Agent 47 Falcon Sprint Build

[Lance Carbuncle]

Hello Everyone,

I have been lurking and learning on here for quite a while, and have finally got some focus and pulled the trigger on my new Build. I have always been a Falcon Guy and have owned at least a few at all times since the early Eighties. I have done a few Resto-Mod Builds, and a full race build. My last Falcon Race car has become well known on the Vintage Trans Am Racing Circuit. It is the original James Taylor '63 Sprint that raced in SCCA, Trans Am, and the original Mexican Panamerica races in the mid 60's...... long story short, after spending 10 years building the car from a basket, I was forced to sell it before I made a race with it. It is now in the hands of Michael Eisenberg at Maeco Motorsports and he has finished the car to all it's glory. Here is a link (http://www.carcraft.com/featuredvehicles/ccrp_0807_63_ford_falcon/) to a Car Craft Article done on the car shortly after I sold it.

In the last few years, my Business started doing well enough to start thinking about a new build and I decided that the '64 Sprint that I have owned for 24 years would be the next project. After my experience with the Vintage crowd, and my enjoyment of new technology, I decided that I wanted to build a modern version of a Trans Am car.... basically take an old car and build it to Trans Am rules as if it was a late model car..... which led me to the discovery of the "Pro Touring" Community. I did a lot of digging around at available suspension options for upgrading the Falcon. I looked at Falcon specific offerings, Mustang offerings, and what I could do to adapt the Mustang kits to the Falcon.

I have good mechanic skills, but I am not a fabricator. With Business being good, it makes a lot more sense for me to do what I do best, and pay someone else to do what they do better than me..so I knew that I would need to find a good shop to pull off this build.

After about a year of research, and digging around, I found the Agent 47 Harbinger online, and their custom SLA suspension that they had adapted to the Mustang Platform.... better yet, I realized they were right here in North San Diego, so I decided to shoot them an email about the possibility of adapting their suspension to a Falcon. I got a quick and friendly reply from Corey Weber, who happened to know my '63 Falcon and was more than interested in looking at what it would take to do. Corey is definitely one of those guys that gets really excited talking about builds, and I was stoked to be able to get his ear.

Agent 47 are really race car builders. Their Harbinger Mustang is an effort to take their racing knowledge and build a refined version that can be comfortably street driven. On the race track, their cars are at the front of the pack in the NASA American Iron Series and others. Since I want to build a streetable racecar, and not a trackable streetcar, this seemed to be a great match for my vision. I basically want to build a Falcon version of their Harbinger..... though it will likely take more work than building another Mustang due to the subtle and major differences in the cars.

Anyways...... after several months of talking to the ever enthusiastic guys at Agent 47, and gathering ideas and parts, I have dropped off the car at their new facility and the teardown has begun. This car will be built to be legal for NASA American Iron Racing, and like the Harbinger, It will have the equipment to set it up in street trim, and be able to swap over to full race in about a day's worth of swapping seats, inserting door bars, adding Aero.....etc. I am not really sure where the build will take this thing, or how far I get before I have to slow down and run out of money, but I am excited about this new Journey.

I will be meeting once a week at the Agent 47 shop for a weekly "happy hour" progress report and build direction decision making. I look forward to sharing the progress in this build thread and hope there are a few on here who will enjoy the updates.

I I did a mild build on this car about 15 years ago and it has a 350 horse 302/Tremec 5 Speed, Currie Rear end with Global west suspension and 4 wheel disks..... all the takeoff stuff will likely go on my Ranchero in the near future. More to come!

Cheers, Allen

Here are a few photo's from drop off day, and this week after some teardown: (The pic of the two cars in the driveway shows the car in it's original white color along with my Sprint Convetible and is from around 1999.

[Z06killinSBF]

Tuned in, should be bad ass like the rear of your cars.

[windsor]

:machine:

Gonna be awesome!

[GrabberGT]

Very Cool. Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

[Lance Carbuncle]

Thanks Guys,

I have been looking forward to this for a long time as well. The more the car comes apart, the more details are exposed and fine decisions need to be made.

I stopped by yesterday and the car is so far torn down that I decided to go ahead and just tear it all the way down and send the body out for media blasting so we have a perfectly clean slate to start with. I am the second owner of the car and it has never been hit, and has no rust, but there is quite a bit of rubberized sealer on the bottom of the car and inside the rear quarters and I want to clean and lighten the car as much as possible.

The car is going through a complete lightening by Jeff and his magic cutters and grinders. He has pulled and cut at least a couple hundred pounds out of the chassis already and has quite a ways to go.

We are also going to move the driver position in the car back about four to six inches. To do this, we are going to move the steering back as well as the whole dash so that the steering wheel remains the same distance from the dash and looks "right". This will allow us more room under the dash for the new Tilton Petal assembly we decided to go with, which is the same piece they use on the Harbinger Mustang.

It has been really fun going down to the shop and talking about the build with guys who seem just as excited about the build as I do. I thought I had everything figured out until they started throwing more ideas at me. For example, I have been set on a big bore 347 as the powerplant, but the guys in the shop just kept whispering "Coyote" in my ear so many times that I started to think about it. When they told me they actually weighted their race ready 331 with accessories, side by side with the equally accesorized Coyote, that the Coyote weiged 75 pounds LESS... I was a bit shocked, because when you look at them, the Coyote is just a monster. This detail alone made me really consider their suggestion.

My biggest concern is that I don't want to put any kind of a scoop on the car, I just like the clean hood look.....and for NASA Racing, we can't cut the firewall and move it back..... We took some quick measurements off the Harbinger, and they are convinced we can make it fit. They also have a mockup engine sitting on a stand, so I told them if they could show it to me with the Coyote sitting in it and the hood closed, that it was on!

So we made a friendly little bet, and will see what happens. I know I saw a build on here where someone put a Coyote in a '64 Falcon, and they put a big scoop on it... so we will see! I have also seen one first hand in a '63, and it required about an inch of raised hood. Stay tuned.

[csouth]

Looking forward to seeing this build complete. I saw the Harbinger pictured in the background at SEMA, beautiful car. I'm sure you'll be more than satisfied with the end result.

[DC-69]

kewl car I will be watching for sure ......

[Dave B]

Sweet build, I'll be watching for updates.

[pro67coupe]

wow cant wait to see this build

[72BBSwinger]

I really like the "purpose built" vibe, but yet subtle, of the Agent 47 cars. A Falcon should fly with the same approach.

[Bryce]

welcome aboard! Its always good to see another falcon on here.

Why not an aluminum block 331 instead of the coyote.

I look forward to seeing the progress.

[Lance Carbuncle]

Thanks Bryce,

I waded deep into your thread a while back and really appreciate the engineering and work you put into your car. I only wish I had the time and talent to do it myself these days, but right now, it just makes the most sense to put the car in the capable hands of the guys at Agent 47 and pick let them do their thing.

As far as the motor goes, building a 500 HP fuel injected aluminum block 331 or 347 would actually cost quite a bit more than even the new Boss 302 Crate engine. An aluminum Dart block alone is more than 5 grand, and I the only motor builder I have a relationship with and have ever used (Leon Patton) is swamped with race motors and it would take me forever to get one build. I can pick up the phone and have a new Boss motor in a week or two. Since we are already taking the car down to the frame rails and changing it to front steering, the labor difference to make the switch will be negligible since the guys at Agent 47 already have done several early fords with this setup and know what it takes.

Since the guys at Agent 47 are already racing the coyote motors on the track, they have a LOT of experience installing, running, tuning, and just sorting them out. They already have the programming down for race tuning, as well as a de-tune to run legally in the American Iron series. If I was having someone who didn't have all this Coyote experience do the build, and I didn't already want to build an injected motor, I would not even be thinking about this. But since I am building this car in their Stable, the best fit is going to be to follow their lead. They are able to make right at 500 HP at the crank using the Boss motor with the cross ram style intake bolted on it, which should fit under my hood.

At least those are the arguments I have made to convince myself that going the Coyote route would be a good thing ;).

Cheers, Allen

[BigCat]

Looking forward to this project. Huge fan of the Agent 47 cars and Falcons.

[Munssey]

Im glad someones finally got the time and money to get a Coyote into a hard top. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Im very excited to see this thing built....

[AusMarty]

I love this model Falcon. :D

[Lance Carbuncle]

Thanks Guys,

No update this week due to the limited holiday schedule. Thanks for the props. It was a difficult decision to build a Falcon after looking at all of the custom pieces that Agent 47 made for their Harbinger Mustang. The owner's day job is "Rapid Prototyping" and he does lots of OEM work for the Automotive and Aerospace industry. They have state of the art 3-D printers and used considerable resources to print custom parts for the Harbinger to make it light and slippery. Hopefully we can make a lot of those parts work on the Falcon...... In the end, it would cost more to build the Falcon to their Harbinger specs, and I can't afford to have one off engineered/3D printed parts just for my build.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't so stuck in my ways, because the Harbinger is absolutely awesome, all the engineering is already done, and they are building them on spec as rollers or finished cars...... but I have been a Falcon guy since I started driving cars... and just can't see myself building a Mustang.

I also have a '64 Sprint Convertible (Beach Cruiser) and a '65 Ranchero that I am doing a period style Baja style build on..... probably not suitable for the forums here, but here is a pic of the original Arras/Moser Ranchero that raced Baja in the 70's-80's. The Ranchero evolved over the years from the small tired near stock car pictured in black and white (1973), to the big tired car in the second photo about ten years later.

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"I just want to be different.... (like everyone else)"

[Nash510]

Subscribed! (Obviously)

[jeff@a-47]

Hey Allen,
Sorry to let you know this way but, your old motor and tranny fell out. I guess we will just have to throw in a Coyote. Looks like you would save about 70-80 pounds compared to the motor we took out.

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[bikefreak600]

the coyote is very impressive, great choice. the only engine i would chose before a coyote is a 351w based stroker. Windsor make more power and they sound so much better than the coyote, but at the expense of comfort and gas mileage. To me, the sound of a car is equally as important as looks. All that aside this is one cool car and will be fun to drive ! looking forward to more updates !

[Lance Carbuncle]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the update...... funny how that happens! ......as long as you can show me the spare coyote sitting in there with the hood closed, its on like Donkey Kong! :)

Let me know when the rear end falls out so I can come get it for the Ranchero Build at the house :) I hope to see you later in the week for a look and update.

Allen

[Lance Carbuncle]

Bike Freak.......have you heard how the A47 Mustang Sounds with their setup? ........ Check this video out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-a_oHbNrhg

[Lance Carbuncle]

Hey Allen,
Sorry to let you know this way but, your old motor and tranny fell out. I guess we will just have to throw in a Coyote. Looks like you would save about 70-80 pounds compared to the motor we took out.



Thanks Jeff,

I wanted to share some more great info he emailed me as I think the weights would be of interest to many on here........

Old Motor (289) with flywheel, clutch, headers (as pictured) = 500 pounds

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Coyote motor with flywheel, clutch, headers (as pictured) = 420 pounds

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The only minor differences are that the Coyote motor was missing oil, spark plugs, coil packs, and wire harness. So that's a possible 15 additional pounds or so. That would bring it to around 435 pounds for a realistic weight savings of around 65 pounds.

[Yellow66]

Nice build, definitely following this one. :worship: Wish I had the time and money to go that far with my 65 sedan.... If you want to get rid of those 289 headers let me know. I could use them on my sedan.:attn:

[GrabberGT]

Just curious but are those Iron heads and intake on the 289?

[Lance Carbuncle]

Just curious but are those Iron heads and intake on the 289?

Good question........ As I recall, it is an early ford 289 block and crank. It has an aluminum intake and steel heads (ported 69 Windsor). I would imagine that a 331 or 347 would weigh a bit more. I think the Agent 47 motor they weighed was about the same as mine but it was a 331 with aluminum heads AND intake.

Allen

[Lance Carbuncle]

Ok, now I am starting to get a bit excited myself about the Coyote option.....I just received a few new pics from Jeff at A-47 to get me excited about my visit tomorrow.....

"This is with the tall boss intake that we don't use. The intake we use is slightly taller than the valve covers. Hood clearance? Check!"

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[sixgunsuperman99]

Very, VERY cool build - I can't wait to see how this one turns out. I've had one of the Agent 47 Mustangs as my background on my computer for roughly a year or so now.

I'm not sure if anyone on here follows the Motor Trend/Road Kill Youtube channel or not, but the Harbinger was featured in this drag race at El Toro airbase between the Harbinger, a 911 Turbo, and an LS3 offroad buggy. I'm assuming the intake used will be the one shown at the beginning of the video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-a_oHbNrhg

[Lance Carbuncle]

Hey Guys,

Stopped by the shop to check out the build..... or should I say un-build for now..... Last week they got the car completely stripped down to the unibody and bolted to the rotisserie. Jeff has been going to town on the car cutting out every piece of unneeded sheet metal, brackets and whatever is going to be replaced. Once the core support and inner fenders are gone, the pile looks like it will be several hundred pounds when you include the metal, plastic, and glass that won't go back in. I am hoping that when done, we will be a couple hundred pounds lighter than the Harbinger, but that will depend on how much metal I replace with fiberglass.

Does anyone have first hand experience with the fiberglass parts from Crites or others for these cars. I want to have a good finish, and have heard that the drag race stuff can be a little rough. I am especially interested to know if anyone has tried fitting the glass doors and the weight difference.

Sixgun..... yes, the motor I use will likely be a clone of the motor you see in the Harbinger.

Next week we should be off to the media blaster and in a couple weeks we should start construction.

Here are a few pics of the stripped down unibody

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[Bryce]

Lance,

Your motor weights got me thinking... I weighed the base 319 race motor we run in my dads mustang, 357lbs.

I have a crites hood it fits pretty good for out of the box, you are more than welcome to stop by and take a look. or come out to the SCCA event on the 26th of January. I also have a crites trunk lid and it fits horrible but I bought it second hand, im not sure of the mods. I have unlimited products fenders and it took 9 hours to get each one installed.

I would like to stop by the shop and take a look at the car once constructions starts and say hi to Corey.

[Lance Carbuncle]

Hi Bryce,

By base motor, what do you mean exactly.... dry motor with, or without intake and carb... flywheel, clutch, headers? All that stuff definitely adds up. I am guessing those are aluminum heads... is the block Iron?

I would enjoy seeing your car and showing you mine once it has started going together and there is something worth looking at.

Thanks for the comments on the glass parts. 9 hours to install a fender is not what I would call a good fit! Did you happen to note the weight savings of the glass parts?

Allen

[Bryce]

453 lbs to make it a complete motor.

I have all the weights in my notes. I will take a look and post up tomorrow.

[rossmacd]

Subscribing. Love those Falcons.

[rustomatic]

Just as I was trying to remove myself from cars for a bit (bad pilot bearing on new motor--pisser), I look on here, and there's not one, but like five or so new Falcon posters. Between this one and the stock car-style build, I seem to be unfortunately hooked again--there's that and the American Auto-X series starting up in March...

For building the Trans-Am Falcon, you are cool--I had that thing as my computer desktop for like the first year I was messing with my Falcon. I thank you for adding to my psychosis and destroying what was intended to be a nice daily driver--my car is a now *******, but is better for it (or perhaps not). It still looks mostly stock, from about 20 paces, as Bryce's probably does to most people as well, but then there's reality: "This didn't come with that, did it? (x30)"

Consider all of us Falcon dorks now infected. If you've got build details on the Ranchero, please post, or direct to a link--some of us play in the dirt, too...

[Lance Carbuncle]

Thanks Rustomatic,

It's always great to connect with another Falcon Junkie. Glad you dug the Trans Am car... I regret having to sell that car before I was able to put it on the track... Not much you can do when you get crunched by the financial crash of a few years ago but throw everything overboard and then start again..... so here I am with a more appropriate project that doesn't limit my imagination as much.

The Ranchero.... I didn't even realize I uploaded that photo..... took the pic the same day as the Sprint pics and just uploaded them. There is nothing about that build that would fit on this website... I am an old Desert Racer by nature and it is going to slowly become a tribute to an old Class 6 Ranchero that raced in Baja from 1973 to 1988 (Arras/Moser Bros)... Ultimate goal would be to run it at the NORRA 1000. Right now, I am just playing around with getting the fenders and body to fit the 33" BFG Mud Terrain tires which is no simple chore. It has been good practice for the Sprint build as I am going to have to rework the fenders to get it slammed on 315 x 18's in the front without an obvious Flare. If I start a build thread on the Ranchero, It will likely be at the racedezert forums.

Cheers

[Lance Carbuncle]

I just got an email from Stefan at GTSclassics with some photo's of my completed seats that are now on the way. Some of you might think they are a bit old school for a modern build, but I really want to give the car a Vintage Trans Am period look as much as possible. These seats will be for street duty and we are building a seat mounting system so I can quickly swap them out for modern safety race seats for serious track days.

These seats are his "Trans Am" (http://classiccarseats.com/transam.php) Model and I think they will give me the look I am going for with the car.

Cheers, Allen

890668906789063890648906289065

[NTIMID8]

I have the same build going on right now as well. Mine is a 64 Falcon sprint but with the boss engine. I just put my project on hold until I get some free time. So for now I will watch your build. ;)
-Jason

[protasone]

I too was bit by the Coyote Bug but decided to go with the 347 stroker. Almost done and ready to run now. Cant wait to see your finished product!! Subscribed!

[Munssey]

I would like to stop by the shop and take a look at the car once constructions starts and say hi to Corey.

And you're taking me along to shake hands with the A47 guys ;)

[M4nt00th]

Any updates??

[LowFast]

In for updates, cool build.

[Lance Carbuncle]

I finally have had some progress made on my car.... Cage is going in nicely and as nice and tight to the body.

[Nash510]

Very nice!

[windsor]

looks great! Have any info on the body work that was done?

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Very nice!

[Lance Carbuncle]

looks great! Have any info on the body work that was done?

Just torn all the way down and lightened as much as possible. Cut about a hundred pounds of metal out if it, media blasted it and sprayed with a weldable primer.

[cla5675]

Any updates on this build?

[no go nova]

Nice project glad you chose that coyote engine gonna be a beast show some updates.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Very cool, I can't wait to see what they come up with.

[85coupe50]

I love to see the Fords get built... I really like seeing more Coyote combos too.

[NTIMID8]

Any updates on this build?

[Lance Carbuncle]

Any updates on this build?

Hey Guys,

Project took a wrong turn when the shop who was working on it just kept bumping my project for other work and because they cut their shop staff way down. after nearly three years, I finally pulled the car last fall and brought it home. My friend Tom Nash and I finished the body design and work and I am really proud of how it sits....... now it is just taking up space in the garage waiting for me to find someone I can afford to have put it back together. I have been focusing on the Baja Ranchero Build in the meantime.

Here are some updates on the "Angry Bird" https://www.facebook.com/angry64falconsprint/

And the build page for the Baja Ranchero if anyone is interested:

https://www.facebook.com/bajaranchero/

[Jetfixr320]

Wow! Both look insane!

[Mr Dumass]

I hate to see that happen. I'm not sure how a speed shop ends up with a parent company, but it appears that their day to day at Agent 47 wasn't profitable enough to justify continuing to build the components and doing custom work anymore. Forecast 3D/Agent 47 still has all of the jigs to build the SLA suspension kits, but during the course of my last inquiry, I was told that they wouldn't build one for me or sell me the design, jigs, etc.

[Boosted Falcon]

Well shoot Lance I thought I was going to get to the last page and see your completed Falcon. Well keep us posted on any progress I am looking forward to seeing the completed car.
I have just started a 64 Falcon 2 door sedan EcoBoost swap so I am always looking for ideas.

[NTIMID8]

That sucks, sorry to hear that. Good luck with the rest of the build.

[wfo guy]

One more time. Way too common, always sad.