Entering a new Phase

The Falcon XW GT-HO Phase II boasted significant improvements over the original XW GT-HO. But that only increased the pressure on Ford to deliver at Bathurst, given how spectacularly the GT-HO had failed the year before. Making the stakes even higher in 1970 was the fact that were the new Ford to go down at Bathurst again, this time it would have been defeated by a six-cylinder opponent, and not a big V8 Monaro.

Story: Steve Normoyle

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Externally, the XW Falcon GT-HO Phase II is almost indistinguishable from the original GT-HO model. The only visual difference is in the wheels: the original model’s 14 x 6-inch wheels had 12 slots, the Phase II’s are five-slot.

But under the skin a lot had changed. The upgrades were substantial, many of them a direct response to the original GT-HO’s humiliating failure at Bathurst the previous year.

Of course, the big ticket change was the switch from the Windsor 351 V8 to the Cleveland version – although this had nothing to do with what had happened on the Mountain in ’69. The Cleveland engine had been a part of Al Turner’s vision for the GT-HO series right from the start – before the American had even arrived in Melbourne in late ’68 to take over Ford’s down under motorsport operations. It was only the slow moving wheels of the Ford system that prevented the original XW GT-HO from being Cleveland powered.