This 1971 Ford GTHO Phase III just sold for $350,000

The results are in: this rebodied 1971 Ford GTHO Phase III just sold for $350,000

UPDATE: After sitting at around $250,000 for most of the day, a late flurry of bidding saw this rebodied Electric Blue GTHO Phase III sell for $350,000 when the auction closed just after 4:30pm today.

In total, 52 bids were placed.

Compared to previous auction sales, the price could be considered low (GTHO Phase IIIs were swapping hands for more than $1 million in 2021), however considering current market conditions – and that this is a rebodied car – the result isn’t unexpected.

What do you reckon, did the buyer score a good deal for one of Australia’s most iconic vehicles? Have your say in the comments below.

Our original story, below, continues unchanged.

Last week it was a mighty HSV GTS-R W1 that sold for big bucks at auction but today it’s the turn of arguably Australia greatest motoring icon — the Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III.

One of just 300 GTHO Phase IIIs built by Ford, this 1971 example is finished in Electric Blue and is tipped to rake in big money with bidding already eclipsing the $250,000 mark.

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The auction, which is being run by Collecting Cars, ends at 4:30 (AEST) today meaning there’s just over five hours left to claim a piece of Aussie motoring history.

A ‘Yellow Glo’ GTHO Phase III currently holds the record for an Aussie car at auction after it sold for $1.3 million in September 2021.

Built in July 1971 at Ford’s Broadmeadows production plant, this GT-HO Phase III carries the build number 170 of 300 and is just one of 11 examples finished in Electric Blue. According to Collecting Cars, it is also just one of two Electric Blue examples to have a black vinyl interior and matching ‘minor options’ which include a tinted band on the windscreen and the 36-gallon ‘Bathurst’ fuel tank.

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Further underscoring the GT-HO’s rarity is that just 100 of the original 300 examples built are believed to still be in existence.

This particular car, which has an unwarranted odometer reading of 6003 miles and has been recently rebodied and restored, is powered by Ford’s famous 5.8-litre ‘Cleveland’ V8 paired with a four-speed manual gearbox and 3.25:1 Daytona limited-slip rear differential.

Collecting Cars says a recent dyno test rated this Phase III as producing 291hp (217kW) at the rear wheels, which is only marginally down on Ford’s official claim of 300hp (220kW) when the car was brand new.

Ford said the the Phase III would hit 0-100km/h in around 6.4 seconds, while the standing quarter mile was completed in 14.4sec using the standard diff ratio.

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Infamously known as the world’s fastest four-door production car, the GTHO Phase III made headlines around the nation after it clocked 228km/h during a Wheels road test with Mel Nichols at the wheel in October 1971. The image of the the Phase III’s speedometer, shot by photographer Uwe Kuessner, is equally famous among enthusiast circles.

Built as a homologation special, the Phase III was more powerful than a regular XY Falcon GT and also featured upgraded brakes and suspension to ensure it latest the distance at Australia’s most famous endurance race at Mount Panorama.

Driven by Ford hero Allan Moffat, the Phase III took victory at the 1971 Bathurst Hardie-Ferodo 5000 and also took overall honours in the 1973 Australian Touring Car Championship.

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Fraught beginnings

Things got off to a bumpy start for this particular GTHO Phase III after it was involved in a bingle on the same day it was purchased. Bought by the excellently named ‘Mr Streeter’ from Fisher Ford in Queensland, Ford is understood to have assisted with the repairs after the first-day smash.

Offered for sale in Queensland in the 1990s, the car remained up north until 2005 when it was purchased by a collected in New South Wales.

How much will it sell for?

We’ll update our story after the auction ends at 4:30pm but the current bidding sits at $265,000 with around five hours left to run.

Phase IIIs have a history of fetching huge money with several examples changing hands for more than a million dollars in recent years. As previously mentioned, a Yellow Glo example sold for $1.3 million in September 2021.

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A closer match for today’s auction piece is found in February 2021 when another electric Blue Phase III, this time with 17,340km on the clock, sold for $1.15 million.

Those prices were achieved at the height of the pandemic-fuelled classic car boom, however, and it’s unlikely today’s car will get close to those figures.

An interesting comparison will be to see how it fares against last week’s HSV GTS-R W1, which sold for $363,000.