Holy Grail Project
Firstly, I’m really pleased with the final result our Premcar (SVT) guys delivered on our Miami project – Holy Grail. Most of my guys worked on many of the FPV platforms over the years. Holy Grail was a no brainer for us really … in our eyes it’s what we call a ‘Factory Standard Conversion’ given it was the Premcar team who created the Miami engine. In the beginning.
It’s an honour to have John Bowe involved again, JB was part of our development program for FPV when we first started in 2002. His car knowledge is special, his deeper level of understanding of performance, handling and the subtle nuances has made ourprocesses so much easier to build the ultimate Holy Grail!
This is the car we always wanted to build, we always had a plan to create the ultimate version of the Falcon. Since the end of Falcon production, we’ve had time to complete the engineering and development work required to exceed OE standards for the Ultimate Falcon. We’ve subsequently had more than two years and are finally ready to deliver Holy Grail.
Intercooling is the key that unlocks consistent power from the Miami engine. It’s about creating cooler combustion, which offers more boost and advanced spark timing to build more power and torque. We haven’t just cranked the boost, we’ve worked on optimising cam timing to deliver more power and torque, whilst maintaining the original engine’s durability and driveability.
We’ve built a number of intercooled prototypes over the years, following our most recent development of a pair of FGX Sprint-based prototypes, we made the decision to invest in tooling for all the Holy Grail components. We’re doing it the same way we’ve done any other OEM program.
We’re re-casting the lower intake manifold with water galleries, retooling the whole intercooler, using OEM-quality pumps, radiators, heat exchangers and using the same suppliers we used for the original development program. Of course, our guys have the background and experience with the calibration; we’ve always delivered the cals (engine calibration) for FPV and more recently Ford FGX XR8 program.
Our early development work involved finding a way to keep the awesome power while making it manageable to drive, and ensuring we protected the integrity of the vehicle. The major changes include a new intake manifold, remapped engine computer software and an intercooler that keeps temperatures low and boosts performance, its way more complex than a simple engine calibration flash – there’s been a massive investment in tooling/engineering and testing time to ensure we have it right!
We’ve done it exactly as it would have been mechanically, if there was ever to be a modern Ultimate Miami Falcon. The Holy Grail package has the same level of robustness as a showroom delivered vehicle. As powerful as it is, we haven’t gone crazy. If you choose to build your ‘Factory Conversion’ - it will make your Miami very rare. We’ll make the supporters of our brand, not only very proud – they’ll have a genuine piece of Australian motoring history.
We will deliver the Holy Grail engine upgrades, but we know this car is so much more capable (that's the engineer in us). So we continued on the path and created an options list, that said we reckon we understand our owners pretty well ... and they want the it done right – all of it!
The first thing we considered/knew/understood was exhaust, I won't bore you with the detail but to say in the end we build a MUST have option given the ADR regulations and we have grouped exhaust with the Holy Grail engine upgrade. In a word, the work my guys have done in nothing short of genius/miracle. My guys created a new ECU program for our bi-module exhaust and they've built the best sounding exhaust on the planet. It's good on start up/idle, under robust acceleration it will blow your mind! We started (dare I say) with AMG C63 as our benchmark ... I reckon we've gone well beyond!
Our SVT crew looked over our pillar components available for our Handling Options (HO) and what they've created is outstanding,.The combination moves Holy Grail to a new level, with a completely new coil over suspension (adjustable) changes the car behaviour completely. Our suspension Guru is a n artist - his knowledge/understanding of ride/handling is world class, I'm very pleased with his final work.
In supporting the suspension upgrade we knew we needed to add wider rubber given the current architecture only allows for fitment of 275 (max) rear tyre. Our guys re engineered the trail blade suspension (billet aluminium) allowing for way more grip/traction from wider tyres. It's quite a complex task and our SVT come up with the gold.
We are approaching sign off on our wheel design, it's an awesome forged wheel and we will share images once we're done testing. We have selected our tyre, you'll find the details on our options page.
Finally, our Holy Grail program has finished well beyond our benchmark ... delivering significantly above our own expectations. I know you’ll be as excited, as we are!
Cheers,
BQ
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