Thanks for the post. Has brought back a decade of memories from the 70's watching bathurst every year with my father, an avid Holden man. A whole day eating party pies, sausage rolls, hot dogs and munchies constantly supplied by my mum.
Growing up in Canada decades ago i had no idea how cool the cars were down under. This is fascinating, an alternate universe of awesomeness. Our cars were all the same as the States with a few rebadged ones for the Canuck market. Cheers
I remember when I was 11, my old man, who was an engineer at Ford's Product Engineering division, pointed out the right hand window of his car and said, 'look son, you might never see another one of those.' It was a brand new Red, XY GT-HO Phase 3. Looked amazing and I never forgot it. My dad died a few months ago, but he was right, I have never seen another original GT-HO, phase 1, 2, or 3 since. I did build a mock GT-HO Phase 3 look a-like back in the 90s. Had the Shaker, original stripes, took my a long time to get it perfect. It was a ute. But, even that mock-up GT would be worth close to a $100,000 today. They were best muscle car ever. I've had a 69 HK GTS Monaro, a GTR Torana, Ford Capri, Valiants, all kinds of other muscle cars back from the day, but I'd love to have my old ute back. I'm stuck with a Ford FG XR8 ute today. Not a bad car to be stuck with, I guess. But the XY was beautiful.
I was so VERY lucky to be a youngster in those years. Moffat was a GOD. My sister's boyfriend took us to see the Boss Mustang at Oran Park and Warwick Farm. Earth-shaking battles with with Bob Jane and Norm Beechey. The Super-Falcon battle with the Boss Mustang was insane. Sat absolutely glued to each Bathurst for the entire day, for those incredible days. Watching all this like yesterday. So wonderful to see it all again.
Moffat was a genius? Really? Is that why his cars never finished a race without a dent in the frontal area? Today you get penalised for being such a 'genius'. Ford fans call it 'forceful driving'.
At last someone mentions the "Mustang Bred" Falcon... A huge marketing campaign on first release... and is worthy of a short vid on its own... almost totally forgotten now !!!
Great video, love the history. Sad to say, Great Uncle Al Turner passed away last month. Sharp as a tack all the way! Modest to me, I never knew all of this history. I knew and saw plenty of pictures of hot rods and dragsters but man!
The first time I heard the v8s pulling up the hill at Bathurst in 1967 it was tremendous I still can remember that I was 7years old and hooked dad bought a 68 Fairmont wagon 302 Windsor and I in 71 got a 351 Fairmont seadan looked at all the GTHO ph 3s at hasting dearing ford dealer on parramatta rd but mum did not want the 4 speed loved that era who remember s who won Bathurst 8 10 .or 15 years ago but every one knows who won Bathurst in 71 ...
I remember my mother now aged in her 70s telling me me with a cheeky smile , Your father and I brought a Falcon Phase 3 in blue that was my shopping car lol and he had the LS HQ Monaro in gold for his daily drive My mother said she felt cool like a young 26 yo rev head chic driving the new beast along Victoria Road going to the shopping centre at gladesville My mother would describe how she’d take the Monaro when the weather was hot as it had Aircon!! Sadly the falcon is gone now but I still have the LS with me !!
As a younger Engineer, I have the highest respect for John Goss. Such an articualte (well spoken) mechanical engineer from an earlier age. Bloody Legend.
One of my friends bought a GT Ho in 1969 at the going price of about $4500 We all thought he was crazy to spend so much--he was still an apprentice. When the petrol prices went crazy shortly afterwards, he was offered $1500 for it. Luckily he decided to keep it. At one point he was pulled over by the cops just so they could check out his car because they were soon to be issued with them to replace their Mini Cooper S's. He once lost it on a dirt road because he said that the fuel in the giant tank sloshed to one side on a corner. (sounds understandable).
1975 living at the single man’s quarters in Hedland there was one in the car park belonged to one of the guys there Saturday morning he used drive it round the car park we had our own race track yep things were tight but it worked
The cops in Sydney at that time had Mini Cooper S and GT Falcons, Honda 750 4 bikes and the D's cruised around in Rambler Rebel SST'S ( giant tanks but they could boogie) The GT's were plain of course, but they had wider tyres and twin exhausts, sat more squat to the road. You could buy them at the police auctions after a few years!
im 19 in 2019 and my dad was 19 in 1973. so during his early to mid 20s he said he owned a beautiful XW Ford Falcon. it wasnt a gt but it still was the best car he ever owned. He just wishes he had crystal ball to see the future because the cars he owned that he got rid off because they werent as much in the 70's he wished he could have kept as they are now worth so much money.
I got my driving licence in a 327 Monaro. They failed me on the first try because I was concentrating so hard on not lighting up the wheels from a stop light that I went through the cycle. The brakes were woeful. I did the Peter Wherrett advanced driving course and we ultimately got to do one lap at the circuit (Warwick Farm) and I remember thinking that it would not stop from about 110-120 mph for the hairpin at Creek Corner. Years later when I was rallying in Gemini series I noted that the Gemmies had front brake rotors of essentially the same size ( 10"' vs 10.5" or something like that). I went for a drive with a guy in an HO round Warwick Farm and we had perpetual tyre smoke through the car on every corner. It was never straight. Fred Gibson is right - they were hard to drive especially over long races. The technology has transformed all motor sport.
Thank you for this. I only missed one Bathurst when the HOs were running. I was at RTC Kapooka and the Army wouldn't give me the day off. I know the Holden boys will slag me, but Moffat was a genius, his finesse was incredible. Brock could not have driven a HO the way Moff did. Don't get me wrong, Peter ( RIP 05 ) was a genius in his own way, but his was a raged edge sort of genius. Moff never drove ragged edge, he drove silky. Anyone who saw him drive that TransAm Mustang with only one gear will know what I mean. Sadly, there is no racing these days to match those days.
Qualifying for 1972’s race revealed the Torana 3.3-litre still lacked the Falcon’s dry pace, despite 212km/h on Conrod Straight, but rainy conditions rewarded its nimbler package and Peter Brock’s wizardry in the wet. He finished first by eight minutes to steal the winner’s ribbon from Ford’s hands and cement the Torana into this hall of fame.
Alan was very good, Brock was better and not hard on cars either but could be more flamboyant. And fastest lap on the last lap waving to the crowd proved that
@@grahambanks3256 Would you like to race a Phase 3 around Bathurst on a wet track ? No one did. Very few drivers could keep those monsters on a dry track at Moffatt pace. Brock included. Even Jackie Ikxx fastest lap was barely intouch with Moffatt average lap time..... and that was in a much easier car to race than the Phase 3’s. Incidentally ..... Moffats international record obliterates any other sedan legend at the time. Moffat chose to race in Australia with almost no budget and support because he believed it was the tougher and better than the UK, Europe and America. Do your homework before comparing a local legend in a race car to a foreigner competing in a slightly faster Yank Tank.
@@ldnwholesale8552 HaHaHa....... clearly you know nothing about Moffat or race craft. Yessss...... Moffat was an obnoxious Canadian ( falsely believed to be a wealthy Yank ), but he never had a workable budget. His international record is the best on record. Constantly beating fully funded works teams in one off drives in underprepared privateers cars. When the UK Ford factory team complained his unbeatable Lotus Cortina was illegal, his car was stripped and scrutinised. To everyone’s surprise , they found his car to be stock standard , straight off the production line, and he was giving away 50 hp to the factory cars that he kept blowing away. Incidentally, none of these official race teams would give him a drive because he had no RACE car breading or mentor, he was self taught on the track. Also he had no sponsorship to bring. He lived off his prize money from race wins ...... or what was left of it after preparing his car for the next race. Harry Firth left Ford and went to Holden because Ford refused to pay. Holden ( GMH ) spent 4 times as much on their race cars but hid this from parent company GM in America. The Holden Dealer Team was a farce and always a fully backed manufacturers race team. Brock and Bond got paid well to drive and full manufacturers support. Moffat was paid a pittance and ended up running the whole team out of that pittance when Howard Marsden resigned due to lack of funds.
In 1975 I left NZ for Sydney to purchase a genuine GTHO. I couldn’t afford $7500 for a Phase 3 so I paid $4900 for a Phase 2. Drive it for about 5 years and sold it for the same price.
Also as l couldn’t afford a Falcon GT with the overwhelming insurance premiums that went with it so l bought XY GS pack in yellow ochre that had the unique to Australia 250 cubic inch “2-V” 170 hp engine with 4 speed manual trans that “warmed over engine “ was a beauty with its detachable inlet manifold with factory headers & 2 barrel carb it was slightly quicker than my mates 302 Windsor auto XW Falcon l remember also you could option the 2-V engine in the XA but only in auto trans ( along with quarter vent windows also in the XA) my brother has a 2-V engine that will be going in an XM Ute this year along with some other hard to get Ford goodies.
My Uncle was a engineer at Ford and set the assembly line up in Australia to manufacture it . I wish they had at least manufactured the two door versions here I can’t do four door cars I have no love for them .
Taste is an individual thing.... I say thank god they didn't!. I reckon there's nothing worse than those enormous stretched yank tanks with only 2 doors.
my favourite photo of freddy gibson is the one where he is exiting a corner,the name of the circuit i can't remember,with the rear end just lit up,a smile on his face from ear to ear in a gtho phase 3.amazing cars.
Brother had a GT-XA in the 80s. Hilarious thing to drive. Clutch heavy as hell, really short gear shifter, and the horn button was in fact a strip all around the inside of the steering wheel. Wish we'd kept it.
The one good (if I may use that term) thing Ford did after the supercar scare was to make the Phase IV accessible to buyers - kinda. Just about everything (but not quite) was still available on the options list if you knew what boxes to tick - starting with "RPO-83." of course, you'd then need to know all the other options boxes to be checked...but that was a start. www.whichcar.com.au/features/ford-falcon-xa-gtho-phase-iv-and-falcon-rpo-83 On the coupe, this included new rear sheet metal that was about 1 1/2 inches (40mm or thereabouts) wider, to allow for the wider rear tyres they were expecting to run at the track.A mate of mine when I was a kid had an 83...in the almost traditional red with black edging (although personally, I preferred white with the black sills and arches.) Sadly, it was totaled some time in the early '90s. :-(
I drove an XA GT once, thought the seat would shear off its bolts when I held the clutch in. cant imagine driving one in traffic. They were racing beasts only.
You Aussies never got the fact that Race Cars should NEVER be 4 doors!! The 2 Door Aussie Falcon is a work of art, should have been offered over here what a Beauty!!
Look you have to remember one thing here Australia @ that time there was probably around only 18 million people compared with the USA that had what 300 & whatever million population youse had many many models of performance cars that made profit due to the numbers of people that bought them, so here we had to make do with what they could make & sell here profitably with a country the size of the USA but with a poofteenth of your population so in view of what we had l think Australia did a pretty good job with what we had as l’m sure if we had your population & we had left hand drive from the start just about all our cars would have been mostly US models, as an aside the most popular car in Australia leading up to the Second World War was Chevrolet! & if it wasn’t for the high tariffs & the exchange rate of the US dollar after the war with fuel rationing into the late 40’s this is why our government forced Australia to buy Pommie (English) cars to help out the British economy for exports but they’re cars were really heaps of underpowered shit that were mostly unsuited fir Australian conditions irrespective of what any pommie car lover tries to say.
Seeing full race trim cars getting run in at night going through North Richmond on bells line of road on the way to Bathurst in the 70s was a spectator sport when I was a kid , Moffats transporter was a big deal if you seen it roll through as well
Yeah they used to under-rate them for this reason. The GTHO despite having what was equivalent to a Boss 351 and is reputed to have 370-380 HP, was advertised as having 300, same as a standard 351-4V GT.
the compare was wrong saying that XR GT only came in the colour gold. There were something like about 15 made in other metallic like colours, but officially they only came in gold.
great video.. i've remade exhaust systems for all the GT & GTHO models including the "missing" production car phase 4, i remember when i was making the exhaust system on the Phase 4 how lucky i was to be given the opportunity to be able to work on it.
@@groundhog7652 I have a US Falcon of the same generation with a 302 I bought in Hawaii and its funny becausd a few months later I visited Australia and had no idea they were that big over there. I would have bought some parts lol. In the US they're mainly forgotten about because of the Mustang which it directly competed with. Only the first generation Falcons seem to be sought after.
We called these the Ford Fairmont and Fairmont GT here in South Africa and they were Aussie built imported by Ford of SA in the 1970s. I worked at a Ford dealer and recall test driving a Fairmont GT which must have been the Phase 3 as it had the hood shaker, in 1975. Plenty power for sure! Big beast of a car!
My brother inlaw was the first journalist to drive a Phase III ,He got it in Melbourne and drove it to Albury and back to Melbourne averaging 100mph ,he was editor of Wheels magazine, his name is Mel Nichols ,bummer you didn’t interview him as he doesn’t talk shit like some of these blokes
I remember when my dad got an XC Fairmont GXL one afternoon my brother and I could not believe what he got Ford Australia to do but it gurgled and bounced up the drive way it flue the 4.9 dragged off more than it lost best moments ever growing up see it drag off a 79 Torana
Adrian Carter : Bud I had an XC GXL Fairmont 5.8 fmx 9in disc to disc . It was a great bloody car it had a sun roof that had an internal handle on roof to operate it . And full house electrics . Also had an xb hardtop gt mock up black 5.8 fmx 9in on its guts with a alloy 3 eyed bug catcher hanging out the gs bonnet sitting on hurricane rims . Are the late 80s to 90s were great . These cars were every where . Now I have a vf Calais 6.2 liter I cant seem to shake the v8s .
ADR 27A killed those engines literally. I have had them that went well but most were dogs. And all got 12 miles to the gallon. 302 or 351! 1976 on engines, Holden or Ford were gunkers. Clevos burnt all the valves and seats, then killed the cam as well. Holdens were a little better but bigger slugs, And killed a lot of cams! 6 and V8. Crossflow Falcon sixes were the best of all. Though Valiants were not too bad either.
harry firth-there is no substitute for cubic inches.i have never forgotten that famous quote.dick johnson,harry firth,fred gibson,the geoghan brothers.these blokes are ford legends.
From memory the major visible difference was the Glove Box door. The HO had a GTHO badge on that door. The first GT I saw in 68 was a Victorian Cop car. It had the High performance engine badge on it. I saw a Gold GT on the road a couple of weeks later.
I had always been a ford man and then along came big brother and that was the end . Quick phase 111 was an understatement my mate had one and that car flew
Across the road from the main production plant in Geelong was the product engineering plant where selected engines would be run on a dyno, often to destruction.The special orders desk of a Bunnings hardware now occupies the space where one of these dynos was. Sad, huh!
I was a young teenager back in the early seventies & l suppose l was a lucky young couta as l worked for a few different Ford dealers & a couple of Holden dealers as well as one Chrysler dealer & l remember especially @ one dealer the boss used to flip a coin between another young work colleague of mine when we had to pickup a Falcon GT or the very slim chance of a HO from another yard or dealer, l would always call heads! & 7 times out of 10 l would win the toss & off l would go with the trade plates & literally thrash the bloody daylights out of them!! You didn’t have to worry about speed or red light cameras in those days why even the cops had to have a reason just to pull you over @ random! Geez just as well they were fords as l used to think the poor bastard that bought it wouldn’t be too happy if he knew that some young tyke was flat lining & doing wheelies in the car he just bought!!! as l couldn’t afford one on my meagre pay at least it was a consolation that l could thrash the daylights out of a new/used one! It was good fun l can tell you, l did the same at Holden dealers l worked for with XU-1’s & l loved the HG 350 chev powered Monaros & the fireball 318 Valiants & the odd 340’s, man they were the days!!!!
my dad bought a white four door in 1962,the year we moved to babylon,long island,, ,from brooklyn.ny, he was always trying to get the best gas mileage, and space to fit our family,,4 from 1957 to 60, 4 more from 1962 to 68,,,,vw bus, and amc rambler 4 door came very soon after,,,then we moved to cork,ireland in 1967,,,! cheers to all from italy
I've always wondered what the E49 would have been like with A arm coil spring suspension, or just the R&D Money spent like Ford and Holden did. As any body who knows that 6 Pac hemi motor knows its ability.
Yes it did have short legs, without listing every part of hindsight of what we know to day it goes back to if the E 49 had the backing on just cam profile and gearing. The the big two had huge money on just the motor. R&D R&D R&D
It's biggest Achilles heel was the 3-speed box. By the time it got the 4-speed, the others had caught up. It would have done better at shorter, tighter tracks than the long-legged GTHOs.
with all the technology after all these years converting it to colour film would of been good.big difference race paint and cars bright colours of 60-70s.
As well as the V8 Torana & the Phase 4, Chrysler were developing a special high output R/T version of the 340 Charger too. All 3 stillborn because of the Supercar scare. The Supercar scare led to the change from Series production Touring Cars to a highly modified class Touring Cars, so manufacturers didn’t have to bring out Homologation pack specials sold to the public to make their mods race legal.
My father had a phase four ordered when they cancelled them. Good God I remember he insisted it had to have automatic transmission, it would have been interesting to see what happened.
The Problem with the Ford Falcon XY GT were they couldn't STOP when released from the Factory. A well heeled Guy bought one 4 his wife . He drove it & wouldn't let his wife drive it . Some how he tracked down my mate John Bennett who checked the Vehicle over . It had NO VACUM ( approx 6-7 inches) when it required 16-18 inches. My Mate John built a Brand New set of Headers & some other things l dont recall. His prowes sorted the issues & somehow Harold Marsdon from Ford Australia 🇦🇺 found out & within a very short time ⏲️ every Ford GT made its way 2 Doncaster 2 Johns Workshop 2 be Fixed . Security Guards were Hired & this led John 2 assist Ford as a Trouble Shooter 4 Ford for the next 30/40 years . And along friendship was formed between Harold & John . I have been a Mate of Johns 4 aprox 30+ yrs .
my GrandPa had one..pristine with those clear see thru seat covers that stuck to your ass and back in the summer..slow as hell but as a 5 year old i thought it was such a neat car..still do..
The phase 1 has the best throttle response of all the gt,s. This is fact not an opinion. The cleveland 4vs had virtually zero throttle response especially down low but up high in the rev range they were good. Ive driven them all many times ive owned afew the phase 1 was perfection in terms of power throughout but the best driving gt was the xb gt
They missed the opportunity to explain what changed in each successive model, particularly the three ho s, and why the changes. Everybody just forgets why homologation specials existed and what was learned to create the next one. 😥😥😥
Ph1 HO, lumpy grumpy higher compression 351 W. Closer ratio boxes and shorter diff gears. Ph2 HO 10-1 Clevo 4V that breathed far better with those canted valve heads, again close ratio and shorter diffs. Which where options on Normal GTs as well. Ph3 HO. A lot of improvements to the Ph2 engine. Bigger cam, more compression. Better intake, better carby, better stronger big block gearbox. Vaccuum tank for the brakes. Real power was around 380. Suspension was refined and brakes tickled up. Inc very heavy duty[and heavy] Mustang rear drums. but still pleasant to drive around town. Though 3.50 diff helped there. Ph4 HO, all of the ph3 plus more including better oil pans.15x7 Globe alloy wheels. In a wider track sleeker car. Heavier but pushed less air. Ask John Goss about the aero compared with XB!!
The GTHO Phase 3 won Bathurst in 1971 but it was beaten by the Peter Brock LJ GTRXU1 Torana in 1972. So that's the best Ford could make soundly beaten, and it was almost repeated in 1973 but for a fuel miscalculation.
Bruce Webb if you look at the qualifying times the 1972 he will see that v GTHO would have nailed the Holdens. Although the Torana is a traffic race car .
I’ve always thought the real battle took place of NZ tracks but they didn’t have the big straits so the charger dominated nothing wrong with the other 2 brands owned a few of them but as far as what came off a showroom floor the charger would take them all except the falcons top speed
@3:52 driver "Harry Fur"??? :-) As a US of A'er I always thought it was sad Australia got very few 2 dr cars. Seeing "GT" badges and racing stripes on a 4dr. is just very strange to me! They made 2dr. Falcons here so I don't quite get it. Different market I guess...or something. (?)
Had a xc gt ex Canberra highway patrol the last of them brakes what brakes tailsaft man what a hassle to find as the cobra was to long no e was a 4door but man that car motor had balls man
Estos falcón no los conoce pero los que salieron en México con motor 260.v estándar muy económicos me rendía 10 km. Por litro. De carrocería buena suspensión regular . Cómodos Asiento corrido adelante y sin a/cuna verdadera lata se empañan los vidrios y en carretera y lloviendo casi no lo cuento frenos sin bosther. Pero que bueno que llegó la tecnología. Jv
