“It was love at first sight,” is how Gary Thompson remembers the night he saw his 1970 Falcon GTHO Phase Two for the first time. “It was up on stands on the lot at John Gigante Motors on Parramatta Road in Croydon,” reminisces Gary today from his home in Mount Annan, NSW.

“My friend Paul Bianco and I were headed to the ‘brickies’ for some street racing action. We had just driven by when the bright orange of the car caught my eye, and we immediately turned around to go drool over it,” remembers Gary.

“They wanted around $4,200 for it. The salesman didn’t mind letting a 21 year old behind the wheel of such a powerful beast either!”

After the road test, Gary talked turkey with the salesman clinching a deal that afternoon which included a then nine month old Electric Blue 351 XY Falcon 500. “They gave me $3,000 as a trade-in,” smiles Garry.

This was fifty years ago back in 1972, and the barely one-year old Falcon GTHO was just out of warranty and had just been traded-in by its first owner.

 

I’ll never forget the night the flywheel exploded through the bonnet!

“I’d had the Phase Two for just ten days when my good mate Paul who was the test driver for Jack Brabham Ford where we both worked, lined me up to race his peppermint green Lotus twin-cam Mk1 Escort.”

“We’d taken off in a symphony of noise, dust and wheel spin. I was revving the HO to 7,200rpm in 1^st gear when I clutched to change to 2^nd gear. We were flat out side by side on Newbridge Road at Moorebank, it was just before midnight.”

“There was a loud bang! Then everything went pitch black.”

“I had no headlights, and no dash lights. The electricals had been cut completely.”

“Thunder struck, here I was doing 70 mile per hour trying to steer the big Falcon in complete darkness as I slammed on the brakes. My foot went straight to the floorboards and it took me a second to register that I was steering a runaway freight train!” tells Gary as he relives those harrowing frightening moments gripping the thin steering wheel with white knuckles whilst attempting to pull up a ton and a half of an out of control hunk of metal.

If anybody had been watching this event unfold, they would have heard a loud explosion, and witnessed pieces of flywheel shrapnel explode through a bulging bonnet, and sparks coming from under the car where the rear of the engine block was tearing up the road. The gearbox bellhousing had also taken leave with the exploding flywheel, leaving Gary with a gearbox full of neutrals.

“I was about a kilometre down the road before I came to a stop.”

“Paul’s Escort had also suffered shrapnel wounds lodged from projectile bits of the flywheel embedded in his door panels.”

“My ten day old car looked like it had been struck by lightning.”

“Its bonnet bulged upwards with a huge gaping hole where 20 ounces of flywheel had exited like an Apollo 11 rocket. The engine was now pointing skywards pressing against the underside of the bonnet.”

A tow truck was quickly called from a nearby phone box, and the damaged Falcon GTHO taken to a local panel beater.

“The next morning I was told it would be a write-off,” tells Gary, who then decided to have the car taken to another panel shop instead.

“I’ll never forget the night the flywheel exploded,” says Gary.

Two weeks later the Falcon was all repaired like new again. “The panel shop had offered me an XY GT style bonnet which came complete with air-scoop shaker assembly left over from a Falcon GT. The original XW grille was left on, but we added later model XY taillights.”

Gary opted to remove the original black GT side stripes, “We did this for no other reason than to make it look different.”

Mechanics at Jack Brabham Ford rebuilt the original motor with new bearings, and fitted a steel flywheel instead of the cast iron factory unit which had exploded into a million pieces.

“They even had to repair the dowels at the back of the engine block which had broken off when the motor scraped along the road! The gearbox input shaft also needed to be replaced because it was bent like a banana. We ended up fitting after-market extractors as the original exhaust manifolds had been severely damaged.

Before having the engine repaired, Gary who worked in spare parts at Jack Brabham Ford knew John Goss from McLeod Ford.

“I had actually bought his ex-race car motor from his Phase Three GTHO for $300. I was going to rebuild it, but it was cheaper to repair my original engine. I sold this bare motor, less the Phase Three race camshaft which a mate fitted to his car, and broke even getting my money back on the whole deal.

Originally registered with GT-187 number plates, the HO was re-registered with GT-388 after the repair.

Gary kept his Falcon GTHO for a few years after this, and vividly remembers the first time he took it off the clock winding it past 140 miles per hour.

“My wife and I were returning from my in-law’s house in Queanbeyan, and as we went through the township of Collector along the Federal Highway, a small Datsun 1600 was right on my backside along the windey bits.”

“On the first open straight of road, I took the HO off the clock!”

“My nervous wife looked at the speedo and said ‘it’s on the H where it reads MPH (miles per hour)’.”

“I took her word for it.”

“I wasn’t game to take my eyes off the road at that speed!” laughs Gary now.

A teary reunion

Five decades would pass before Gary laid teary eyes on his old bright orange Falcon, which is now in the hands of Melbourne collector Joe Barca.

“I never thought I’d ever see my GTHO again,” says Gary in disbelief. “I was thunder struck again, this time though by the condition it’s in now which is better than it was new!”

Chris Dent from Falcon GT Restorations in Sydney had completely restored this super-rare Ford for a previous owner to a Gold standard Concours condition, resulting in winning the Grand Champion - ‘The Best Car of Show’ at the 2015 Falcon GT Nationals. 

The current owner Joe tells, “It had won every category in the show it was entered in. It cleaned up every trophy! I had to have it.”

It was this moment that Joe knew he had to buy this outstanding GTHO should it ever come up for sale.

As chance would have it, not long after the Falcon came onto the market for sale by tender, and Joe was the successful bidder paying $500,000 for this very special one-of-a-kind car.

“It’s also my wife Debbie’s favourite colour,” states Joe with a wink, as he justifies this expensive purchase. This said, the Phase Two isn’t Joe’s first rodeo as he’s owned many Falcon GTs and probably more GTHOs than anyone else on the planet.

Unbeknownst to Joe at the time, Gary Thompson the former owner was also the under-bidder who wanted to get his old car back.

Gary’s son Trent then arranged for his dad to see his old Falcon. “As you can see Dad was very teary seeing it again,” says Trent. “At least he got to sit behind the wheel again.”

It was at this time that Joe learnt more about this car’s history from Gary who shared his story and photos about the night the flywheel exploded. This helped Joe to make sense of some minor existing battle scars in the transmission tunnel on the car.

How rare is a Surfer Orange Falcon GTHO?

In June 1970, the Ford Motor Company released just 287 of the Phase Two version of the XW Falcon GTHO which was fitted with the high-output 351 Cleveland V8 boasting 300bhp, a bullnose 4-speed manual and 3.50:1 bullet-proof Daytona rear axle. At the time, most Falcon GTHOs found ownership amongst young men aged 20-30 years old.

Of the 287 built, only four XW Falcon GTHOs are known to have been specially ordered in Surfer Orange, three of which, including this one, were sold new by Peter Warren Ford in Liverpool, Sydney.

This one, which is Build No.68 came off the factory assembly line at Ford in Broadmeadows, Victoria on Friday 10^th July, 1970 and is believed to have been used as a ‘demonstrator’ by Peter Warren Ford until March 1971, when it was advertised with 3,000 miles. It was then sold to a young doctor for $4,985, who clocked up 14,000 miles before trading it in.

The passage of time over the last 50 years has only strengthened the allure and passion for the Falcon GTHO which many enthusiasts now consider a national treasure. And with fewer than a third of surviving examples of the Phase Two model left in existence, this particular car will forever remain one of the more desired not only for its rarity, but also for its colourful history on the night the flywheel exploded through the bonnet!

For more stories like this, and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Falcon GTHOs pre-order your set of the XW GTHO Bibles.

THE BLUE EDITIONS 'FORD FAN' DOUBLE PACK
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The Blue Editions ‘Ford Fan’ Double Pack: The 1970 Ford Falcon XW GTHO Phase I ½ & Phase II Register is only available for a short time only, and once sold-out these titles will no longer be available, EVER again!

Inside each register is the factory build records for every Phase I ½ and Phase 2 ever built, including details of what colour, trim and minor options each left the factory with, and even tells you which Ford dealership it was sold through. This is the best reference book solely dedicated to this marque ever published, and is officially licensed by the Ford Motor Company.

The GTHO Register is offering 10% off to the first 25 Shannons Club Members who purchase with the discount code. 

Hurry, they’re selling faster than a GTHO down Conrod Straight!