Factory solid lifters and headers... but the events surrounding this car are even more unique

Mr Dennis Smith was the Sales and Marketing Director for Ford in South Africa who specially ordered the GT-HO Phase Three primarily to evaluate it for the local market. He chose the Raw Orange colour because it closely resembled the Gunston cigarette brand orange which sponsored other racing Fords such as the Perana V8, a Ford Capri.

Whilst the car was still en-route by vessel to the Republic of South Africa, Mr Smith was unfortunately found murdered in Port Elizabeth.

Mr Spence Sterling who was Ford’s Product Engineering Director then took the car as his company car, but handed it back a few months later as he found it too hard to handle in traffic.

Mr Andrew Cave was a good friend of Spence Sterling, and was heavily involved in Ford motor sport at the time. Drooling over the GT-HO for months, Andrew Cave kept nagging his friend to help him buy the car from Ford. Finally, Spence Sterling used his clout and the car was sold for R4,600 (South African Rand) which according to Andrew was about $1,000 Australian dollars back then. “The GT-HO was almost impossible to drive in traffic, which put a lot of people off,” recalls Andrew.

Andrew used the HO for quarter mile sprints, recording a personal best of 13.91 seconds

He also raced the car on the old GP circuit in East London (South Africa) where he beat all-comers. “The brakes overheated and I finished up using the handbrake and gears to slow for corners. The HO gave the people of East London a good show of power with the car sliding through corners sideways and smoke pouring off the tyres” says Andrew smilingly. “The HO had a rev-limiter which cut out around 6,000rpm. I disconnected it and regularly revved the engine past 7,000rpm.”

in the mid ’70s that the Falcon was taken to Windsor Motors in Cape Town which specialised in performance tuning. Mr Loots, the owner of Windsor Motors recalls the owner boasting that the motor could easily be revved beyond 7,000rpm with the rev-limiter disconnected. This was met with scoffs, raspberries and replies that no factory V8 could safely be revved past 5,500rpm. The HO was promptly fired up on a cold motor with the accelerator floored, “The poor thing was screaming beyond 7,000rpm until it blew,” recalls Mr Loots. A replacement engine was sourced from a Diamond Blue Fairmont GT, with the original GT-HO engine thought to have been discarded.

35 years later the engine was reunited with the car, spending those years in another car and not being recognized as unusual. It happens to be one of 20 or so specially built QC (Quality Control) race engines hand-built by the FoMoCo

To add to this uncanny chain of events, around late 2004, a pre-purchase inspector met Mr Hussey who made a comment regarding a Phase Three imported from South Africa. He said that he’d unloaded the GT-HO from the transporter when it arrived in Melbourne, and went on to say that he had kept the original South African number plates rather than throw them in the bin as he was told to do.

Recognizing the historical significance of these number plates, the VIP representative promptly did a deal which involved a bottle of Johnny Walker Red. By a chance conversation later, Joe mentioned to the VIP representative that he owned the South African GT-HO and was surprised to learn that the original Cape Town number plates had survived. The plates were then gifted to the current owner, in order to complete the full history of this very unique car.

https://www.survivorcaraustralia.com.au/gtho-falcon