GOING FOR Gold

JUSTIN GAUCI SPENT NINE YEARS BUILDING HIS SMOOTH XR FALCON ONLY TO FIND HE CRAVED MORE POWER. IT WAS TIME TO GO BIG OR GO HOME

- IAIN KELLY

CAN you remember what you got for your 13th birthday? If you were Justin Gauci, you’d never forget, because the lucky so-and-so was gifted a ’67 XR Falcon sedan from his dad! Now, before you go stomping off to yell at your old boy for not getting you a sweet ride for your first teenage birthday, Justin’s XR didn’t look anything like the beautiful gold machine you here.

“Dad bought it for $600,” Justin says. “It was a bare Falcon 500 shell with no wiring or anything, so we had to put it together piece by piece over the years.” In fact, it took nearly a decade of hard work and toil to build this 700rwhp turbocharged weapon!

Once Justin’s dad had the body straight, PPG GT Gold was laid over the Mustang-bred Falcon shell, paying tribute to Ford’s first high-performance Falcon, the 289ci XR GT.