Peter Mueller has a passion for horsepower.

The owner of Suncoast Marine Electrical in Buddina on the Sunshine Coast, Peter is a co-owner of several racehorses, including a six-year-old gelding called Victory Eight (V8). If you follow horse racing in Queensland, you may have heard of Victory Eight as he is a listed race winner – and that is a very big deal in thoroughbred racing circles.

However, while Peter is a fan of the four-legged breed of horsepower, his true passion lies in the four-wheel variety, and this XD is a testament to what someone on a mission can achieve – at the time these photos were taken, this XD could muster around 920hp! Since these photos were taken, Peter has been working on the engine with the aim of pushing that power output a notch closer to an astonishing 1000hp.

With that sort of power, it’s no surprise to find this thoroughbred’s natural environment is the drag racing track, but it is also a little difficult to pair those power numbers with the car itself. After all, the only real giveaways that there is some serious muscle propelling this 40-year-old classic is the reverse cowl scoop, the three gauges sat just in front of the windscreen and, if you look closely, an unassuming tube sat below the number plate that, to the untrained eye, could easily be mistaken for a third tailpipe. For those uncertain of that tube’s purpose, it’s where the braking parachute is fitted on race day!

At this point it is worth travelling back in time to the unveiling of the new Falcon XD model by Ford and see how this now-track-day monster began its life.

The XD was released in 1979 – this XD is a 1981 model – and was the first of the fourth generation of the Falcon model series that had started with the XK back in 1960. The XD was, in appearance at least, quite a radical departure from the big XC it replaced. It was a little smaller and much lighter than its predecessor and had some new technology incorporated into it – including the use of some advanced plastic component tech on the body.

Outwardly, it was similar in appearance to the already well-established and popular Ford Granada model from the UK, but the XD was Australian-made and developed and had, as was becoming the norm, a range of engines that were much bigger than its European counterpart.

The UK Granada could muster only a 2.8-litre six-cylinder as its most grunty option, while the XD models started with a 3.3-litre inline six-cylinder engine, with the range of powerplants going from there to a 4.1-litre inline six, a 4.9-litre V8 and on to the big brother of the range, the 5.8-litre ‘Cleveland’ V8.

It could be argued that the XD marked the point at which things become ‘modern’ for Ford in Australia. While mechanically the car was fairly traditional – EFI was considered but Ford decided to stick with the carburetor – the effort to make the XD lighter was a nod to repercussions of the oil crisis of the 1970s, and the desire for better fuel economy saw the smaller 3.3-litre engine being available. The styling, of course, had a much more European, modern flavour and this all added up to the XD being a success and a worthy challenger to its Holden contemporary, the VC Commodore. Nearly 200,000 units of the XD were sold across its the three-year production run.

It was a solid entry in the Falcon family car series and in its motorsport guise it lays claim to some serious silverware – Dick Johnson drove his XD, nicknamed ‘Tru-Blu’, to victory in the 1981 and 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship. Johnson’s car, boasting the 5.8-litre V8, puffed out some pretty decent power – somewhere between 410 and 450hp – and that grunt nailed him not only the two championships but a win at Bathurst in 1981 as well.

Which brings us back to Peter Mueller’s 900+hp monster – aka EVIL D.

It completely shades Johnson’s XD with the enormous amount of power it generates, and even though it is built for short-distance sprints it is also, perhaps surprisingly, street legal.

Keeping the car street legal was important for Peter, and that remains a vital part of the overall plan as he looks to create a track beast that can set 8-second+ times for the quarter-mile dash. That sort of ambition demands plenty of skill and the willingness to invest plenty of time and money.

“When I bought the car, it had a 357ci Windsor with a 200 nitrous system and was running about 650hp. However, I wasn’t interested in running it with the nitrous. It was in pretty good condition with a good interior and minimal rust.” said Peter. “At that time, I wanted to run a 10-second pass and I achieved that pretty quickly. However, a 10-second time didn’t have the elite level feel I thought the car deserved, so I began to push things along.”

Pushing things along involved some serious thinking, some serious investment and contact with top race engine builder John Bennett from Bennett Racing Engines in the US, who supplied a set of custom heads. The result was one potent powerplant.

“We gained substantial power from the heads – which are at the heart of the engine and where you get the power if you can do it efficiently. They are inline and potentially flow over 450 CFM (cubic feet per minute), which is a big number,”said Peter.

“And just about every other part of the motor has been modified too,” he added. “It’s a stroked small-block Ford and the pistons, the rods, the crank, the thickness of the block to handle the power, the valve train, cam, manifold – everything has been modified.”

A change to fuel injection from a carburettor system has been considered, but Peter said that they weren’t quite there yet with making that switch.

“In ProStock in the US – which is the top class for naturally aspirated engines – they have all gone Holly EFI, and I did think about that as a natural progression,” he said.

“However, there have been horsepower concerns there, with carburettor engines, to date, making more power, so we are still looking into that and we’ll see if improvements are made. What appeals to me about the EFI system is it would be easier to tune the car to drive with e85 and then be able to switch to race fuel at the click of a button.”

While the engine is the main focus of any racing modification work, it can’t be done in isolation. All that power has to be harnessed and contained by a car built on suitable foundations and the other modifications completed by Peter in order to enable the XD to reach the 8-second goal while also being street legal are legion. There’s the suspension – which includes a mono leaf spring and slider set-up at the rear; four mufflers to keep the noise down when driving on the public roads; and an upgraded braking system – Wilwood brakes with a modified booster – amongst many other things.

“Almost everything has been upgraded,” said Peter. “We still have the original interior though!”

All this work, and the significant investment involved, certainly paid off when the XD was run on the dyno, but Peter reckons there are still gains to be made before the drag season starts up again and he can race once more in the IHRA Superstock category (click here to view the racing brackets on the IHRA website).

“At the moment it has about 930hp, but it has a lot more in it, so we are going to make some improvements,” said Peter. “There are some repairs and more mods I want to do, and though we are not going to chase it too much, we are pretty confident that we can pick up another 20 or 30hp just from a bit of a tweak. I do expect it to make over 950hp once we are done.

“It is potentially a 1000hp engine, but I want to be able to keep driving it on the street and winding it back a bit means I can use it for minimal street use and still be able to convert it into drag racing mode pretty easily.

“The on-track aim is to get the car to the right weight and the right specification, give it a proper nudge and go after a national record,” he added. “We will probably be a bit light on the horsepower, but the car goes extremely well and is very effective on the start line and through the first 60 feet, so that is in our favour.”

So, why an XD Ford for such a project? And why is someone who owns and runs a successful marine electrical business so passionate about drag racing and not, say, racing on the water?

“Even when I was a kid I was working on cars and doing burnouts and so on – I’ve been a revhead since year dot,” said Peter. “My first taste of racing was with a friend of mine, who had a pretty tough car, and we would go to the drags twice a week. I had an itch I had to scratch and managed to get a job full-time with a drag racing team and went on to do some work in speedway racing. I then did my auto-electrical apprenticeship and decided to have a go at racing myself.”

Peter bought himself an XF for racing and had a crack a few times, but it became too expensive for a young bloke to keep going. A few years down the track, however, and as the owner of a successful business (and successful racehorse!), the XD came along, and the opportunity was there to chase the dream.

“My very first car was an XD and I remember the feeling when I bought it,” said Peter. “I get a bit of that feeling when I drive this one. It’s very familiar, and that feeling does sort of stick with you.

“I changed focus in work and went into the marine industry, and though I love boating and fishing, motorsport is where I get that break from work and where I feel comfortable.

“Moving from being a tradesperson to becoming a business owner is incredibly difficult but a very rewarding transition. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. You don’t get a rest, you always worry about what’s next, and is a real challenge. Being able to get away from that for a while and blow off some steam is important.”

So, with the coronavirus lockdown giving him a chance to make those power-inducing modifications without the pressure of racing events to attend, when will EVIL D make its way back onto the track and what happens when all the effort and years of time Peter has put into the XD comes to fruition and the ultimate goal of a street-legal, naturally aspirated, 8-second drag racing car is complete?

“The Winternationals event was supposed to take place in June, but I believe that might now be taking place in September. If that goes ahead, I want to be a part of that,” said Peter. “And what happens when I’ve hit that goal? I’m not sure. I do know that we’ve put a lot of effort into the car, so if and when that happens, it will be well deserved!”

Source: Motor Trader E-magazine (July 2020)

10 July 2020