COVID OPERATION
WHEN MELBOURNE WAS PLUNGED INTO LOCKDOWN IN 2020 PHIL GRANT USED THE TIME TO BUILD HIS XT-GT TRIBUTE
When Covid raced through Melbourne in May 2020 and the state went into hibernation, long-time Ford collector Phil Grant decided it was as good a time as any to tackle a new project; a ground up build of a 1968 Falcon XT-GT tribute.
In many ways the XT-GT is the forgotten GT as it didn’t win at Bathurst (falling 17 laps short) but it is hands down the most successful Falcon GT on the world stage after claiming third outright in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon.
After completion Phil drove the car to the annual All Ford Day at Geelong, the original home of the brand in the country, and walked away with the trophy for Best XT at the show.
After sliding the silverware in his growing trophy cabinet we caught up with Phil who told us about his latest project.
“I’ve always loved the XR and XT-GTs and I once had an XT for about two months and then my XR race car came up, so I quickly got rid of the XT and I’ve always sort of regretted not having one.
“I’ve built a few XRs over time and many people were telling me to build an XW or an XY and even though I love those cars, I wanted to build an XT and get into it and have a bit of fun.
“The project started when I spoke to a panel beater, Sean from Restoration Motorbody in Heidelberg who had a shell he was going to build into something if he didn’t sell it. By then he’d finished the body work to his standard which was pretty good
“POLAR WHITE IS THE HERO OF THE ADVERTISING, SO THAT’S WHAT I WENT WITH”
and I told him I’d buy it. I had a choice of any colour and I thought of Zircon Green but I really wanted Springtime Yellow because I love that colour, then I thought, if I ever have to sell it I have to find the other person that also likes it. I love all the advertising paraphernalia that comes with cars and the Polar White is the hero car of the XT-GT advertising program so that’s what I went with.
“I originally saw the project as something I could throw my spare parts into but when the body arrived and it was miles better than what I thought, I realised I couldn’t do that. I have pretty high standards and to do justice to the project and I used all good parts and sandblasted and restored existing parts that I could use and this was done by Blast Off in Heidelberg West.
“The shell started life as a silver Falcon 500 and it was always my intention to make it a replica GT. I thought it wouldn’t be that hard as I already had an XR-GT and a few parts that were the same, so I figured it wouldn’t take too much to chase up the other bits, but I was actually pretty wrong with that.
“From getting the bare shell in my shed to driving it has taken about 10 months as all the body work had been done before I bought it and that was a big tick for me.
“The other factor was Covid. I am always on the go and when we went into
lockdown I really had nothing to do so this is sort of a product of Covid. People have had babies and I’ve built a car.
“Under the bonnet is a stroked 347 Windsor built by Boss racing and I put an auto behind it so my partner Leanne can drive it. The motor was going to be standard but you can’t get a standard engine built from engine builder as they all have their own ideas and it’s all an ego trip for them. So it has alloy heads and I think it is a good combination with just over 440 hp and a 3½ TCE high stall auto. It has enough power to get you in an out of trouble and is around double the horsepower of what a new XT-GT had in 1968.
“I’m in the Falcon GT Club of Victoria, which made the project easier and the crew at Earlybird Falcon parts helped me out a lot, as did the GT shop in Epping and a bunch of other Falcon GT places with the little trinkets I needed to find, like the boot moulds, which took me 11 months to find and were so hard to get. Things like driving lights I just picked up along the way wherever I saw them. I already had a fair bit of