On the same day (within minutes, in fact) that we ran our first sub-14 in a BA GT, Luxon’s weapon scorched across the same bit of blacktop in a rousing 13.6 seconds with a terminal speed of 178.8 km/h. The first hundred came up in 5.4 seconds, and if more traction had been available, it would’ve gone even quicker. That’s BMW M3 quick.

What’s really impressive is the part-throttle response out on the road. The torque wells up quick smart just like it does on the stocker but, as we said, by design the APS car doesn’t feel any more muscular below about 2500 rpm. It gets interesting from there on, however.

By the time the tacho needle has swung past 3000 rpm there’s all kinds of hell breaking loose. Okay, so it doesn’t exactly throw a wobbly and spit you towards the horizon, but it feels mighty strong, mighty pumped and totally together.

To say that it simply feels like a really fit XR6 Turbo is selling it sort (13.6 is walking the walk, don’t forget) but thanks to the composure it shows even when tagging the limiter, that’s pretty much how it is.

And since the rest of the package from the suspension to the brakes has been left completely alone, the notion that it really is mostly stock Falcon keeps cropping up. Like, when the brakes get hot and go away after a few hard stops.

In fact, even the standard pop-off-valve has been retained, the extra boost making a bigger sneeze when you back off, but that’s all folks.

You’ll laugh at the price, meanwhile. Luxon reckons he can supply the engine management and boost tweaks for about *$1,590 fitted and tuned, with another $600-$700 for the bigger cat.

Got an XR6 Turbo? Then you’ve gotta have this, you really do.

* PHASE I has a RRP of $1,650 fully installed and custom tuned live on a chassis dyno – including before and after dyno graphs. The cat convertor is not offered separately.

Body: Four-door sedan
Drive: Rear-wheel
Engine: Front-mounted 4.0 litre 24-valve turbocharged inline six
Power: 295 kW @ 5500 rpm (est.)
Torque: 550 Nm @ 4500 rpm (est.)
Compression Ratio: 9.0:1
Bore X Stroke: 92.3 mm x 99.3 mm
Weight/Power: 5.71 kg/kW
Specific Power: 73.8 kW/litre
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti- roll bar, (f); control blade IRS, coil springs, anti-roll bar (r)
Length/Width/Height: 4944/1864/1444 mm
Wheelbase: 2829 mm
Track: 1553 mm (f); 1571 mm (r)
Brakes: 325 mm ventilated discs, two-piston calipers (f); 303 mm solid discs, single-piston calipers (r), ABS
Wheels: 17 x 8.0 inch, alloy
Tyres: Dunlop SP Sport, 225/45 ZR17 (f&r)
Fuel: 68 litres, PULP
Price: $46,000 approx.

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