Falcons land in Perth
Oz’s own muscle cars flock to the Ford Falcon GT Nationals
Ford Falcon fans celebrated the Bathurst favourite’s 50th anniversary by rallying to Perth’s Claremont Showground. With production of the Falcon ending last year, it was a chance to honour one of the country’s favourite home-grown muscle cars – and some cars beat all the odds just to make it there.
1972 Ford Falcon XA GT Sedan
‘Just over a year ago we got a call at 6am telling us the GT had been stolen from the paint shop where it was getting some work done,’ said Eric Patroni. ‘The thieves filled the XA GT with computers they had stolen from a factory next door and used it as their getaway car. We were very worried they would set it alight to cover their tracks.
‘Later that day a call came in asking if there was a reward for the car’s return. We told them the reward was not getting caught with that car and asked them to leave it somewhere we could pick it up. A few hours later a tow truck driver rang to say he had recovered it.’
Jack Brabham transformed the car for its original owner. ‘It ended up with a 780CFM Holley carburettor, larger camshaft, Detroit locker diff, a low drag fan and Mallory electronic ignition. The modifications gave the car a top speed of over 160mph. Over the years successive owners really didn’t know what they had – it was only after I got it home and started to look into its history that I realised it wasn’t just a regular XA GT.’
1969 Ford Falcon XW GT
‘We only got the engine sorted and dyno tuned a couple of weeks before leaving Adelaide for the 1600mile trip here,’ said joint owner Marilyn Harvey. ‘Two years ago it came home from Victoria on a truck with a badly leaking head gasket. Two years earlier it didn’t even make it out of Adelaide for the Brisbane event.’
‘The GT has been a part of our lives since 1975. It started out as my husband Joe’s daily driver. He moved it into joint names before we married because if something happened to him he wanted me to have it.’
Joe added, ‘Over the last 15 years, a piece at a time, the car has had a full body and mechanical restoration.’