TradeUniqueCars.com.au 69‘nobody knows which cars were actually
RPOs’. If Ford Australia or recognised
GT authorities can’t confirm a car’s
authenticity, it very likely is a fake.
The issue that arises most often
isn’t whether a car was built to RPO
specifications but whether it has remained
in that form. Engine swaps, colour
changes, even complete re-shells are
entirely possible, occurring because for
many years these cars weren’t seen as
anything particularly significant.
Had the Phase 4 not been stif led at
birth, this most successful of Ford’s local
competition cars might never have existed.
In their original form, Phase 4s were
destined to use four-door bodies, with no
plan for a competition-spec hardtop even
when they did make a belated appearance.
By 1973 and under Improved Production
regulations, Ford abandoned the idea of
competition four-doors and ensured that
its runners, be they factory-backed drivers
or privateers, were in the aerodynamically
superior two-door cars.
Bathurst 1000 racer and 1974/85 race
winner John Goss scored one car to
race and another RPO83 hardtop as his
‘company car’ from sponsor McLeod Ford.
Wheels magazine wrangled a brief test of
the Lime Glaze Goss car and while Ford
denied that any changes had been made to
the Cleveland 351’s internals, Wheels felt
that it “ran more crisply” and performance
was superior to a stock X A GT once theBELOW So much
more than just a
pair of XA GTs.