REVOLUTIONARY RETURN

AFTER 13 YEARS IN HIBERNATION, THE 2ENIL8 XW FALCON IS BACK, FASTER AND WAAAY BETTER THAN EVER

- CRAIG PARKER

IF CARS could talk, Jason Mansweto’s 1969 Falcon would have an epic tale to tell. Those of you unfamiliar with 2ENIL8’s history may want to cast a quick eye over the sidebar on page 41. But if you’re already across this XW’s backstory and thinking that what you see here is just the old 2ENIL8 freshened up, you’re in for a few surprises!

Jason’s XW is now a mix of concours contender, Elite showstopper, jaw-dropping pro streeter and insane seven-second strip terror. “If Ford Australia ever offered a drag pack, that’s what I wanted it to look like,” Jason says.

Let’s start with the elephant in the engine room. Built by Jason himself, aka Mansweto Racing, the 652-cube behemoth uses a Premier block based on Ford’s 429/460 big-block. To get to 652 cubes, the bores were hogged out to take 4.675inch Diamond pistons swinging off a 4.750-inch Callies crank. Feeding this insatiable beast is a solid-roller cam, with a pair of heavily modified Trick Flow heads up top.

Jason built two intake systems: a Pro Systems, single-butterfly SV1 atop a Trick Flow A460 intake for the street, and twin Pro Systems 1150 Dominators on a Trick Flow tunnel ram for the track.

Both systems yielded promising results on the dynamometer. “My goal was to make 1200hp NA, so I started with the twin fours,” says Jason. “It cracked 1200 so easy; I didn’t really chase it. When I swapped to the single, I was very surprised with what it made.”