$500,000 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III heads $15 million luxury car auction

IT WAS left untouched, hidden under blankets in a Perth garage for 30 years. Now the lucky owner is cashing in on his rare Ford Falcon muscle car.

More than $15 million of rare luxury cars will go under the hammer in Gosford this month. Pic: Supplied.

A rare and original Ford Falcon that was hidden under blankets in Perth for 30 years is tipped to sell for better than $500,000 when it headlines a $15 million classic car auction at the end of this month.

The barn-find Ford is a race-bred original with ties to the classic Bathurst 1000 race this weekend and is believed to be one of only 100 survivors from the 1970s.

It is showing less than 70,000 original miles — 112,000 kilometres — and is a genuine one-owner car in original condition with Nugget Gold bodywork.

“It’s crazy, just crazy. It was bought by a gentleman in Western Australia who was in the air force. It hasn’t been driven, or even started, since 1982,” the curator of the Gosford Classic Car Museum, Ken Grindrod, says.

The rare Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III is among the headline acts at the Gosford auction. Pic: Supplied.

The GTHO Phase III was developed to race at Mount Panorama in the early 1970s and organisers report plenty of early interest from Australian collectors ahead of the October 28 auction at the Gosford museum.

The record reported price for a Phase III is $683,650 for a sale in 2007.

An even rarer and more exotic Lamborghini Miura, regarded as the world’s first supercar, is likely to top the auction with a predicted price in the $2.5 million range and a Porsche 959 is also expected to go for close to $2 million.

A Lamborghini Miura is expected to fetch the highest price at the auction. Pic: Supplied.

But the big interest for Australian collectors is in the Falcon.

“It is Nugget Gold. I believe there were 18 built in that colour. It is showing 66,626 miles,” Grindrod says.

“The car, when it was new, was apparently destined to go to Bob Jane. But it never did.”

He says the new owner will get a true classic in original condition.

“We haven’t touched it. We haven’t even washed it. We had to start it to make sure it was running but that’s all.”

Original condition: the Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III up for auction at Gosford museum on October 28. Pic: Supplied.

Steve Allen, national manager of prestige vehicles at Pickles Auctions, says $500,000 is a realistic price for the car.

“There is interest because it was a genuine barn find,” he says.

“I think this one is around the $500,000 mark, given that it’s in original condition. But who knows. You just don’t see them.”

“There has been growing interest in classic cars, not just for purists but also people looking for genuine investments. They are turning their eyes to classic cars and looking for value.”

A 1988 Porsche 959 — the world’s fastest car at the time it was launch. Picture: Supplied.

Allen says a growing number of Asian buyers are focused on auctions in Australia, such as Chinese-Australian billionaire Peter Tseng who recently paid $2.45 million for the NSW numberplate 4.

“For them, it’s purely investment. They are seeing cars as commodities and investment items.”

The Gosford auction is the first for the museum, which was established in a former Bunnings outlet by classic car collector Tony Denny in 2016. It is the easily the biggest car museum in Australia and a passion project for Denny, who often wheels and deals on individual cars.

The Pickles luxury auction will be held later this month at the Gosford Car Museum. Pic: Supplied.

With 59 cars to be auctioned by Pickles and a VIP invitation list that includes Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo, Allen says there is genuinely something for everyone.

“There will be a lot of interest in the hero cars, but we have classic cars in all price ranges. They go from the old MG TD and Triumph TR4 to a Mazda Cosmo and even the Nissan 280Z from the 1980s,” he says.