History
I had a beautiful black XB GT Coupe in my younger days that still hurts to think about and my wife knows it.
So a few years back I lost both my parents in quick succession and one day, half joking, I said to my wife we should invest some of my inheritance into a classic Aussie muscle car as nothing was appreciating as quick as they were, you can imagine how stunned I was that she said it was a great idea!!����
That’s all I needed and I started looking, we saw a few coupes that I would have loved, but I was also thinking of investment value as well when I stumbled on this Goss Special for sale in Queensland.
Tickets were purchased and flights boarded and we went for a look, I figured the worst thing that could happen would be we didn’t like it and we’d just buy some plane tickets home to Sydney.
We arrived at the place of sale and had a look around her and a test drive, the body was straight and fairly rust free, she ran like a pig but I knew I could sort that once she was home. The guy selling it, for his mate, told us it was a hill climb event car and I thought the guy had to be nuts!, this would be a pig of car to use for that, not light and nimble like a lot of other cars, but it did explain a few things like all the missing rubbers and it’s ride height.
The deal was struck and we DROVE it home with 4:11 diff gears from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland to western Sydney over 2 days on the hotest weekend that year, it was a nightmare but I loved it.
I secured a 3.2:1 lsd diff for the old girl, much needed change, and it now cruised instead of screamed everywhere it went.
A new set of rims filled out the guards with 15x10 rears and 295 tyres, had to paint them gold myself as I couldn’t get gold ones anywhere.
Numerous interior fixes and rubber replacements, and engine bay clean and dress and it was okay, not great but okay.
Got some new (2nd hand) rear leaves as the old ones had been reset and they were way too low, lowered the rear an inch and a half and new springs in the front that were fitted, car put back on the ground, assessed, jacked up pulled out and adjusted, car on the ground for assessment, car jacked up springs pulled and adjusted and installed and car back on the ground, and again for good measure to get the ride height exactly where I wanted it.
Let some disposable funds build up a bit and pulled the top end of the motor, found that the holley that was on her came from the motor in Noah’s ark and was warped beyond anything I’d ever seen, good news was the engine was solid and clean internally, measured the stroke on her and it came in a shade over 4”, a full inch more than a 302 should have.
Before the top end came off she was a pig to start and keep running, I was constantly fighting to keep it alive and wasn’t all that enjoyable, so a new carby was sourced, and Edelbrock thunder series, I bolted it down, hooked up the fuel and prepared to try and keep it running while sorting mixtures and idle circuits as well as timing, turned the key and it purred and idled instantly, I was well impressed, only had to do minor tweaks.
Now the carb was on and running right I had to lift the dizzy and move it 2 teeth to be able to bring the timing down because the electronic ignition module was hitting the intake and I couldn’t turn it far enough to get it under control, but we got there.
It’s had some minor body work done, taken care of extremely well by Shane at Panther Prestige Smash Repairs, and honestly I cannot recommend them highly enough, he took care of the old girl like she was his, and she needs another booking to fix a couple of things, but for now it’s time to drive her and enjoy it.
