XU1 MARKET GUIDE

THE XU-1 Torana gridded up in fifth spot by Peter Brock at the 1972 Bathurst 500 really wasn’t given much chance of winning against Ford’s battlehardened GTHO Phase 3. Then it rained and the XU-1 became a legend. In the realms of Australian rallying it was that already, with two national Championships in the bag and two more to come. So why did decades pass before anyone started offering even a decent fraction of the money available for 350 Monaros or Phase 3s? The answer might lie beneath the bonnet. No matter how grunty and gutsy the 3.3-litre with its triple carbs might be, it is still a six-cylinder and this country throbs to the sound of a V8. In 2005, with ‘muscle’ car values beginning to surge, the XU-1 crept past $50,000. By 2010, as V8 prices crashed, excellent XU-1s hit $80,000 and kept climbing. Today those cars are within touching distance of consistently making $110,000. Look at other six-cylinder Aussie models currently enjoying serious price growth – the ‘Six-Pack’ Chargers – and ask whether a Chrysler at around $200,000 is really going to offer double the value and ‘fun for your mon’ than a Torana with ‘Bathurst Winner’ in its resume?