FALCON GT-HO PHASE III
“THE BLUEPRINTED QC MOTORS WERE IN SEVEN OF THE TOP 10 FINISHERS IN THE 1971 HARDIE FERODO 500"
and the sump capacity was marginal at eight pints. Bearing clearances on the nodular iron crankshaft could be excessive, too.
"On the QC engines, we finished the crankshaft with various grades of emery paper and lubricants to pull out t he nodular iron irregularities after machining. It was that sort of process that was important to keeping bearing clearances. In the end, it was a matter of keeping temperature out of the oil so that it was possible for the oil to last 1000 km ."
In standard form the number one bearing tended to go short of oil.But the QC motors featured revised oil pump and gallery systems to solve this problem. There were performance gains, too. Cc-ing of the chambers, work on the valve seating and exhaustive blueprinting added up to a palpable feeling under the right foot.
If so far this story seems to be more about the engine than the car, that’ s because it was at the heart of the XY GTHO’s racing success, which in turn is at the heart of this most legendary ever Australian racing tin top.
While the XY used the same engine as its XW Phase II predecessor, it likely made at least 30 horsepower more, even before the application of QC. The factory claim though was unchanged at 300. Ian Stockings, who did most of the engineering work on the Phase II, III and IV GTHOs, sai din a 1983 letter:
"I do not have any information on the actual engine power of the production version of the Phase III GTHO and the company policy at the time was to understate the power figures to keep our competitors guessing. But I did find some old dynamometer test sheets from the engine tests I ran on the 1971 Alan Moffat and John French race engines just prior to t he 1971 Bathurst race. Those engines produced 370
“WHILE THE XY USED THE SAME ENGINE AS ITS XW PHASE II PREDECESSOR, IT LIKELY MADE AT LEAST 30 HORSEPOWER MORE"
bra ke horsepower at 6000rpm. Those engines were f ully blueprinted of course and used an ex haust which was open."
Stock ings estimated t he standing quarter-mile time at 14.5 seconds for a road car. With a f ully blueprinted engine, track ex haust system and racing t y res this came down to about 13.2 seconds on our factor y race cars.
A Ford Australia memorandum dated 19 April 1971, over t he signature of J V Jovanov ic, Sales Planning, announces the Phase III and lists t he rev isions to t he engine f irst: New BOSS Mustang type camshaft Mechanical va lve lif ters Special pushrods Specia l va lves and va lve spring retainers Special heav y duty valve springs Reworked head to accept screw-in studs for t he mechanical va lve train
(as opposed to press-f it studs)
Holley high performance
4-barrel carburettor
Reins cylinder head gaskets
Premium grade engine bearings Electronic RPM limiter
(to prevent over-rev v ing)
Special anti-surge baff les in the oil pan
Ex haust extractors resulting in lower back pressure system
Boss Mustang type crankshaft vibration damper
Rev ised air-clea ner to delete hot air entr y Heav y duty radiator (same as fitted for 351 Air Conditioning)
Chassis modifications are t hen listed. They include higher rate springs a ll round, t hicker
“THE 1992 MAZDA RX7 TWIN TURBOS LAPPED BATHURST IN ABOUT THE SAME TIME AS MOFFAT'S 1971 POLE"
fronts way bar, special high performance Dayton a-type rear axle with choice of 3.25 (‘ Bathurst ’),3.5 and 3.9 final drive ratios, wider rear brake drums, brake proportioning valve, brake vacuum reserve tank and larger diameter driveshaf t.
The Phase III also got revised front upper control arms and front spindle assemblies.
The planned production schedule called for the first car to be built on 14 May witha further 49 that month, then 100 units in June, 100 in July and the final 50 in August. Two hundred cars would have Bathurst gearing wit h 50 each of 3.5 and 3.9.
While Ford Australia had been serious about winning at Mount Panorama since 1965 when Harr y Firt h’s Cortina GT500 was t he f irst serious Bathurst limited edition, follow ing GM-H’s half-hearted EH S4 in 1963, Howard Marsden’s Phase III revea led a new intensit y of application. Look at pole times for 1969, 1970 and 1971:
POLE POSITION
1969 Geoghegan/Geoghegan Falcon GTHO 2:48.9 (second Cooke/Bowden Monaro 2:50.0)
1970 Moffat Falcon GTHO Phase II 2.49.3 (second McPhee Falcon 2:50.0)
1971 Moffat Falcon GTHO
Phase III 2:38.9 (second French Falcon 2:41.9)
The ‘standard’ Phase III was considerably better t han its predecessors, but wit h t he 3.25 f inal drive and QC engine, Moffat lapped an astonishing 10 seconds quicker.
While Moffat’s achievement was singular, even t he t hree seconds slower posting of John French gives t he true perspective on t he supercar era. In 1967 t he Geoghegan brothers claimed pole in t heir XR GT wit h 3: 03. The track, of course, was much narrower then than now. Perhaps Caltex Chase added three to four seconds to lap times in 1987.
But the Mazda R X-7 Twin Turbos which dominated the 1992 Group E (production cars) James Hardie 12-Hour, lapped in about the same time as Moffat’s 1971 pole. Because the track was by then so superior in width and surface, t he handicap of Caltex Chase was a lmost cancelled out. So it took t wo decades for another production car to equal the Falcon GTHO Phase III! And the BMW M5 was slower…