Three car mad boys, muscling in to raise money for seriously ill and hospitalised kids! |
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SASH NINOVIC
As a young boy, Aleksandar (or Sash as his mates call him) had his first ever experience with muscle cars when his parents sent him to the shops to buy some milk. It was on that very day that he saw an XY GT Falcon coming up the street making a hell of a good noise. "You could hear it for miles, it was awesome how the guy was shifting it through the gears", says Sash. It was from that point of that Sash had to find out more. Not long after this, he was again on his way to the shops (he bought a lot of milk back then!) when he happened to see another GT style XY Falcon parked in a laneway behind a business.
He wanted to take a closer look and went into the shop to find the owner. It was from then on that he befriended the owner and began to hang out with him as often as possible. A few months later Sash casually asked him if he'd sell it. Surprisingly the answer was yes, and being that Sash was only 15 years old at the time, a little assistance from his Dad saw him purchase the XY. After getting his licence, he lovingly raced and modified it to the best of his abilities and never regrets his many hours spent under the bonnet. And what has become of the XY you ask? He still has it and probably won't ever part with it. Now that it's powered by a 411ci Procharged engine that makes 900+hp, he says it's a bit of fun and gets him from A to B!
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ROY VELARDI
Former Scientist (worked in animal health research) and car enthusiast turned full-time Journalist Roy Velardi, Editor of Street Fords magazine has been into cars more specifically Fords all of his 32 years. From growing up in Western Sydney where his father instilled the greatness of muscle cars in not only Roy’s mind but the whole family early on by owning a string of XY GT’s, Mach 1 Mustangs, GS Falcon’s and Fairlanes to name a few, Roy himself has gone on to own a few classic Fords of his own. They include a Candy Apple Red 1966 Mustang Hardtop, Ultra White XY GS Fairmont and his latest, a 700hp XW GT Falcon! That angry XW now has a car seat in the back for his daughter to ‘cruise’ with Dad on any given sunny Sunday!
Sash from AN Racing actually built the engine for Roy’s XW and their friendship has spanned for the past two year’s working together on magazine technical articles via project cars.
Street Fords has featured the 1000hp AN Racing XY GT that they will be driving from Sydney to Perth in July. The car was on the cover of the magazine and has proved extremely popular with the readership.
Roy lives and breathes Fords everyday at work, to him his job isn’t work, and it’s a lifestyle. The old saying that ‘find a job doing what you love to do and you will never work a day in your life’ rings true for Roy.
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PAUL SPYROU
As an Information Technology professional for the past 20 years, Paul finds that old school muscle is a great way to release the stresses of a demanding job in the corporate world. Growing up with Mazda rotaries in a time where they were unknown in the car scene Paul became an advocate and demonstrated their potential to school friends and acquaintances to the point where they had to own them.
Finally old school muscle prevailed and Paul now owns a genuine 1970 XW Falcon GT and a 1968 XT Falcon GT. Paul has come to realize that these iconic muscle cars command on road respect. This is evident from the constant comments and “Thumbs Up” from fellow motorists. Paul believes that we should become ambassadors for the GT and GT-HO marque when we are talking to the media or the general public. Paul is a member of GT clubs that share the passion and portray these cars in the best possible light. Paul’s association with Sash spans back from the days that Sash worked out of his back yard and forged a long lasting friendship that now goes back some 20 years. As a family man Paul is very excited to undertake this massive challenge and is pleased that the main beneficiary of this program is the “Starlight Foundation”. |
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6th
July 2009
Day
One
6:30am
saw the Sydney to Perth team congregate at
AN Racing headquarters. With the XY and support
car packed and ready to go they wasted no
time in getting on the road for the trip of
a lifetime. First stop was at Mount Panorama
situated in Bathurst NSW. With the cameras
strapped to the Falcon Sash, Paul and Roy
each took turns in taking the 700rwhp weapon
around the sacred motor racing circuit much
to the delight of several onlookers.
Moving
on saw the team head further into the Central
West visiting MR HDT Motorsport in Dubbo.
After having lunch with the boys, and checking
over the car the team headed further west.
Arriving in Trangie they noticed the temperature
starting to rise on the gauge. The decision
was made to remove and replace the thermostat
as it was deemed to be the cause of the increase
in temperature. With it changed the engine
cooled down and they were back in business.
Whilst
there they ran into some admirers, one of
them was Dave who had previously owned a Vermillion
Fire XYGT around five years ago. Dave showed
the guys his love of all things Ford with
this Super Roo tattoo. With the light fading
the fast they headed towards Broken Hill,
dodging live Kangaroos all sorts of road kill!
Arriving there they met up with Rob Fazulla,
who kindly offered his secure garage for the
XY overnight. The team bunkered down at the
local hotel for what was an 18 hour day on
the road…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 
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7th
July 2009
Day
Two
Today
saw the team up bright and early tucking into
a hearty breakfast at the Broken Hill hotel,
in readiness for the first 450km trek to Port
Augusta. But before all that the XY needed
to fill its 36 gallon tummy (164L) as well.
Pulling into the local BP service station,
the fella working the pumps immediately recognized
the XY from the hit TV show The Muscle Car
Shop and Blood Sweat & Gears by eyeballing
its number plates.
He was a huge fan of the car and show so naturally
the team signed a poster for him to hang in
the workshop. Whilst fuelling up his dad came
out and asked “is that a 33 or a banged up
one” Paul S proceeded to explain that it was
an XY GT replica of Allan Moffat’s 1972 ATCC
winning Falcon.
Moving
on the team made their way out of town and
proceeded to Port Augusta stopping only for
the obligatory fruit fly inspection, the inspector
was very impressed with the car and ushered
the boys through promptly waving his hand
and saying “jam the fruit, light em up” The
driving continued for another 400km’s or so
and was only interrupted for fuel, food and
driver swaps. Arriving at the hotel in Ceduna,
the XY was tucked in for the night.
The
XY has been performing flawlessly so far,
the team has covered around 2100km’s without
any real issues and is testament to the thorough
preparation work carried out at the AN Racing
workshop in Sydney. Stay tuned for more updates
as the team heads to Kalgoorlie next!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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8th
July 2009
Day
Three
Today
saw the team hop out of bed at 5am to embark
on their longest driving stint to date, a
grueling 1386km! A quick check of the wheel
nuts at the hotel at Ceduna and they were
good to go. Off to the local service station
this time a Shell as it was the only one open
that early, the XY was juiced up with V-Power.
One the “locals” asked if they were going
to “hit the Nulla” Not long after the team
headed off at a “cracking pace” to try and
make a dent into that huge distance that needed
to be covered.
Early
on the team encountered some severe fog but
nonetheless they powered their way through
it without any real problems. The air was
crisp and had the Procharged Windsor singing
along sweetly. Before too long they encountered
the mighty Nullabor plains, the big XY powered
through the plains at a blistering pace with
the boys all sharing a driving stint.
Those
plains are WIDE with nothing but flat ground
and low shrubs. Arriving at the Nullabor Roadhouse,
they fuelled up again and noticed that the
Shell juice didn’t last that long. There is
a BP service station at the Roadhouse so they
filled up with the good stuff BP Ultimate
(check out the price to fill her up!).
Whilst
there a “truckie” commented that the XY has
some “air shocks in it and is lowered on its
nut” That’s slang for not knowing what he’s
on about! Proving that they actually are in
Western Australia the boys took a photo at
the border…More hours on the road saw them
reach Australia’s longest straight road. Again
the mighty XY chewed up the country miles
with ease. They finally arrived in Kalgoorlie
at 8pm (local time) covering the mammoth trek
in 15.5 hours. Pretty good when you consider
the amount of time eaten up stopping for filming
and fuelling.
Stay
tuned as the team heads from Kalgoorlie to
Perth after a local radio interview at 10am.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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9th
July 2009
Day
Four
Today
the team slept in until 7am, then awoke in Kalgoorlie
to the sound of rain falling. Out of bed in a flash
saw the media hub swing into action to finalise the
highlight video of the trip thus far and to get it
along with the photos onto the website ASAP.
With that completed they packed their bags and loaded
the XY with Sash taking the opportunity to top up
the engine oil before heading off to breakfast which
was bacon and eggs all round at the hotel in front
of a log fire.
The
boys piled into the XY for a DVD filming session through
the main streets of Kalgoorlie whilst local residents
looked on in amazement. The XY really looked and sounded
the part as it circled around the block being filmed.
It
was now around 9:30am so the team headed over to the
local radio station ABC FM for an interview. They
met up with Natalie Jones the presenter of the show
before being interviewed about the trip so far covering
the reasons why they were attempting such a feat and
to plug their website about the updates.
Next
they fuelled up again for the 6 hour drive to Perth…
Leaving town with light rain the XY was coping well
and wasn’t scared of getting wet and dirty. They made
their way out of town and about 3 hours down the road
they came across heavier rain which washed red dirt
over the road, and as you can see from the photos
the XY was sprayed by passing trucks and cars. Now
she looks like she has driven across the country doesn’t
she!
With
another fuel stop for the XY saw Sash wrestle the
service station attendant for the pump but she got
the better of him this time. It was all part of his
plan, you see as he knew that the inexperienced attendee
will cop a splash back of fuel when the 36 gallon
tank reached capacity. Sure as hell it did splash
back and let’s just say they never saw an “older”
person move so quick!
Some
more filming and photo taking ensued before the final
3 hour drive was completed with a driver swap with
Roy taking the reins of the XY with Sash riding shotgun
for the glorious final stretch of driving into Perth.
Arriving at the Hyatt at 6pm the team had done it,
they had driven the powerhouse AN Racing XY across
the country in four days covering around 4000kms!
Stay
tuned over the weekend for more updates as the team
attends a car cruise-show and does some minor maintenance
on the XY.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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