STRONG SUIT

TARONE PALMER'S LONG-TIME FASCINATION WITH XP COUPES RESULTED IN A 580HP STREET BRAWLER DRESSED TO THE NINES

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HERE aren't too many XP coupes cruising the streets these days, let alone toughies with tasty paint and cranky engines.

But Tarone Palmer's hardtop is one such example, and even though it took the best part of four years to build, the results speak for themselves.

Tarone grew up around Shepparton, one of Straya's premier wellsprings of burnout cars, showstoppers and tough streeters. “I always liked XPs growing up – not the four-doors, just the coupes,” he says. “I had the chance to buy one when I was younger but had to pass at the time. Then one of my mates saw this one for sale on Facebook in Melbourne, and after another mate checked it out for me, I ended up buying it.”

However, the XP in question didn't come into Tarone’s possession in the pristine form you see here. Someone had done it up in the distant past, so it sported the obligatory tired 302 Windsor between the shock towers and a decaying purple paintjob, accompanied by cancerous sores in the quarters and gutters.

Tarone dragged his new acquisition into the shed and stripped it to its dacks, before handing it over to Dozza and Braydon at Ryan McDermott’s Paint & Panel to correct the sins of the past. The door skins and lower quarters went in the bin and were replaced with fresh steel, while the all-important roof line was treated to new guttering where the tinworm had eaten it away. While they were at it, the boys deleted the chrome strips along the sides and rear of the body; then, after straightening everything, Dozza slathered the XP in copious quantities of luscious DNA Custom Paints Candy Cobalt Blue.