Car ID wanted from photo [Aussie Drivers]

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From: PhilD on 21 Dec 2009 17:51

From: D Walford on 22 Dec 2009 01:44

Noddy wrote:

> 3 other cars were built for the Ford factory works team as race cars at the
> Special Vehicles building in Thomastown. All three were red XA GT sedans
> taken off the assembly line and delivered straight to the FSV building in
> Thomastown where they were "modified" to PH.IV spec in anticipation for
> racing. All three were sold off once the Phase IV project was cancelled, and
> two of the three survive today. The third was wrecked in an accident some
> time in the 1980's. All three red "factory" cars carried a standard XA GT
> compliance plate.

2 of those 3 ended up in the hands of the Ford rally team and were fully
prepared as rally cars, no sure whether or not they were actually rallied.
The mechanic who did the suspension and body work was Geoff Sharpe who
was my boss at Ford for a couple of years, unfortunately I can't call
him and check the facts as he died in the late 80's from an allergic
reaction to seafood when he was in New Zealand working for Ford.

Daryl

From: Noddy on 22 Dec 2009 04:15

"D Walford" <dwalford(a)internode.on.net> wrote in message
news:00b9ef8f$0$15662$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com...

> 2 of those 3 ended up in the hands of the Ford rally team and were fully
> prepared as rally cars, no sure whether or not they were actually rallied.
> The mechanic who did the suspension and body work was Geoff Sharpe who was
> my boss at Ford for a couple of years, unfortunately I can't call him and
> check the facts as he died in the late 80's from an allergic reaction to
> seafood when he was in New Zealand working for Ford.

Jeez, that's gotta suck.

When Ford cancelled the Phase IV, only one genuine plated XA GTHO had been
built, and that was the Calypso Green sedan I mentioned earlier. That car
was built specifically for a Ford executive, and was a "custom" with a white
interior, power windows and sunroof. The executive keep it for some time
before it was sold to a private buyer and changed hands a number of times
before the current owner acquired it some time in the mid 1980's. There is a
photo floating around of it for sale in a used car lot on Coburg in the
early 1980's for the massive sum of 8 thousand bucks :)

The three red "factory" cars were sold or "gifted" to people who had friends
in high Blue oval places. One car was sold to Keith Goodall in Townsville
who used it as a private car before it changed hands a number of times
(where it eventually ended up in the hands of car collector David Bowden),
one was sold to Max McLeod Ford of NSW who was John Goss's sponsor, and the
third was given to Bruce Hodgson for use as a rally car.

Of the three original "works" cars, Hodgson's car was the only one to ever
see any competition duty in rally and rallycross events. The car was run
into the ground and flogged to a private buyer before it was written off and
destroyed in the 1980's. The McLeod Ford car was stripped of parts and the
engine sent to Hodgson to use as a spare, and most of the other unique
"phase IV" bits and pieces were sold off to other people before the car was
rebuilt back into a "standard" XA GT and flogged off to a private buyer.

--
Regards,
Noddy.

From: D Walford on 22 Dec 2009 05:35

Noddy wrote:
> "D Walford" <dwalford(a)internode.on.net> wrote in message
> news:00b9ef8f$0$15662$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com...
>
>> 2 of those 3 ended up in the hands of the Ford rally team and were fully
>> prepared as rally cars, no sure whether or not they were actually rallied.
>> The mechanic who did the suspension and body work was Geoff Sharpe who was
>> my boss at Ford for a couple of years, unfortunately I can't call him and
>> check the facts as he died in the late 80's from an allergic reaction to
>> seafood when he was in New Zealand working for Ford.
>
> Jeez, that's gotta suck.

Sure did, he was a great boss and and a top bloke, a very sad loss.

Daryl

From: PhilD on 22 Dec 2009 08:12

"Noddy" <me(a)home.com> wrote in message
news:4b2ff229$0$22017$c30e37c6(a)exi-reader.telstra.net...
>
> "PhilD" <replytonewsgrouponly(a)aussient.com.au> wrote in message
> news:j3LXm.63774$ze1.19246(a)news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
>> Was there a difference between the one's given away by Ford and the
>> general one's that Globe were selling to the public later on through tire
>> dealers?
>
> Only in that they were 15 inch diameter compared to the more common 14
> inch at the time, and that they came from Globe with the Ford part number
> cast into the back of them.
>
>> I bought a set over the counter in about 76/77 and to fit them I had to
>> source XA (I think) upper arms that had a 3 bolt ball joint as against
>> the 4 bolt XY one's as the arm jammed the rim.
>
> Presumably they were 14 inch ones?
>
I thought that I had a pic of the rims somewhere and finally found it. I was
trying out a scanner at some time and picked out a few old slides that I
had. Unfortunately it doesn't show the exact tire size but I was able to see
the writing "Uniroyal Wild Cat 60" which confirms to me that they were
indeed 225/60x15. As to the similarity of the rims to what Ford had sourced
I have no idea but I do remember being quite pissed off at the time that
they wouldn't fit and it took me some time to find out that the front upper
arms had to be updated as well. Even though it was a simple bolt on change
over job it most certainly wasn't common knowledge. Don't ask about how well
the tires performed as I never wore them out due to selling the car shortly
after. I had a couple of sets of the 14" Wild Cats before and although they
weren't the best in quality in that they needed a fair bit of balancing
weights they were quite durable on what passed for bitumen on the Stuart Hwy
back then.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/phild12s131e/Falcon10.jpg

PhilD

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