Phased out

Fifty years on and it remains the most famous of all Australian Ford muscle cars – which is quite the achievement for a Ford model that never even officially existed. But from the handful of prototypes that did survive, and from what we know was planned for the production model, the Falcon XA GTHO Phase IV would truly have lived up to all the hype and mystique that still surrounds it all these years later.

Story: Steve Normoyle

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For fans of Aussie muscle cars – and motoring enthusiasts generally, and maybe even including Holden fans – the XA Falcon GTHO’s stillbirth was a tragedy.

What makes it even worse is the pathetically ironic circumstances that surrounded the car’s premature demise. It was demonised by authorities as too dangerous to be allowed on Australian roads – a ‘bullet on wheels’, no less, in fact – when in actual fact the GTHO Phase IV would have been safer to drive and more user-friendly than any of the preceding three phases of the GTHO range (all of which had been already been deemed perfectly acceptable for use on Australian roads). Not only that, but the 351 Cleveland V8 in the Phase IV would likely have had slightly less power, and certainly not more, than the Phase III.

What a pity it is that we were denied such a car. Because forget Bathurst for a moment, in 1972 this Falcon would have probably have been the best high-performance road-going four-door sedan in the world. For a proper understanding of what the XA GTHO would have been like, consider Fred Gibson’s impressions of the Phase IV when he track-tested one of the surviving prototypes at Oran Park for Racing Car News magazine in 1977.