Celebrating Ford vs Holden at Bathurst: thunder Down Under

With the might of General Motors behind it, Holden plotted its revenge.

No longer would the Australian manufacturer be embarrassed by its opposition at The Great Race.

In a few short years, the Holden vs Ford rivalry turned into all-out war that played out on both Mount Panorama and Australia’s streets, with ever-quicker homologation models.

The fanbases became tribal and the cars got faster, until the Australian government was forced to step in.

A passion for home-grown muscle cars has led this Australian enthusiast to gather one of the finest collections of Ford and Holden V8 greats

Robert Rampton was one of the young Aussies captivated by the feud between the country’s two biggest car makers.

“My dad was a Holden man, but I loved the Falcon GTs,” he remembers.

“I loved the look of them, the power, the stories – everything about them.”

His first visit to Mount Panorama (known as Wahluu to the local Wiradjuri people) was in 1969.

Robert Rampton has collected models and memorabilia over the years

The Bathurst, New South Wales track was, and still is, a brutal challenge.

Drivers climb 174m through The Cutting, Quarry Corner and other tricky bends on their way to Skyline, where the circuit peaks at about 880m above sea level, before plunging back down through The Esses and Forrest’s Elbow.

On the final stretch, the mile-long Conrod Straight, the fastest 1960s muscle cars touched 135mph before braking hard for the 90° left-hander that fired them back on to the pit straight.

This 1968 Holden HK Monaro GTS 327 is the earliest car in the collection

Our tour of Robert’s collection of home-grown muscle begins with Holden’s first fightback against the Ford Falcon GT, the 1968 HK Monaro GTS 327.

“It has a Chevrolet 327cu in motor,” he explains. “They picked the best bits from the American stuff and put it in Australian bodies.”

The ’68 Bathurst 500 was the first year that factory-backed Ford and Holden teams competed against each other with V8-engined racers.

The latter triumphed with a top-three lockout, while the closest Ford came seventh.

Ford’s Falcon GTHO ‘Phase 1.5’ has a Cleveland V8

On 5 October 1969, the teams returned to The Mountain and Ford had created something special in its attempt to set the record straight.

The XW Falcon GTHO Phase I got a larger, four-barrel carburettor, revised camshafts and more to squeeze c300bhp from its Windsor V8.

The 1970 car in Robert’s collection is a little different, though; it’s one of about 100 ‘Phase 1.5’ models.

“They ran out of Windsor motors for the final cars,” he says, “so they used the Cleveland engine, which was meant for the Phase II.”

Robert’s Ford Falcon GTHO Phase II competed at Bathurst in 1970

Unfortunately for the Blue Oval teams, Holden had not rested on its laurels for the ’69 race, and the Monaro HT GTS 350 used a 5.7-litre Chevrolet small-block to outgun Ford for the second year running.

In 1970, it was up to the XW Falcon GTHO Phase II to try to steal Holden’s crown.

Robert’s Phase II is a genuine Bathurst racer.

“A dealer [Southern Motors] entered it, and Bruce Hodgson was the driver,” he explains. “Bruce was also Ford Australia’s works rally driver, so he was well connected and Ford helped him to build the car.”

The Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III is a legendary muscle car Down Under

“It only made it about 16 laps before it blew a head gasket; there were eight or nine other GTHOs that had the same problem,” Robert adds.

Luckily for Ford, the cars of Allan Moffat and Bruce McPhee completed the 130-lap race without any major issues, and the pair finished first and second respectively.

Clearly unhappy about a Holden muscling in on its Bathurst 500 podium party, Ford decided to double down with the GTHO Phase III, which achieved a one-two-three finish at the Mount Panorama circuit in 1971.

Robert heard about this crumpled Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III and knew it was worth saving

As proof of how far the homologation war had gone between the two Australian giants, consider that the 140mph-plus GTHO Phase III was the fastest four-door car in the world in ’71.

Today, the Phase III cars, of which 300 were built, are the most coveted, and Robert’s concours-winning example is more special than most.

When he got it, a lot of the rear bodywork had been crushed in an accident.

“It had been on a truck from Perth to Sydney, but when the transporter stopped for a rest break, another truck ran up the back of it,” he recalls.

The Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III was damaged when its transporter was hit by a bread lorry then a boat fell on it

The impact dislodged a boat that was on the transporter, which was pushed into the back of the rare Phase III.

“It crushed the roof, rear quarter panels, boot and the tops of the doors – it was a big restoration,” Robert continues.

“It’s the most highly optioned GTHO ever built and the very last one made.”

Ford must have felt unbeatable in the early 1970s, but it was all about to come crashing down: Holden had a secret weapon – a young Peter Brock was waiting in the wings – and the Australian government wasn’t happy about the high-speed saloons it was selling to the public.

The Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III’s mighty V8

A Falcon GTHO Phase IV was planned, based on the new XA Falcon GT bodyshell, but the project was canned due to Australia’s ‘Supercar Scare’ in 1971.

Politicians railed against street-legal Bathurst racers after NSW minister Milton Morris labelled them “bullets on wheels” in response to a Sun Herald newspaper headline that warned of impending 160mph road cars.

Uwe Kuessner’s 1971 photograph of journalist (and, later, Classic & Sports Car editorial director) Mel Nichols driving a Falcon GTHO Phase III at 100mph on Australia’s Hume Highway didn’t help matters.

(It was later revealed that the image published in Wheels was edited, and the pair was actually travelling at 142mph.)

Two- and four-door Ford Falcon XAs; the green car is a rare RPO 83 model

Ford, Holden and Chrysler had to ditch their latest big-engined projects.

“This is the next best thing,” says Robert, standing beside his bright-green XA Falcon GT.

“When Ford decided it would cut the Phase IV, it had already bought all the parts to build them. It snuck them out the door and put all the gear into 500 Falcon GTs that came out in 1973, and this is one of them. It’s called an RPO 83.”

Robert laments the end of the Falcon’s heyday, and his line-up ends with a yellow XB GT. “This is my era, 1966 to ’77,” he adds.

The Holden Torana SL/R 5000 L34 arrived in the mid-1970s, but buyers required a race licence to purchase one

In the mid-’70s, Holden was one of the first car makers to market with a post-Supercar Scare homologation special – but it was much more difficult for the public to get its hands on.

“You had to have a CAMS race licence to buy it, you couldn’t just go into a dealership and get one,” explains Robert, pointing to the 1974 Holden Torana SL/R 5000 L34 in his garage.

“It has a 308cu in motor that was very heavily reworked by engineering company Repco.” In 1975, ‘King of the Mountain’ Peter Brock and co-driver Brian Sampson took an SL/R 5000 L34 to victory at the Bathurst 1000 (the race distance was extended to 1000km in ’73).

It was Brock’s second win at Mount Panorama, which he would conquer a record-breaking nine times. 

Bathurst memories decorate the walls of Robert’s garage

Robert’s set of Bathurst street cars finishes with an unrestored 1977 Holden LX Torana A9X, one of just 100 two-doors built and one of only three in Madeira Red.

“The only thing it didn’t leave the factory with is the aerial,” he says, explaining that the stripped-out Toranas were sold without a radio.

“A friend of mine found it in Camperdown, Sydney. He said: ‘Don’t bother looking at it, just buy it.’ I’m yet to see a better one.”

A Holy Grail Ford Mustang Boss 429 (left) and 302 with Vincent ’bike

The A9X’s most famous win was at Bathurst in 1979, when Peter Brock and co-driver Jim Richards took the chequered flag holding a six-lap lead over the second-placed Holden of Peter Janson and Larry Perkins.

That year, the first eight cars across the line were all Holden Torana A9Xs.

Robert’s shrine is decorated with models, memorabilia and photographs of his Bathurst heroes, including of Dick Johnson and Fred Gibson, who have both visited his garage.

Although The Great Race is a focal point of this collection, Robert’s hoard isn’t restricted to homologation specials: a black-and-gold Ford Mustang GT350H, Boss 302 and Boss 429 bring an American flavour, while classic British and Japanese ’bikes represent his other interest.

The Ford XY Falcon GT in rare Royal Umber had been in a shipping container for 20 years when Robert discovered it

There are some less racy Aussie muscle cars, too, including the first Robert bought, a Yellow Ochre 1970 Ford XY Falcon GT.

“I was ecstatic,” he recalls. “I paid AUD$21,000 for it.”

It’s joined by two more XY-generation models: a Falcon 500 GS ute and a brown Falcon GT. The latter is one of just three finished in Royal Umber.

“There were plenty of lairy colours, but no one really went for the ‘boring’ ones,” he explains, while his friend, restorer and employee Greg ‘Critch’ Critchlow loads it on to a trailer to transport to the Falcon GT Nationals show in Shepparton, Victoria.

“That brown car I found in a barn in a little country town with a population of fewer than 200 people, in a shed behind the pub”

“I don’t work for Robert, we’re just good mates – and he pays me,” says Critch, who joined Robert’s construction firm as a plumber in 2000.

Since the pair became more serious about restoring cars a decade ago, they have racked up a few concours awards, including a first-in-class result for the repaired XY Falcon GTHO Phase III at the 2022 MotorEx Car Show in Melbourne.

Even so, Robert prefers to play down their achievements: “We’re just tradies at the end of the day.”

The Holden HQ Monaro GTS 350

Before Critch trained as a plumber, he took a course in panel-beating, paint-spraying and upholstery.

In the early 2000s, he started working on Robert’s small car collection in his spare time – “It’d give me something to do on a rainy day,” he says – but Robert eventually hired another plumber and Critch’s passion became a full-time gig: “I was ecstatic, because I’ve never really been a big fan of plumbing.”

Bodywork and some components are sent to specialists, but Critch does a lot of the work himself.

Robert and friend Critch are dedicated to preserving the history of Bathurst and The Great Race

“Anything I can rebuild, I will,” he explains, before describing some of the more intricate jobs he does: “You can’t buy original windscreens any more. The remanufactured parts come with a different logo, and you can’t have that on a concours car.”

Instead, Critch skilfully etches the original maker’s imprint on to the new ’screen.

In his spare time, he works on a 1965 Chevrolet C10 pick-up that Robert bought when the pair visited SEMA in Los Angeles a few years ago, before gifting it to Critch when they were back in Australia.

“I really enjoy what I do,” Critch concludes. “Unfortunately, Rob has got me doing a bit more plumbing again now, but I can’t look a gift horse in the mouth too much.”

Robert’s first Ford Falcon, the Yellow Ochre GT, beside the last Holden muscle car

Our tour ends with a 2018 Holden GTSR.

The V8-engined saloon was the swansong for the Australian marque, which shut up shop Down Under in 2017, not long after Ford Australia had closed the doors on its own factories in 2016.

Perhaps, one day, they’ll make a comeback.

Until then, enthusiasts such as Robert and Critch are keeping the stories of their epic battles on The Mountain alive.

Images: Simon Davidson

Thanks to: Robert Rampton; Greg Critchlow; Chris Martin; Warren Brown

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