Born To Be Wild

> From its Lairy graphics to its Russell Jones-built 351 cleveland, owen webb’s wild thing XY was an instant aussie pro street classic

- Craig Parker

Call me biased, but the XW/XY Falcon has to be one of the toughest-looking body shapes to ever roll off the Broadmeadows production line. Owen Webb’s WILD THING XY took those muscular lines and turned them up to 11!

Debuting at Summernats 1 in 1988, WILD THING was one of the new breed of show quality pro streeters. To prove the point, it scored a spot in the Top 10, as well as Top Undercarriage & Driveline. While its wild graphics and lurid rear end were plastered across the cover of the March 1988 issue of Street Machine as part of the huge Summernats coverage, readers had to wait until the following issue, April/May ’88, to get the full rundown on this legendary machine.

The car was already pretty wild when Owen got his hands on it, as it was on its way to being transformed into a drag car. The rear tubs were already in, as well as the rollcage and the firstever chassis by the famed Murray Anderson. That said, it still took a mountain of work to get the XY into show-stopping WILD THING form.

As the then-proprietor of Pro Finish in Bowral, paint maestro Webby handled all the paint-and-panel duties himself. First up was the engine bay; with all the factory seams welded and smoothed, it set the standard for Ford guys from that day forward. It also raised the bar high for the rest of the car, so the smooth stuff didn’t end there. The rest of the underside and the entire driveline were finished to the same slick standard.