The Blue Oval’s finest?

Wondering if you could tell me where I can f ind information on which Ford to buy from a collectabilit y point of v iew. I’m t hinking eit her Tick ford TE50, TS50, Pursuit Ute, EL XR8 sedan, XR8 Ute or Tickford NL Fairlane. I want to buy something, but I’m not sure which one and I don’t want to throw money away. Greg Gray, Email

WELL GREG, there’s a million ways to get an idea of what’s what in the Ford world, starting with car clubs and the various websites that deal with classic and collectible cars. Even sitting down for a beer with a few mates who own old cars is a great way of getting an idea of what’s out there and what’s worth owning.

But since you’ve asked, here’s my two bob’s worth: I reckon all the cars you’ve listed will one day be collectible to an extent. That’s just how the world works as the planet keeps turning, clocks keep ticking and new cars become more like appliances. For my money, the EL XR8 is probably the one I’d go for from that lot, based on a couple of things. The first is that they’re great value right now and there’s a heap of them out there from which to choose. Plus, they look great and they go like the blazes.

The Tickford AU-based stuff never really gelled with a lot of Aussies, mainly because they were marketed as luxury performance cars rather than blood-and-guts muscle cars. That probably had a bit to do with the fact that they couldn’t match the HSV stuff for straight-line pace, so Tickford played the sophisticate card. Relatively unsuccessfully, it should be pointed out. The exception would be a Tickford with the optional 5.6-litre stroker V8. These will eventually be worth real money, purely because they’re a factory-built oddity. But they go hard and they’re good to drive, even if they’re a bit harsh when you rev them and they drink like a sailor on his first night of shore leave.

It’s kind of set in stone that a sedan will always be worth more than the ute version of the same car, so keep that in mind, too. But the one you’ve missed here is probably the late-model Ford that I’d be most inclined to make space for at the MBC. And that would be a Series 3 AU Falcon XR8. Early ones had alloy cylinder heads, the later ones got a locallydeveloped (Yella Terra, I think it was) head with bigger ports, but either version made 220kW and represented the Windsor five-litre’s finest hour. The engines were all more or less hand-made and they just sing. And with the improved graphics of the Series 3 AU and the quad-headlight stuff, they even look good. Throw in the fact that I reckon the AU was the best steering Aussie car ever to bear a Falcon badge, and you can see my point.