Ford Falcon GT

Ford Falcon GT at a glance

Classic Falcon GT series

The power ratings are Ford Australia's own figures of the time, and the kW values follow the sources. Where a series has no published figure, the table says so rather than repeating the rating of a neighbour.

XR and XT GT: the V8 Falcon arrives (1967–1969)

Ford Australia introduced the GT in 1967 as the fast version of the XR Falcon, which had been on sale since September 1966. It started from the Police Interceptor Pack and added the 289 cu in Windsor V8 also used in the Ford Mustang, suspension lowered and firmed by 5 cm, stronger shock absorbers, charcoal seats, wood-grain trim and Stewart-Warner instruments. Every car had a four-speed manual and nearly all were painted GT Gold; eight Gallaher Silver cars were made to promote the tobacco brand. Ford built 596 XR GTs.

The car went straight to Mount Panorama. At the 1967 Gallaher 500, Harry Firth and Fred Gibson won for the factory team by 11 seconds from the Geoghegan brothers in a second XR GT. It was the first Bathurst victory for a V8-powered car.

The XT GT of May 1968 took a 302 cu in V8 with 172 kW (230 bhp), a wider colour range and roughly doubled the sales of its predecessor. Three XT GTs also won the Teams Prize in the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon.

XW GT-HO Phase I and II (1969–1970)

The XW Falcon arrived in June 1969, and two months later Ford added the GT-HO, for "handling option", above the GT. Both used the 351 cu in Windsor V8: in the GT it was rated at 216 kW (290 bhp) and 522 Nm (385 lb-ft), while the GT-HO got 224 kW (300 bhp) from a larger carburettor, a different camshaft and intake, stiffer springs and dampers and thicker anti-roll bars.

In 1970 the new 351 Cleveland V8 replaced the Windsor. A few early GT-HOs with the Cleveland engine are known as "Phase 1.5" cars. The GT-HO Phase II followed on 24 August 1970 with a 700 cfm carburettor instead of the 600 cfm unit. Ford built 2,287 XW GTs and 662 XW GT-HOs.

At Bathurst the privately entered XW GT-HO of Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland finished second in 1969. In 1970 Allan Moffat won the race in a Phase II, with McPhee second, a one-two for the Ford works team.

XY GT-HO Phase III (1971)

The XY GT gained a "shaker" bonnet scoop borrowed from the Mustang Mach 1. The Phase III, released in May 1971, was the last and fastest of the GT-HO homologation specials. Ford built 300 between May and November 1971 at Broadmeadows, against about 1,557 XY GTs from September 1970 to December 1971.

The carburettor is described differently by the sources: Wikipedia lists a 600 cfm Autolite four-barrel for the XY GT, while WhichCar names a larger 780 cfm Holley for the Phase III. Early cars had an electrical rev limiter that cut in at 6,150 rpm. According to Wikipedia, the 224 kW (300 bhp) rating was understated to satisfy insurers, and the same source notes that the popular claim of the "world's fastest four-door production car" is doubtful: a 1969 Dodge Polara police car had been timed at 147 mph by the Michigan State Police.

Allan Moffat won the 1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500 in a Phase III, and the cars kept winning until 1973. Vermillion Fire was the most common colour, with 68 cars, according to WhichCar.

Phase IV and the Supercar scare (1972)

Ford planned about 200 GT-HO Phase IV cars on the new XA body for the 1972 Bathurst race. On 25 June 1972 The Sun-Herald published a front-page article by Evan Green, "160 MPH 'Super Cars' Soon", and the New South Wales transport minister Milton Morris called the cars "bullets on wheels" and asked for a national ban. CAMS ended Group E series-production racing on 29 June, and Ford cancelled the Phase IV on 2 July.

Four cars had already been started. Three became race cars, and one road car was sold to the public the next year through Jack Brabham Ford, repainted from Calypso Green to Zircon Green. From 1973 CAMS ran Group C, which let race cars be modified separately from the road cars.

XA and XB GT: hardtops and the end (1972–1976)

The Australian-designed XA arrived in March 1972, and from August 1972 the GT was also sold as a two-door hardtop, the first GT with two doors. It had its own front wings with dummy vents and a bonnet with NACA-style ducts, and kept the 351 V8 rated at 224 kW (300 bhp). Between April and August 1973 Ford built 250 XA GTs with the RPO 83 package, 130 sedans and 120 hardtops, with a 780 Holley carburettor and 2.25-inch exhaust headers.

The XB GT of September 1973 had a twin-nostril bonnet in the style of the 1971–1973 Mustang Mach 1. With 2,899 cars, 1,950 sedans and 949 hardtops, it was the best-selling Falcon GT. The XB also became a film car: the black Pursuit Special of Mad Max is a 351 version of a 1973 XB GT hardtop. Production of the XB ended in July 1976, and the GT name was then absent until 1992.

The GT name after 1976

Ford Performance Vehicles, a joint venture of Ford Australia and Prodrive from 2003, made the GT a permanent model. The final GT-F of 2014, 550 sedans and 120 utes, carried a "351" badge as a tribute to the XW to XB cars. FPV closed in 2014 as Ford Australia prepared to stop local manufacturing by 2016.

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