Media darling
The closeness of the gear ratios is illustrated when you take the engine to the redline in each gear, for the revs then drop back, in each case, just 1500 rpm to 4500 rpm, the point at which maximum torque is developed. Is it any wonder the HO gets up and goes at such a fantastic rate? First gear runs out to 56 mph… top speed is close enough to 140 mph for it not to matter.Twice we saw 6300 rpm on the tachometer in top gear and we timed the car across a quarter mile at fractionally under 140 mph on two occasions.
Let us say this is easily the fastest production car made in Australia and one of the fastest four-door, five-seater cars in the world.
These were the words of Peter Robinson, one of the country’s top motoring writers in the 1970s and ‘80s. He is describing the impressive acceleration of the new model XW Falcon GT-HO ‘Phase II, which in 1970 Ford hoped would make amends for the previous year’s humiliating defeat, and at the same time prevent a hattrick of Bathurst wins for Holden.
Robinson was writing about the new HO in Australian Motor Sports and Automobiles magazine. The November 1970 issue’s ‘Super Car Test’ pitted the Falcon against its expected Bathurst opposition that year, the new LC model Torana GTR XU-1 and the VG Valiant Pacer 4-BBL. The three-car comparison story left readers in no doubt as to what the magazine thought would happen on the Mountain: the Falcon ‘should win’ outright, and the Torana and Pacer ‘should win their respective classes’ – all of which turned out to be correct!
The Diamond White Phase II that featured in the Aust Motor Sports ‘Super Cars Test’ would also appear on the pages (and covers) of other motoring mags of the day, as well as in the The Australian newspaper (after his test drive of the white HO, the paper’s motoring editor Mike Kable was enthusiastically singing its praises in print, predicting that ‘hail, rain or shine, I expect that a Ford Falcon GT-HO will take out line honours next Sunday in the Bathurst 500.).
With Ford’s mission having been accomplished with that not-unexpected victory at Bathurst, with Allan Moffat’s Brambles Red-coloured works entry heading home the similar car of Bruce McPhee to score a glorious one-two for the factory Ford team, the Diamond White Phase II road test demonstrator’s services soon would no longer be required. And that’s where our story begins.
Civilian life
Never buy an ex-road test car. That’s a phrase that’s oft been heard over the years by motoring journalists smirking amongst themselves. After all, it’s those members of the motoring media corp who know better than anyone how hard a life the average road test car has generally had, because it’s the journos who are the ones that have been thrashing said road test car to within an inch of its life – in the interests, of course, of providing their readers with a thorough account of the vehicle’s strengths and weaknesses. And back in the day, when one didn’t need to get too far out of town to find the roads where there were literally no speed limits, there were plenty of opportunities
