Ford Dealer Bulletin XA GTHO

[EBSXR6]

The attached was posted in Australian Motoring History Facebook Group.

[GT1533]

It’s no secret that the Phase 4 was cancelled.
What am I missing here?

[EBSXR6]

Originally Posted by GT1533

It’s no secret that the Phase 4 was cancelled.
What am I missing here?

The document shows a contradiction by Ford.
Ford had assigned a Model Code and Price then issue a letter saying it was a mistake.

[GT450]

Again no secret, Evan Green stirred the pot after is was a designated build model.

[lra]

The big scare scandal kicked off with a headline on 25 June 1972, which has been documented and referred to numerous times
The latest Australian Muscle Car magazine has an article on the 4th XA GTHO.
But all this is before the 'living memory' of most of the population.

[XR6WGN]

To me, there is only ONE GTHO Phase 4 - we all know it's Green and has the letters GTHO on the compliance plate. And until I see another compliance plate with the same specs then I'll acknowledge another one exists.

The other three (whilst being GTs) were just that and were to be built to Race Specs - they aren't complianced GTHOs in my books.

[lra]

^^^^^ good point.
If I could edit ' 4th XA GTHO' to ' the only road complianced GTHO' ........... but I can't.

[XR6WGN]

Originally Posted by lra

^^^^^ good point.
If I could edit ' 4th XA GTHO' to ' the only road complianced GTHO' ........... but I can't.

Yeah I understand
There are a lot of Passionate followers out there in Ford land who have their views on this subject - I read them, I agree with some and disagree with others but at the end of the day - we all have our own opinions.

I stopped buying Australian Muscle Car magazine a while ago (my collection got too big) but I may pick this one up and have a read. Cheers.

[BENT_8]

Wait..what!!!

Theres 4 XA GTHO's, are you guys trying to suggest the 3 Lot 6 Brambles red XA's arent real HO's??

*Grabs popcorn...

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by GT1533

It’s no secret that the Phase 4 was cancelled.
What am I missing here?

Ford were trying to deny it ever existed. And they weren't planning to have one of these so called "bullets on wheels".

It was them trying to cover their *****.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by XR6WGN

To me, there is only ONE GTHO Phase 4 - we all know it's Green and has the letters GTHO on the compliance plate. And until I see another compliance plate with the same specs then I'll acknowledge another one exists.

The other three (whilst being GTs) were just that and were to be built to Race Specs - they aren't complianced GTHOs in my books.

I see it from a different view. The factory was building them as GTHO race cars, so in my eyes that's what they were. The compliance plate means nothing when these cars are documented and have the recognition as to what they were. If it was built to the proper specs by the factory, then that's what they are. It's different if it was done in someones backyard.

Cams didn't care that they didn't have HO on the compliance plate, they would have allowed them to race as GT-HO's with the proper homologation requirements cause that's what the factory documentation would have said they were.

[ozrunner]

Originally Posted by EBSXR6

The document shows a contradiction by Ford.
Ford had assigned a Model Code and Price then issue a letter saying it was a mistake.

A total BS backpeddle. It existed as evidenced by the Green Meenie.

But also back then all the Ford dealers received an instruction from Ford that all the recently released XA parts manuals must be collected and destroyed and new ones will be sent. Reason being this new XA parts manual had parts referenced for the XA GTHO.

I was in the right place at the right time as a semi destroyed XA Ford parts manual that was in a skip bin about to head to a furnace fell out and it has many references to GTHO parts Later I also obtained the revised edition and all these GTHO part references were now deleted.

Might think about flogging them as they are genuine history

[lra]

Without digging through a lot of my historical stuff ............
Bruce Hodgson's rally GTHO was pranged, restored and is now in Bowdens collection ? Question, I dunno.
What happened to the other 2 ?

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by ozrunner

A total BS backpeddle. It existed as evidenced by the Green Meenie.

But also back then all the Ford dealers received an instruction from Ford that all the recently released XA parts manuals must be collected and destroyed and new ones will be sent. Reason being this new XA parts manual had parts referenced for the XA GTHO.

I was in the right place at the right time as a semi destroyed XA Ford parts manual that was in a skip bin about to head to a furnace fell out and it has many references to GTHO parts Later I also obtained the revised edition and all these GTHO part references were now deleted.

Might think about flogging them as they are genuine history

There was also a dealer bulletin sent out to dealers saying "Gentlemen - The XA GT-HO is now in production".

This is the only image I could find of it, and it's pretty hard to read. But it just shows they backpeddled hard.

[Terror_Tree]

Originally Posted by GT450

Again no secret, Evan Green stirred the pot after is was a designated build model.

I have a different theory. Who gained the most by having the GTHO IV cancelled? I wouldn't be surprised if Holden had a hand in getting this story published There is now way a V8 LJ Torana would have been competitive, too heavy at the front.

[Bossxr8]

I wonder how many days away they were from actually going down the line, if the dealer bulletin says they were now in production, and they had the 250 sets of parts all ready to go. Must have been days.

Why couldn't that absolute **** hat Evan Green have kept his damn mouth shut.

He denied us the Ph4 and the planned Ph5 coupe. Which would have been awesome. Although ADR27 would have eventually killed them anyway.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Terror_Tree

I have a different theory. Who gained the most by having the GTHO IV cancelled? I wouldn't be surprised if Holden had a hand in getting this story published There is now way a V8 LJ Torana would have been competitive, too heavy at the front.

Nonsense. The V8 engine in the LJ sat back further, improving the front/rear balance & the weight difference between the 6 & V8 was only around 40 kg. This was overcome by the fitting of a fibreglass bonnet, so the total weight was the same a 6-cyl XU1. Braking was also slightly upgraded.

They entered a prototype V8 LJ at the 1972 Bathurst Easter event in the Sports Sedan category (in Series Prod. trim) & it came 3rd to 2 fairly serious Porsches. Larry Perkins drove it & his comment was that it was substantially quicker than the 6-cyl & would easily win the 500, come Bathurst that year.

There was no guesswork here.

Dr Terry

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I see it from a different view. The factory was building them as GTHO race cars, so in my eyes that's what they were. The compliance plate means nothing when these cars are documented and have the recognition as to what they were. If it was built to the proper specs by the factory, then that's what they are. It's different if it was done in someones backyard.

I'll agree with most of that, except that this is the 1st time they didn't race the car as it left the production line. These cars were built as GTs & then converted to GT-HO specs after they drove off the line (at the Mahoneys Rd Ford race workshop).

They were accepted by CAMS (& the FIA) for homologation purposes, but they were not built as GT-HOs initially.

In later years this was commonplace, they even built cars from bare shells, which had no compliance plates. By the race rules this was all OK.

Dr Terry

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Dr Terry

I'll agree with most of that, except that this is the 1st time they didn't race the car as it left the production line. These cars were built as GTs & then converted to GT-HO specs after they drove off the line (at the Mahoneys Rd Ford race workshop).

They were accepted by CAMS (& the FIA) for homologation purposes, but they were not built as GT-HOs initially.

In later years this was commonplace, they even built cars from bare shells, which had no compliance plates. By the race rules this was all OK.

Dr Terry

Most likely due to the timing. If they had production GT-HO's available they would have used them. As they wanted them ready for Bathurst the only available cars they had were GT's, and they had to use them and convert them to HO spec.

Something like that anyway.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Most likely due to the timing. If they had production GT-HO's available they would have used them. As they wanted them ready for Bathurst the only available cars they had were GT's, and they had to use them and convert them to HO spec.

Something like that anyway.

Very true & I agree, but these 3 cars are not 100% 'real' GT-HOs, which the Calypso Green is.

Dr Terry