Was Steve Masterton Australia’s fastest builder?
There was no doubt during the 1980s he gave it a fair shake and was one of Ford’s leading contenders alongside Dick Johnson in his Masterton Homes XE Falcon.
Based in Sydney, Masterton’s major achievement was the 1984 AMSCAR title in what was arguably the best Ford Falcon built to the Group C regulations.
During its early development it was legendary American Carroll Smith leading the way, but it was ex-Bob Jane mechanic and engineer Pat Purcell, who set the trend for touring car builds from then on.
The new Falcon was built following the first iteration’s demise at Amaroo Park and the advancement was felt immediately by Masterton.
“The new Falcon was built with a steel roll cage, cross-sectioned as they’re built today in Supercars, welded in everywhere,” Masterton recalled.
“My god you could feel the difference.
“We brought Carroll Smith in 1982 to help out, it wasn’t for long maybe three months just to get us up and going. Then Pat and John (Skola) started with us, Carroll was still there when those two boys came onto the team, then he went back (to the US) and Pat (Purcell) took over running the team.”
The XE proved revolutionary, though success eluded Masterton outside of Amaroo Park.
“Our car was ahead of its time, we were the first ones to have a roll cage like that, we were the first to have a race car where you opened the bonnet and think ‘shit! Where is everything? It’s just the engine in there’. It was just the simplest looking engine bay you’d ever seen.
“Everything was highly refined like you could wheel align the car from under the bonnet – there was no need to jack it up. We had 532hp in 1984, but the car was so fragile, it was quick over a short distance, but was unreliable over a long distance.
“We were working on that and it was because we wanted to run the car right on the minimum weight and we had to take the weight out of somewhere. We had to build the car fragile to make it light to comply with the minimum weight, but in hindsight we took the strength out of the wrong areas to save the weight.
“That Falcon was something different compared to everyone else’s because of Pat. He built that car like he would have a sports sedan for Bob Jane.”
Now a new generation of Masterton is competing in the sport as son James now races in Dunlop Super2.
And what of the Falcon? Well, the big XE is currently being restored by the Masterton family after being sold to mechanic John Skola after Group C was finished, so expect it to re-appear soon.