2019 Premcar Holy Grail Falcon review

Behold, the Premcar Holy Grail. This is, depending on how you look at it, either the ultimate interpretation of the Ford Falcon platform, an outdated irrelevance or, for the starry-eyed among us, the spiritual successor to the mighty Falcon GT-HO.

The official line from Bernie Quinn, engineering boss at Premcar (a consulting engineering business formed after the break-up of Prodrive) is the former. And he won’t be drawn on the latter (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

But what about outdated irrelevance? Nope, can’t agree with that, even if the tuning world has tossed a handful of soil on the Falcon’s coffin and moved on to the Mustang.

See, this really, truly is the best Falcon we’ve ever driven.

True, it comes along more than two years after the lights were turned off at the Broady assembly plant, but in terms of the actual metal, it’s pretty damn amazing.

Essentially, the Holy Grail package (as Premcar has knighted it) amounts to a kit that bolts to your existing Miami (supercharged Coyote) and takes the auld dear to completely new heights dynamically.

The fun starts with the engine which has been fitted with a bigger intercooler (that actually cools the intake charge twice) changes to cam timing, a retune, different exhaust and the engine can now rev to 7000rpm (up from 6000) thanks to a revised power-steering pump that will cop the revs.

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“We’ve uncorked the Miami engine,” Bernie explains. Uncorked indeed; the bugger now cranks out 483kW and 753Nm, so that jump seems huge. But let’s not forget that, back in the day, FPV was being very, very coy about the true output of the blown five-litre.

But at least as many gains have been made to the chassis which fixes that original Falcon drama of a clumsy, oafish feel when you started pushing it.

With lots of input from Melbourne-based specialist Shockworks, the solution was to start with the best tyre around for this application and tailor a package around it.

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So, Pilot Cup Sport 2s were bolted on (with a 295 at the rear) while Shockworks came up with a hand-made, Holy Grail-specific set of dampers and springs that allow full adjustment for good measure.

Does it all work? Does it what. Back to back with a stock FPV GT, the difference is amazing. As well as loads more grunt, the Falcon now wants to steer properly and is totally forgiving should you wish to alter your tack at any point in the corner.

And it’s so stable, it’s suddenly a drift-meister. Premcar claims the Grail is a full 10 seconds faster around Winton than a stock FPV GT. It’s actually believable.

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You can read the full road test of the Holy Grail in the next issue of MOTOR, but in the meantime, take it as read that this truly does raise the bar.

Okay, it’s the bar that doesn’t exist in showrooms any more, but with just 100 examples to be built, Premcar believes the OE quality of the package (not to mention the 12-month/20,000km warranty) will put a smile back on Falcon owners’ faces. And have them beating a path to Premcar.

And you know what’s even more impressive? I managed to tell you all this without a single Monty Python reference.