UNDER THE SKIN: JESUS RACING TOURING CAR MASTERS FORD FALCON XY GT
Under the Skin of Andrew Fisher Touring Car Masters Falcon XY GT
JESUS RACING is just not about what happens on track, but also what Andrew Fisher has built up off the track with his Life Choices program.
He has a regular schedule of talking to kids in schools, prisoners in the jail system as well as other community engagements and it all links to his racing endeavours.
Experienced in single-make categories such as the Lotus Trophy, MGFs and V8 Utes (when the Jesus brand started), Fisher and Jesus Racing’s motor racing focus is now firmly set towards his Ford Falcon XY GT and the Touring Car Masters.
“The least likely place to start our branding was V8 Utes,” he laughs, “with the rough and tumble, and the bogan element. The word ‘Jesus’ is no doubt the number one war cry, but in a totally different context!”
Andrew Fisher’s Falcon XY GT at Mt Panorama
TCM with old school muscle cars, the ‘NASCARish’ feel and its association with the southern US states Baptist belt, appealed to Andrew for his future, where the cars are the stars.
For some time he had been running a dual program with a Falcon FG in the Ute Series but the swing over to Super Utes for 2018 and the building of a new TCM car, makes it a single-minded push into 2018.
When Fisher first touted TCM, he had to decide what car best suited. “I did look at the Torana and wanted to go with an A9X Hatchback, I think that is the iconic Holden but at that point of time, that model was not allowed in the category.”
He felt from the Ford perspective, the XY was the only iconic model. The XB he believed is not at the same level. “We chose the XY because of its iconic status in Australia motorsport and the community – even for people who are Holden-mad, the one Ford they will accept is an XY GT.”
It the leverage off the track that held guide this decision. From a racing perspective an XB would have been a better car, with better aerodynamics and the wider track.
“But taking our replica to the jails and schools, a community event of something like that, the XY is hugely popular. It is a car people love and aspire to have.
Initially Jesus Racing leased and then brought a former Historic Group Nc car from TCM racer Steve Makarios for 2014 and then ran the full season the following year.
“That was all about us learning the category, the car, getting an idea what it was all about, and we looked at other Falcons where we could, like Wayne Mercer’s. Took photos were we could and came to understand how to set the car up.”
When the car was first purchased, it had a wet sump – it was full Cleveland, bottom and top end, obviously with the CHI heads that were part of the category regulations. They were the only ones using a wet sump.
“When we built Abigail (as the new car is called), we changed that over to a dry sump and run in line with what everyone else does.
“Because of our branding we had to clarify the rules,” Fisher stated. “There is no grey when it comes to us, there is only black and white. We can’t afford to be caught cheating or even bending the rules.”
So everything in the build has been clarified with the category principles Tony Hunter and Rowan Harmon.
On the first things on the checklist was the rollcage. It has to stop at the firewall inside the cabin and then restarted again on the other side in the engine and boot compartments. They knew very well that some people were drilling through and putting bolt flanges on either side to make them look like they were bolted.
“When we started building our own car, looked at whose car that we liked, and you can’t go past anything Jim Richards drivers, they are beautifully presented. Eddie Abelnica’s XB is a beautiful car as well.”
Marty Brandt did both those cars, and Fisher was keen to utilise him, so they sent a shell down to him. It was actually given to the team.
“Someone like what we were doing. Well we thought they liked what we did until we stripped it back – it was a shocker. Not just rust, you can cut that out.”
It was a road car that had been cut and shut at some stage – bit of a Frankenstein. Brandt sent it back and it was discarded.
Finding another was a difficult task. Fortunately a Fairmont was found. Richard from Strip Safe, a restorer of old cars, did all preparation – every bit section by section, cut out and replaced – before being shipped off to Brandt.
The shell came back, prepped, caged and painted. The doors, the bonnet, the boot, the guards, the bumpers are all fibreglass – from Alfa Fibreglass down near Phillip Island. “They put in special compounds (including carbon fibre) to make them stronger.”
Fisher said they don’t get any flex, and get the bulge in the guards. One of team, Dave Beresford worked with the Allan from Alfa and really designed how it would be done.
“If you think about it, just how hard it to get a front guard in reasonable condition for an XY these days? Just about impossible. We had people all over Australia finding panels for us, but these days we don’t have to worry about it.”
Fisher went for an iconic colour, although it is not a Ford colour. It is Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red. “We spent a lot of time getting the scheme right. The actual dark grey/black is off a Holden, from the Ian Geoghegan Craven Mild Monaro.
“I didn’t want the traditional stripes up the bonnet as it takes it away from the branding. Then we added the stripe over the top.”
The car is brand new throughout, apart from the rear suspension which has been grafted off the old car. That included the diff assembly, which had been fully developed. Rear axles are the ball bearing type rather than the spline, much more durable – they don’t break.
The Supashocks from Oscar Fiorinotto were also brought over and the car retains the rear leaf springs from King Springs – the front end is a lot more liberal in what can be changed there.
The rear mounting points have been relocated, outward by around 50mm from the original manufacturer’s points. Not so much for camber as there are restrictions there, but more for the wheel/motion ratio. Originally shocks are mounted inbound and they are able to move the tops out slightly to get them straighter.
“We were able to increase the track to a certain degree, as we are basically limited by the guards – we had already done that on the old car, so there was no gain there,” Fisher added. “Still the Toranas have an advantage over us in that they have coils.”
It has roll centre change from the rear, with adjustable blade sway bars but they can’t be controlled from inside the car. “That was another clarification we sorted out.”
At the front, the original the setup was double wishbone. All the new components have been designed in-house, like the top and bottom arms along with radius rods, by the team. So the front end is completely different.
The components were done by Brandt. Then Jesus Racing’s engineer Rhett O’Brien has taken it further and developed it.
“It was laid out on a piece of paper for Marty, but in practice that didn’t work and Rhett had to overcome hindrances like making things not hit, wheels on ball joints and the like.”
There has been two of everything built so there is a spare in case something gets bent. “We have an amazing company doing all the suspension machining. They want to remain unnamed because they don’t want anyone knowing what they do, and they do everything for free.”
Rear brakes are Falcon XF 300mm rotors on Hats floating rear end while the fronts are 330mm and pads are Pagid from Comp Friction.
Inside, the car the Cobra seat, brand new from Revolution, has been moved inwardly by about 80mm and that is a safety issue.
The dash has been moulded in leather with new gauges housed within – beautiful compared to the old one which was just a piece of aluminium along the length.
The steering column is collapsible like the Supercars use. The car is fitted with a Tilton pedal box, and front and rear brake bias from inside the car.
There is a little digital lap timer and they do have Motec in the car just not the dash – that is not allowed. Still they get the information back in terms of the car and what it is doing, which is critically important in running these kinds of cars. “You want to know everything about the engine as you can, they are expensive.”
There is an all-new switch panel which used circuit breakers, something new brought into this car, rather than fuses. It was added as a move to newer technology.
Steering is power-assisted recirculating ball which they are looking to move to rack and pinion sometime in the future.
Fisher also elects to use a cool suit via a cylinder rather than a box of dry ice. There is a fire bomb installed and that was very intricate as they had to work out where to direct the retardant when the bomb was activated – the likely source of potential flames, and concentrating on fuel and electric areas.
New exhaust, in-house designed and fabricated – from the specially tuned length of the headers to maximise performance. It was then sent to Queensland to be ceramic coated.
The engine is mounted in original mounting position, restricted in location by the space to work with. They would have liked to have it nestled lower but the specially-designed exhaust system has the headers too low, so they couldn’t go down any further.
“The engine has been a nightmare,” Fisher admitted. “The engine builder has been ill, and been through a torrid time.”
The team chose to take the pressure off him as much as they could by missing a couple of TCM rounds and Fisher says it is not exactly where they want it to be in terms of performance, but it is staying together.
It is a 351ci Ford Dart powerplant with CHI 3V heads while everything else is pretty much open slather. All internals are lightened and strengthened, so it is titanium everything.
Pistons are bespoke, tail-made, firstly for weight reduction and then to work with all the other components such as valve clearance and the like. Obviously the engine builders are very protective of what they are doing and exact information was not forthcoming.
The carburettor is a Demon four-barrel and fuel comes from the boot-mounted brand new tank.
“I have some dyno sheets from some of the boys and there are some pretty happy numbers out there. We are not in that league at this point in time, but this engine has great potential,” Fisher predicted.
At the end of the day the torque curve is not where it supposed to be but they believe they know why and how we can fix that.
“Going into next year we should be able to smarten it up a bit and certainly be on the money with horsepower that everyone else has.”
They now have changed engine builders. The initial engine builder has supplied the full spec and everything he has done, and the team has gone through that and can see why the engine is not performing as it should.
“We have new engine builder now in Mick Webb. We could have gone with Mick at the start and some said we should have. But we wanted a Sydney-based one because of where we are. Unfortunately it did not work out for us,” Fisher admitted.
The gearbox is four-speed Jericho, an older NASCAR style of box. John Wilcox from Australian Transmission Components looks after all the diff centres and gearboxes.
Ratios can be inside the box except for the 1:1 fourth gear final drive – that is part of the category rules. There are also several diff ratios which change from circuit to circuit and is an easy task to undertake.
The tailshaft is aftermarket and strengthened. Some teams run two-piece units, Jesus Racing run the one piece. Abigail also has a locked diff rather than the limited slip one.
“As we feel we are becoming happy with the development of the car with regards shocks and spring rates, may move to a limited slip diff (LSD).”
The last outing was in the support TCM races at the Supercheap Auto 1000 with two sevenths and a sixth. Encouraging results as the top place XY over the weekend and second best of the Falcons behind Ablenica’s XB.
While satisfied at getting through the weekend without damage or mechanical dramas, he wasn’t happy. “The car didn’t handle as it should of, and our engine . . . “
He felt it was about a second off where it should have been, and probably another half a second of Steve Johnson and John Bowe in the races.
He felt he too was a bit rusty, having not driven the car in fury since Adelaide. He qualified third at Winton and had one practice session at Hidden Valley in June.
“This car has the potential for a win, we just have to keep developing it and moving forward with it. TCM is our goal next year and I will do some Production Car stuff as well, with Anthony Soole and his BMW 1M.”
“I want to get the Falcon right so I can race the Bowes, Richards and Johnsons in TCM.”
By GARRY O’BRIEN
Article originally published in Issue 1723 of Auto Action.
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