Muscle Maniac
In an unassuming house, in an unassuming street in Brisbane is one of the best collections of Ford Australia memorabilia in the country… a collection that Ford management are not only well aware of, but have also actively assisted in its development, through various contributions over the years.
In an unassuming house, in an unassuming street in Brisbane is one of the best collections of Ford Australia memorabilia in the country… a collection that Ford management are not only well aware of, but have also actively assisted in its development, through various contributions over the years.
The custodian and ‘curator’ of this collection is Mark Farry, a Ford enthusiast since he was in primary school. That’s when he started to assist a neighbour who used to repair and restore Falcon GTs – and other performance Fords – when he wasn’t being a high school teacher. Not only did the neighbour start Mark’s mechanical training, he also became one of Mark’s teachers, a couple of years later.
The collection started way back in 1971, when he wrote to Ford asking for a brochure on the new XY GT Falcon – a brochure he still has to this day. During the early years, the collection grew slowly but steadily, with various brochures, posters and manuals, coming and going due to his own specific vehicle interests, which included Falcons, Escorts and V6 Capris. In fact, Mark has even written a book on the Capris that was officially sanctioned by Ford and is included in their archives.
In addition to the usual material, Mark also felt the need to collect a variety of press releases, event material, dealer and salesmen items. These were items that were quickly getting lost to history. This includes a vast number of keyrings, badges, cuff links and tie pins, promotional watches and anniversary merchandise... items that you just don’t find anymore, but remind you of how things were in the 1960s and ’70s.
From the early 1990s, around the time the EB GT was being developed, the collection started to take-off in a bigger way, when Mark started to communicate with people like Howard Marsden and David Flint as well as Adrian Ryan (Ford archivist) to obtain merchandise and information relating to the new generation of performance Fords. In later years, as the collection became more recognised within Ford and FPV, he also started to communicate with the likes of Geoff Polites, Tom Gorman and Bill Osbourne (Ford CEOs), as well as Sak Ryopponen and Rod Barrett (FPV CEOs).
Due to these relationships, Mark’s collection includes various factory posters and other merchandise, personally signed and sent to Mark, by Ford and FPV management.
Of course, being a true enthusiast, Mark was also interested in Ford’s fortunes on both the track and in the forests and has developed long term relationships with the likes of Allan Moffat, Colin Bond, Fred Gibson and others. This has led him to obtaining original race team shirts and jackets, some of which have been signed by the drivers themselves.
In more recent years, Mark has developed an interest in the Ford GT 40 and the later Ford GT sports cars, with his collection including some very rare items, such that he has provided material to ex-Ford GT40 racing engineer Wayne Ferens for a book on the subject.
Unfortunately, the collection is not on public display and we can only show a small portion of what Mark has. However, it is good to know that someone has made it their goal to collect and retain an important slice of Ford history for the future. We wonder how many others are doing the same?