The Byrt Ford Falcon GTHO raced by Garry Rush and Martin Chenery in the 1970 Hardie-Ferodo 500 now lives in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It’s been owned by builder and motoring enthusiast Mike Rystenberg since 1988 and is now resplendent in the Byrt Ford livery it wore at Bathurst 52 years ago.
The Falcon was originally delivered to Byrt Ford at Wollongong, south of Sydney, specifically for preparation as a race car for the Bathurst 500. After Bathurst, it was raced by Phil Barnes from late 1970 into the following year, still with Byrt Ford livery. In 1971 the car was sold to the first of three Tasmanian owners before eventually finding its way the nearly 3,000km as the crow flies to Mike Rystenberg.
Mike’s desire to own a GTHO started when he was very young, and he remembers it clearly: “As an eight year-old I was walking to school with my three brothers and sister when I heard a car starting up. I looked across and the first thing I saw was a gold car with a badge on the front fender which said ‘351 High Performance GT’.
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