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GT was also powered by the reliable 300bhp Cleveland V8, but in lieu of the shaker air-scoop, the bonnet was designed with twin ‘NACA-style’ air-ducts. Instead of the loud ‘Superoo’ decals and bold GT stripes, the XA model came more subtly refined with blacked-out lower panels and window frames, quad-headlamps with Hella driving lights, vented front guards, integrated bonnet pins, styled racing mirror, flip-style racing fuel cap and a twin-exhaust system with ‘rollededge’ rectangular exhaust tips that still barked that menacing GT note. Standard wheels for the XA GT were now 12-slotters again, which were last seen on the early XW GTs (but now locally produced by ROH).

Officially, a GT-HO version of the XA GT was never available in production, although one was built and sold through Jack Brabham Ford in Bankstown, NSW.

The sedan version of the XA GT was launched officially in March 1972, although a pre-production pilot run of 14 sedans was scheduled for December 1971 and built in January 1972. The first five XA GTs scheduled to be built were Red Pepper with white trim sedans with a ‘Toploader’ 4-speed manual floorshift, allocated to the Ford Motor Company as promotional vehicles for use in sales brochures and motor shows.

For the first time since Ford’s XP Falcon, the XA model saw the return of a two-door hardtop (those that refer to it as a coupe are technically incorrect, as it is based on the sedan platform length so therefore it’s a two-door hardtop sedan, not a shorter wheelbase coupe) which was introduced in August of 1972 with its now famous ‘Coke Bottle’ styling. The first XA GT hardtop scheduled to be built in June 1972, was a Red Pepper example with black trim and cloth inserts, fitted with the floorshift automatic transmission, once again allocated to the Ford Motor Company.

A total of 2759 XA GTs were built in both sedan and hardtop version. Of these, 1224 were optioned with the ‘FMX’ 3-speed automatic transmission, with the remaining 1535 fitted standard with the ‘Toploader’ 4-speed manual floorshift.

The most popular colour ordered was Red Pepper with a combined 486 GT sedans and hardtops made. This was followed by Yellow Fire (326 examples), Wild Violet (283), Yellow Glow