QUIK TEMPERED

ASK Dave Waddington if he has any vices, and he'll admit straight away that he has a serious addiction: “I've got four ESPs, and I've owned more than 10 of them,” he says.

- STORY TAS MCMILLAN

However, unlike many owners of Ford Australia's iconic ESP Falcon, Dave doesn't tend to leave his as the factory intended. Exhibit A: the large assisted-breathing apparatus poking through the bonnet of this '84 XE Fairmont ESP!

Dave's been immersed in the ways of the Blue Oval for most of his life. “Mum and Dad brought me home from hospital in a Mk2 Cortina,” he recalls. “When I was 14, I bought a Mk1 Cortina to rebuild, but I never got to finish it. Then when we were at the Kiama Blowhole on holiday when I was 16, I saw a purple XE with an ESP interior, a sunroof and Simmons rims in the car park. I decided I had to build one like it someday.”

Fast-forward to 2004 and Dave finally got his hands on his first XE ESP, the car that would soon become QUIK-E. “I was actually going to buy a mint Charcoal ESP with a 302 and auto from a bloke in Ipswich, but off to the side he had this one in Vermilion Fire over Charcoal with a sunroof,” he says. “I told him I was going to paint it purple, but the two-tone really grew on me.”

With the help of a few mates, Dave resprayed the XE in its factory colours in his shed and built a tasty Clevo to replace the crossflow six. Amazingly for an XE, the body was in mint condition, save for a touch of rust under the overflow bottle. By 2007, Dave had started a business and finished the ESP in time for his wedding to his partner Tara.