FIGHTER JET

DRAGOS BJELOGRLIC REASONED THAT SHOEHORNING AN ENGINE FROM A SIX-SECOND RADIAL CAR INTO HIS GENUINE XE FAIRMONT GHIA ESP SHOULD MAKE FOR A PRETTY RAPID STREETER. HE WAS RIGHT

- ANDREW BROADLEY

THE beautifully boxy XD-XF Falcon range has long been somewhat overlooked in Aussie street machining circles, but more recently, it's having its moment in the sun. Arguably the coolest of the lot is the XE Fairmont Ghia ESP, with its two-tone paint, Scheel interior, gold snowflake wheels and V8 heart. Dragos Bjelogrlic's example is particularly impressive, due in no small part to its stonking Dandy Engines-built twinturbo Windsor, which should make a monumental 2800hp once it's set on kill. But don't go thinking Dragos is a dyed-in-the-wool Ford guy - he's completely brand agnostic. Sitting alongside the ESP in his shed is a very rapid R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, an HSV VS GTS 215i, and his beloved HK Premier.

"My Prem went 10.1 at the track, and to go any faster, I needed to put a rollcage in it," says Dragos. "I love that car, and it killed me to put a bonnet scoop on it, let alone a 'cage, so it meant I really needed another car. The XE belonged to my brother and was sitting in my factory. They weren't worth much back then, so I got it for a steal."

The original plan was to follow the well-trodden path of a Barra transplant, but having sampled their aural properties at the track, Dragos back-pedalled on that idea. That's when the monster Windsor combo out of Joe Gauci's legendary six-second Cortina fortuitously came up for sale. "Small cubes, big turbos and proven numbers; it sounded like my cuppa tea!" says Dragos.