Oz's Rarest Muscle

PHASE1972 FORD FALCON XA GT-HO IV OZ’S RAREST MUSCLE CAR REVEALED! WORLD E E! XC IV L S U U S PART ONE: I L V C E THE FORD FALCON XA GT-HO X ! W E PHASE O D R L THE FORD DEALER L R D O Selling Dealer: Jack Brabham Ford E W X ! C E NSW L V I STOWN, U IVS GREENACRE-BANK Order Date: 15/5/1972 Delivery Date: 17/1/1973 First Registered: 19/1/1973 Sale Date: 26/3/1973 The sole production Phase IV was ordered by Jack Brabham Ford as a retail order and not as dealer stock. On the 15/5/1972, the order came through to the Ford Broadmeadows head office and so began the production of what is now Australia’s rarest muscle car. The vehicle build sheet reveals this information by way of order codes and dates. I contacted Sir Jack and asked him about his dealership. He said that he was merely the main attraction, the big name on the sign and in the ads that drew a lot of buyers to his dealership. He left the selling and day-to-day running of the business to his managers. When I questioned him about the Phase IV, he tried his best to remember the car as much as he could, which he did, but not any of the finer details most of us eager Ford guys would want to know. Well, at least he wasn’t telling me much if he did indeed remember. Perhaps he still thought the car was never to be spoken about. Paul Bianco was head of the high-performance division This is basically how the Phase IV looked like when at Brabham Ford and vividly remembers when the car was it left the dealership on the 26/3/1973, except for delivered new. According to Paul, the Phase IV was unloaded the H4 headlights and gloss black highlights from a transporter and went straight to the pre-delivery department where it was prepared for sale. It had the front spoiler fitted and there was no rear spoiler to be seen. IT Was the Best-souNDING ClevelaND The Phase IV was rumoured to be Sir Jack’s personal car, but WorDS BY ROY VELarDI PICS BY John HEMphiLL, Robert LahooD, Kirk GostevskY, ‘The Dentist’, JIM SkoUras anD ROY VELarDI Paul remembers clearly Sir Jack saying that he wasn’t really fond ENGINE ON the BraBham DYNO of the car as it was a manual. Sounds strange, I know, considering Sir Jack was already a three-time F1 world champion! Tough stance, this is the view any competitor got Paul was responsible for organising and performing the dyno when they took on the powerful XA GT-HO tuning (amongst other things) on the high-performance Fords at the dealership. The GT-HOs were treated to a dyno tune before THE HISTORY OF THE being released for sale, which was normal procedure at Brabhams. The Calypso Green Phase IV was no exception, and Paul remembers it all too well. He recalls having to pull the distributor cap off and remove the rev-limiting rotor button (throwing it into the bin!) and replacing it with a standard GT one. This allowed him to take the solid cam-equipped 351 Cleveland to over 6150rpm without backfiring. Sadly, he doesn’t recall how much HP it made at the wheels, but he does remember it was one of the best-sounding Clevelands to ever run on the Brabham dyno! Once cleaned and tuned, the Phase IV was then registered at the Chullora Department of Motor Transport. Initially they didn’t After 38 years, finally the true history of the rarest muscle car ever produced in Australia can be revealed want to know about the car, but Paul persuaded them into legally PHASE IV registering the car. They told him never to bring another XA GT-HO in again as they would refuse registration no matter who owned it. ever in my wildest dreams did I ever think My older brother Frank Velardi worked there as a young man This meant searching the White Pages for names and The car was then put aside for a couple of months until a the journey of life would steer me down a and remembers meeting and chatting to The Dentist way back addresses, which soon became dead ends. I performed extensive new home could be found for it. This is where there is some slight road where I would one day be given the in the 1980s about the Phase IV. When he asked him to describe online searches, thinking outside the square, which ultimately led confusion as the order was retail based. opportunity of a lifetime. I have the absolute the colour of the car, he went out of his way to describe it to the to further names, numbers and emails back and forth. You would think that if the car was ready for pick-up, the new privilege to have been ‘chosen’ to reveal to eager fuel pump attendant.. The thrill of the chase and the sheer fact that this is one owner would have run, not walked, to pick it up, but this wasn’t the Australian motoring public the story of the So how did this feature article come about? The current very special car not only to myself but the motoring community the case. It wasn’t officially sold until 26/3/1973 when Mr John soleN production Calypso Green Ford Falcon XA GT-HO Phase IV. owner and I were chatting one day and basically we overall, kept me hungry to find out more information and stay Hemphill bought it. Perhaps Sir Jack was still debating whether he The one that has escaped the public eye for decades. The entertained the idea of perhaps one day I could feature the focused on the giant task ahead. wanted the car or not… one that supposedly doesn’t exist. The one that has never Phase IV in a book or magazine. He had been approached Eventually I got in contact with all the previous owners (or Every high-performance Ford that was sold by been photographed and documented in full. The one that every by many car magazines in the past, but was reluctant to go their family), interviewed them, and secured photos of the car Jack Brabham Ford was dyno tuned and had a Ford muscle car fan would love to see, let alone own. through with any photo shoots as he wasn’t entirely sure including themselves from when they owned the car. decal like this placed on the rear window. They The Phase IV I have been a good friend of the current owner for quite of the intentions of the magazines. The car’s security was Over the next few pages, you will be the first to see were the only Ford dealer Australia wide that was rumoured had a chassis dyno at their disposal some time, and our relationship extends further than the car another very important factor to consider. many never-before-seen photos of the Phase IV. These to be a gift from Ford to Sir Jack, itself through family. A cousin of mine, Domenic Catanzariti, Given the existence of a ‘family’ bond, eventually are just a small selection of the more interesting ones I but he didn’t owned and operated a mechanical workshop/service I was given the green light to go ahead and begin have in my extensive archive. like the four- station in Guildford NSW. He had become good friends with researching the sole production Phase IV. Armed with Read on and enjoy part one of my series of articles covering speed box ‘The Dentist’ back then and serviced most of his cars. Their all the previous owners’ names, I set about tracking what is Australia’s rarest Ford and muscle car ever to be made on friendship still remains to this day. each and every one down. the production line. This is the remodelled office that Sir Jack Brabham Ford will Jack used to conduct business in. forever be associated Note the framed drawing of his Repco with the Phase IV. The sole Brabham Formula 1 racer on the wall production XA GT-HO was smartly pre-ordered by them THE FORD FALCON XA GT-HO IVE! W Here is the Phase IV as driven by one of Hemphill’s associates to chauffeur the children S O LU RL around. Hemphill would often take his kids for drives into Sydney in the HO. Note that C PART ONE:D THE FORD FALCON XA GT-HO the original Calypso Green paint was long gone and replaced with Zircon Green X E E was given the task of repainting the car in 1975. PHASE X D C Max and his crew stripped the car down for a full L L colour change. R U They repaired some minor body blemishes O S I that resulted from Hemphill’s long country drives, V W ! E then set about applying the Zircon Green. The E ! V W I paintwork wasn’t a real flash job, as remnants of S IV O U R the factory Calypso Green could still be seen in L L C D X E various places such as the door jambs and the underside of the bonnet. The paint and panel work was completed and the car handed back to Fred to refit the mechanicals. Fred had fully rebuilt the 351 Cleveland, close ratio four-speed Toploader and 31- spline Detroit Locker Ford 9in at Hemphill’s request.

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