Wilwood discs, Wilwood handbrake, E-Stop
Wheels/Tyres: 15×12-inch and 17×4.5-inch RC Comp Exile wheels, 26x6x17 and 29x15x15 Mickey Thompson tyres
Exterior: Fiberglass hood, custom hood scoop, fibreglass bumpers, custom paint
Chassis: Custom back half
Interior: Swaged aluminium interior panels, custom roll cage, Kirkey alloy drag seats, Cheetah shifter with trans brake, Auto Meter gauges
Performance: Over 1100hp, 8.3 seconds at 168mph
Driver: Justin Walker
Age: Still young enough
Occupation: Self-employed
Previously owned cars: 1964 Ford Galaxie, 1960 ElCamino, 1959 ElCamino, big block tubbed XW ute under construction
Dream car: My XW GT back in my shed, and a tough ‘68 Charger
Why the Sprint?: I had a ‘64 Sprint and regretted selling it
Build time: Two years
Length of ownership: Two years
Justin thanks: None
Words: Todd Wylie Photos: Cam Leggett
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