FAMILY BUSINESS

MICK MATTHEWS TURNS HIS POP’S BELOVED DAILY DRIVER INTO ONE OF THE BEST XF FALCONS AUSTRALIA’S EVER SEEN

- JACK HOULIHAN

IN 1988, Bill Felstead visited the JT Fossey dealership in Tamworth to buy a brand-new, Monza Red XF S-Pack. Bill’s grandson, a five-year-old Mick Matthews, tagged along on the day, sparking a decades-long connection with the Falcon. “I’d often go with him in the car on holidays, towing his Viscount caravan, or he’d take me and my brother to the golf range,” Mick recounts.

“He used to say it was too powerful for me, being a 4.1-litre four-speed with fuel injection, but I would always hassle him that I wanted the car someday. Pop was a well-known greyhound trainer around Newcastle and would drive the car everywhere around the country to race his pooches in the early 90s. So, it was only fair that we called the car the Greyhound Hauler.”

When Bill passed away in 2000, Mick inherited the car. As with most long-term projects, it saw a few different iterations before it became the stunner you see here. “I had it painted in 2005 in Hot Chilli Red with a set of 18s, which were massive at the time,” Mick laughs. A 351 Cleveland, Top Loader manual and nine-inch rounded out the combo. “I went over to Canada for a couple of years, where I met my wife, and when I got back in 2010, I decided to put 20s on it and roll the guards. It basically snowballed from there, so it’s been a solid 12-year build.”