genebaby

Ok, so I figured it was time to put some effort in and see what changes I have made since purchasing this XR8 of mine. It is hardly stock anymore, but it's all pretty subtle.

This is my car on the Ford production line:







Factory options consisted of premium sound, leather, 5spd manual, XR scuff plates, XR mats, 18" wheels and tint. The tint did not get put on until January as I had ordered a black XR8 in October and was told it would be ready by Xmas and when that was not looking like it would happen I was offered this car, brand new with leather. After a quick think, I took the red one!! So I picked it up in time for Xmas, but the tint could not be done in time. I didn't let it worry me. I was cheering. :

This is what she looked like December 20, 2003, the day after I got the keys.





Looking at these pics it's clear to see the ride height is an issue. Do those wheels even belong to that body? They are so far apart, it's hard to tell._2:

Lowering was definitely on the cards, along with a minor exhaust change. I had done my research on the BA and was aware of the brake shudder so rather than go back many times I decided to fix the problem at it's source. New DBA slotted rotors and Ferodo pads were put on the next week and they were still going strong 3 years later with no shudder.

Christmas day 2003 and the car now looked like this:





Very obviously it has been lowered, the rear resonator had been removed and chrome tips put on, along with the rotors and pads. I had also transferred the plates from my XF Ghia, as they had 540 in them so I wanted to keep them.

I loved how it looked but part of the lowering was to make the car sit flat and it was a bit too low at the front now and it did not do this so it went back later to get the front raised a bit to match the rear.

Before that happened we took a trip down to the South Coast with the family. I took these pics in the grass before it was mowed, just as it was starting to drizzle.





After the tinting in early January was All Ford Day in Albury, with the ACT branch of the FPV Tickford Club of NSW, of which I had joined upon ordering the XR8. This was my baby's first show and I was very happy to go along. This was also when I first met Bucknaked, but hey, you can't win them all. :hihi:

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genebaby

While at this show the XR8 got to meet the recently departed XF Ghia, as I had sold it to the in-laws, who lived nearby.



The XF was a good car, full Ghia options, HM headers with 2 1/2" sports exhaust, full Kmac suspension of springs, shocks and sway bars, 15" Dragways, dark tint, 12 stack Pioneer cd system with new speakers and sub. Strange how I didn't miss her that much still........:dr_Evil:

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GlennBA

Theres something about this car.. it looks pretty factory but its just awesome. I love it mate, its tough as nails. Great job! ;)

genebaby

Thanx Glenn. A lot of people give me compliments about the car, and now, three and a half years on, I know all my care and hard work is still paying off. Had some Super Pro bushes put in today and the mechanic was quite taken with the car.

More on this later in 2005 though.....

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XR8-260

Very nice... good to see another XR8. Is your exhaust aftermarket?

genebaby

March 2004 was looming and so was another show. The annual Shannons Show n Shine. Open to all cars and clubs. I had gotten the car bug something bad and wanted to do something special for the show.

Two easy new things were a Herrod lower grill, version two, to fill the gap Ford left in the bumber and a Herrod Helix throttle spacer. These were installed by a local Ford/Herrod dealer. I had also purchased and installed a BTP CAI system which included a secondary air intake, much like current XR8's. I also used a BMC air filter with this unit.

The fiddlier plans involved paint, lots of red paint. I wanted to paint the calipers and some bits in the engine bay. I spent a day with the wheels off and after cleaning the calipers and lots of masking, several coats of VHT caliper paint were applied. For the engine bay, I removed the parts and a good friend who looks after my guitars spary painted them with some Venom paint I had mixed up. While we had the wheels off he convinced me to spray my dust covers in Venom too.

The results spoke for themselves.











It was a very enjoyable show and I was very happy with the progress so far.

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genebaby

Thanx, at that stage it was just a case of no rear resonator with larger tips. I had heard this gave a decent increase in sound, which it surely did.

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67-FKD

This has to be one of the Hottest engine Bays for the Boss have ever seen, so simple yet so striking

Well done, and is there anythign else planned for the future?

FPV8U

Glenn is right there is just "Something" about this car, i don't know what it is, but it's bloody nice.

As 3 said nice to see another XR8 in the B-Series section.

genebaby

A lot of stuff happened early on and it's hard to remember it all. It was early January before the Albury show that I purchased an analog clock to go above the ICC. It was there at the show but not functional, but at least it looked good.



Shortly after it was fully installed so it dimmed with the rest of the dash at night. A few months ago now I got an FPV gauge pod to replace the clock with but have yet to finalise the replacement Oil Temp & Pressure gauges I will be using.

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genebaby

Thank you, and yes, there have been changes down the line. I'm not finished with this write up yet.....:evil3:

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genebaby

Go the XR8's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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FPV8U

Cheers to that :evil3:

TUF260

yea ive always liked this car...as the others said there is something about it...its so factory, yet so damn tough!!

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BA XR8 - BLUEPOWER

WINNER FORD FORUMS BEST CLUB CAR ALL FORD DAY 2010

FG XR50 TURBO

big.glenn

Vic....Stop spanking your monkey......You know your car looks good.

BPXR6T

I thought I saw your car headed down hindmarsh drive last Tuesday. Could have been wrong but it was a red BA XR8 with machine finish 18's.

How'd you get the pics of it on the production line? Wish I had those for my car.

Grum

As has been said its great to see another BOSS posted up!

This has always been a well presented car, always looks clean and in "show" condition. IMO this is just about the hardest thing to do with a nice ride especially one that is a daily driver! Something we can all learn from.

Well done mate

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Blue Power Racing Enhanced

Airmon

Where abouts is the rest of the interior stuff you've done, I've admired your B Series pages many times, don't leave the story hanging there!

I like the dust covers too, I always wanted to do that but thought it might look tacky, but I'm impressed with that, I might give it a go.

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www.bseries.com.au/airmon
They say less talk more action,
I say more torque less traction!

genebaby

Umm.....yes, Glenn, I promise I will stop soon......oh, who am I kidding, I've only just begun....

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genebaby

Could have been me. Was it lowered with tinted windows, and I also have a club sticker on my front windscreen. There aren't too many of us about Canberra.

Those pictures were available from Ford when I bought the car. You had to go to a section of the Ford website and put in your SIDO number and they would email them out to you.

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genebaby

Thanx Grum. I spend a heck of a lot of time maintaining my car, but it's worth it. Having an XR8 as a daily driver does not suck, but I'm sure you know that.

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genebaby

Fear not, it's all coming, I have the pics for later. We've only just begun, the story will continue and cover all the other stuff.

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Grum

Yep it sure is fun! But mine was all nice and polished on Sunday but its already starting to get dirty! : Bloody sydney smog :

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Blue Power Racing Enhanced

Bluehoon

Top looking ride there mate!!!! Progressin nicely.

The pic with the fpvclub banner, geez that's going back a few years, 2004...
Brings back memories

Cheers

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Dec 05 BF XR6T Ute, '10 Ninja 250R
Coyote powered GT & GSXR-750,Yes Please
FPV Tickford Club of NSW - www.fpvclub.com

genebaby

Moving along now, I have some more pics so we can continue the story.

In February of 05 I made the trip down with the FPV XR Owners club to FPV Open day in Melbourne. It was a great trip, putting the car on display and our club winning the award for Best Club Display, along with our friends from Newcastle. Much to my suprise, my car also won the award for Best Post '98 XR8!! I was shocked, but pleased, as there were a lot of nice cars there.





At some point in 05 I think it was I got a set of the alloy pedal covers and quickly set about putting them on, with the help of a drill.



I like the look of these much better than the standard rubber, really lifts the look of the interior, even if they are near the floor.

Next I was interested in a G&D airbox and one popped up for sale on the Forums and I nabbed it. When it arrived I gave it to my friendly local guitar repair guy and it was sanded back and promptly painted Venom Red. I meanwhile did some research and bought the appropriate BMC filter to fit and was quite happy when it was installed. Induction roar to die for.





Shortly after I did this you could buy them pre-painted, though you have to be carefull when installing them as it's easy to scratch them.

Looking for other intersting stuff to do to the car I came upon a sunglass holder and decided I would like somewhere to put my sunnies. Removing the roof lining was not the best fun in the world but necessary, so it was done, and soon enough it all looked like this:



I also wanted to get the alloy inserts in the grab handles like on the BF so I sourced a set of handles for front and rear and also got some FPV door spears and went to town on my door trim.

I had hoped that Ford had screwed in the grab handles, but alas they were plastic welded in and had to be taken out with the help of a soldering gun. The fumes were delightful, not! After a bit of effort this was the result:



After painting the G&D airbox Russ and I looked at the engine bay with an eye to painting more stuff. This is how the engine bay looks today:



With the G&D airbox installed I had the car custom tuned by Chris from Bluepower. A great bloke as we know, he cordially made a trip to Canberra and got power up to 245kw at the rears. Very nice thank you.

Late 2006 and mulitmedia was on the cards. With the arrival of my dauther in April 2006 we decided that a DVD system was in order, yes!! I had previously changed the speakers in the doors and parcel shelf to JBL units and I had purchased a JBL 8" sub as well but had not put it in yet.

This was all to change as I sourced some 7" screens for the headrests and looked around for a suitable way to display video on the ICC screen as well. I found a DVD player that also plays Divx, as I have a lot of that media and organised a converter to allow display on the ICC. A friend got the DVD player functioning on the front screen and then it was off to a professional installer to install the player in the car, fit the screens, install the sub and a 5 channel amplifier to power it all. The DVD player is a JVC unit with USB and the amplifier is a 5 Channel DLS, mounted behind the drivers side rear set. It works very well, looks good and most importantly, now entertains our little one as required.

In order to fit the screens the headrests were rebuilt, while still suiting the XR style.











While getting some work done to the gearbox under warranty I took the opportunity to give the service guys a short shift unit I had gotten from Mal Woods. They installed it and when I got the car back it was shifting nicer then ever.

Early 2007 saw the brake upgrade happen when I sourced a set of BF XR8 brakes. I decided to get the calipers powder coated in red/black and then had them rebuilt and installed on the car along with new DBA slotted rotros and LTM pads from QFM. QFM don't make the rears in the LTM compound so I had send the standard pads up to QLD where they applied the new compound to the original backing plate. New fluid and red braided lines completed the upgrade. You can feel the difference, when you need to stop, you do, and it just slows the car down so much better on the highway when needed.

Another bonus, they look great!!!










Before going all out with the exhaust I figured a cat back change was in order and got an Xforce system installed. Better than it was before through the gears and while cruising we can hear the stereo/DVD system. As a daily driver this serves me well at this time. I did change the tips as my previous ones looked better than the Xforce ones. This was an easy fix and I had these put in:





Plans for the future: The FPV gauge pod and gauges need to go in, hopefully that won't be too far off. Failing an intercooled KB supercharger from Bluepower (not likely) a change of diff ratio to 3.7 would be nice. Koni or Bilstein shocks are probably on the cards next year. Otherwise I am quite happy with the car and it's performance. Still a great car to drive and look at.

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FTE217

Veryvery nice genebaby ! You should be proud of the effort put into the XR8...
Had a good look at her at last years Club show in the park. That was when Bucky sin binned himself from attending you must have had a grrreat day then lol...

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No#217 fte Blueprint TS50 ESS "Own the Road"

genebaby

Thank you Bluedriver, she is my automotive pride and joy, that's for sure.

That was a good day last year without Bucky, so much quieter,and nicer overall hey? augh

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FTE217

Is he watching ? don't think so, ofcourse it was peaceful and quiet

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No#217 fte Blueprint TS50 ESS "Own the Road"

Dark Horse

Ha ha, nevertheless it was a good day.

Very nicely presented, Vic, that XR of yours really is a credit to your efforts.

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