hi all.
after seeing user 'rod's new toy, a nice AU TS50 falcon on here, i thought i better show Nicole's XR8.

i'm sure most of u would know my wife by now. she's the girl at the nationals that does the 'peoples choice' voting hand outs and collections.
well, Nikk's not just a car wife, she's a car head herself! she even runs her own car detailng company here in Melbourne (yes, the VIP Car Care that sponsors a couple of trophies at the nationals each year), hence why her own cars look so clean!

she has a couple of cars, with her favourite being this 2001 AU series 2 XR8 220kw falcon she proudly owns.



story goes briefly like this:
she'd always wanted a "shed car" of her own, what with me having multiple cars for years. she always liked the AU XR Falcon range, so when we were in the right position to do so in mid 2004, off we went looking for one, but she was determined it had to be an XR8. we found a few, and we bought this '01 build car, with the optional 220kw 5 litre (302ci) V8, 4 speed auto, etc. the 220kw engine was an option in the series 2's, then made standard in the series 3 XR8. it was basicly the same as the previous 200kw engine, but has a slightly different camshaft profile with roller lifters and roller rockers. it also had a bigger throttle body to make use of the better breathing valve train, and an oil cooler mounted in front of the radiator. this particular car also had the factory optioned momo leather steering wheel and shifter kit, premium sound system that uses a 6 stack cd player with tape deck, and a 10 nch subwoofer with amp, and it had the extra body kit comprising the lower sill extensions, front lip spoiler pieces and the rear skirt. it was a well looked after 1 owner local car, with 59,000k on it.
she used it as everyday transport until late 2006, when it had about 101,000k on it. that's when she bought another car to use for her day to day stuff, and put the XR8 in the shed. since then, it's done only 3,000k in 4 years.....!!
she has shown it with her club quite a few times, and has continued to clean up the club's concourse year after year, much to the discust of most guys in the club! she's won 4 years in a row, and only missed out 1 year because we couldn't attend due to commitments elsewhere on the same day.
as u can see in the pics, it's a beautifully detailed car, and is always that clean. to highlight just how fastidious she is with it, i'll run thru what the detailing job was for the last concourse, and remember it was already immaculate... put the car up on 4 stands, and spend 3 days cleaning it underneath including all the under guard areas, suspension, brakes, etc., as well as repainting a few things along the way that needed a bit of a touch up, then spend 2 days polishing it, including removing EVERYTHING that could be so there would be no polish lines. by everything, i mean : wheels and tyres, tailights, every rubber, side indicators, headlights, wipers, scuttle grille, windscreen moulds, door scuff plates, number plates, the lot. even the inside of the wheels and tyres were cleaned, polished and then got some black tyre shine before they went back on! every piece that was removed was also cleaned and polished before it went back on too. then we pulled alot of easily removed things from the engine bay to clean and polish in there too... and the interior was completely done from top to bottom as well.... the entire job was over 2 weeks of nights and weekends!

as u can probably tell, i'm enormously proud of Nikk, her car, and what she has acheived with it in male a dominated sport/hobby/industry, as her skills with her XR8 have carried over to her profeesinal life doing car detailing for others. she loves the XR8 death, but only problem is that she never lets me drive the damn thing, coz i might get it dirty!!

enjoy!

ohh, and btw....
the MRSXR8 plates on it came about because she was sick and tied of everyone thinking that her XR8 was mine, as the plates she had on it back then were just her initials and some numbers (these plates are now on her black ford territory she drives every day). after all, they'd say, women don't drive V8's..........
so i went looking thru the vicroads number plate website one night, and couldn't believe my luck when i saw that "MRSXR8" was still available! combinations like "MRSXR6", "MRSGT", "MRSV8" and a few others were already gone, but this one was still there.
i was off to the vicroads office the next morning with the cash required, pronto.
when they were put on the car, Nikk says she couldn't believe the difference it made when she would be just driving along, minding her own business. beforehand, nobody paid any notice, but once it had an obvious "i'm owned by a woman" plate on it, she says the guys would come roaring thru the traffic just to have a perv!

but to them all......... sorry, she's all mine........

and she's never been asked who owns it again either!

I have never seen a Ford soooooo shiny - nice one.

nice looking xr8 bellets and fords must go tegether ??????

sexy makes me miss my old xr6's i have owned....

Not in MY shed!

Nah that's a clean car. Rod's Tickford is a pretty rare machine as well.

Go the Fords (or Holden would have no-one to beat).

yep rod, looks like they do.
nikk wants an 'old shed car' to match her 'new shed car' one day.
she was thinking mustang, but might end up with a torino yet after seeing the "gran torino" movie too..... but only when the money says so!

thanks redback and mr flib. i'll pass your comments on!

dave, dave, dave............
when will u learn mate.............
owning a tickford built ford is a privilage only given to those who are worthy.
rod is worthy. nikk is worthy.
u tho..... will never be!!!
bloody holden drivers.............................


i guess now u can see what we've spoken about in the past with how she keeps it too!