Ford’s iconic Falcon GT brought the era of muscle cars to Australia

Just as Ford had done against the Ferraris at Le Mans, the company dominated the Italians at Bathurst in 1967 with their new V8 Falcon GTs leaving the sleek and more expensive Alfa Romeos behind.

IF YOU haven’t seen the movie Ford v Ferrari (released elsewhere as Le Mans 1966), you’ve missed a poignant, thrilling film.

It centres on the pulsating 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance car race in France in 1966 as former English tank commander Ken Miles, American sports car designer Carroll Shelby and Kiwi racing car ace Bruce McLaren took on the genius of Enzo Ferrari and his Italian supercars.

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To counter Ferrari’s dominance at Le Mans, Ford turned out a fleet of its mighty GT-40s powered by massive seven-litre engines.

Ford was intent on becoming a global power in supercars, making muscle machines that were faster than Ferraris at a fraction of the price.

And so it was that a year after their first triumph at Le Mans, Ford launched its Falcon GT in Australia.

The 1967 XR Ford Falcon GT in gold paint.

The 1967 Falcon XR series was a radical departure from the much smaller and more sedate Falcon XPs of the mid-60s.

The XR was bigger, brasher and more aggressive and Ford offered a 4.7 litre V8 from its popular American Mustang.

The XR GT came with a manual transmission and in ``GT Gold’’ paint.

There were 596 of them.

Eight GTs were also produced in ``Gallaher Silver” for promotion of Gallaher tobacco, an Irish company that sponsored the great annual car race at Bathurst.

In 1967, Australia’s Ford factory racing team, led by driver/engineer Harry Firth entered two cars at Bathurst, one for himself and Fred Gibson and the other for the Geoghegan brothers, Ian and Leo.

A replica of the 1967 Bathurst 500-winning Ford XR Falcon GT.

Just as Ford had done at Le Mans, they dominated the Italians on Mount Panorama, leaving the sleek and more expensive Alfa Romeo GTVs behind. Firth finished first in his bottle-green machine.

Holden was quick to respond to Ford’s win and in 1968 released a new coupe called the Monaro. That year the 5.4-litre HK Monaro GTS327 gave Holden its first victory in the Bathurst 500.

Then in 1969 Chrysler released its fast four-door Valiant Pacer in Australia.

It was cheaper than the Falcon GT and Monaro but almost as quick.

Two years later Chrysler released its Valiant Charger with a mass marketing assault led by its ubiquitous ``Hey, Charger!’’ television campaign.

A 1968 Holden HK Monaro GTS 327. Holden won Bathurst with a similar car that year.

The Charger won Wheels magazine’s Car of the Year award for 1971 but Ford and Holden still dominated the big race at Bathurst on which so many car sales were based.

And the Falcons were getting faster and faster.

Soon after the debut of the Falcon GT in 1967, Ford introduced the XT Falcon GT with an increase in the V8’s capacity to 302 cubic inches (4.9 litres).

By 1969 Ford was offering the XW Falcon GTHO with a 351 cubic-inch (5.7 litre) ``Cleveland’’ V8.

By the time Canadian-born Allan Moffat won at Bathurst in 1971, his Falcon GTHO Phase III was the world’s fastest four-door production car, an Australian-made icon capable of matching the likes of Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Christian Bale (left) and Matt Damon in the Ford GT-40 that takes on the Ferraris at Le Mans.

It was widely said that the GTHO’s engine output was publicly understated at 224kw to satisfy insurers and was capable of producing as much as 283kw.

Showroom models boasted a top speed of 228km/h and a nought to 60 miles an hour (97km/h) time of 6.4 seconds, figures that made road safety advocates shudder, although many four-cylinder cars today are much faster and more powerful.

A Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IV sold at auction last year for $2million.

Ford released Falcon GTs at various intervals until 2014 but in 1972 the company scrapped its planned GTHO Phase IV supercar over public safety concerns.

Only a handful were built and, with Allan Moffat wielding the hammer, one of them sold at auction in Sydney last year for $2 million.

Grantlee Kieza’s 15th book, Macquarie, is published by HarperCollins/ABC Books.