Ford Falcon GT and hardtops

In the late 1960s, Ford Australia turned the humble American Falcon into the most brutal, iconic performance car ever produced in the country. From the relatively restrained (but Bathurst winning) 1967 XR GT, to the mighty XY GTHO 351 of 1971, the GT conquered all. With a top speed of 145mph at ignition cut-out of 6150rpm - the GTHO was the fastest four door car in the world in its day. Though Ford never released the true horsepower output of the XY-GT’s 351 Cleveland for fear of upsetting the cardigan wearers - it was mooted to be around 380bhp.

Throughout the 1970s Ford fort it out with Holden for the title of King of the Mountain - Mt Panorama. The hardtop Falcon GTs have to be the coolest looking Aussie touring car ever made. The final GT model was the XB sedan and hardtop produced from 1973 to 1976. Ford phased out the hardtop with the XC model in Cobra guise a la the first Shelby GT350 Mustangs of 1965.

Because it’s so closely associated with the GT Falcon, we’ve included non-GT Falcon XA, XB and XC hardtops here - including the more luxurious Fairmont variant. Whether it has a GT badge or not - a 1970s Falcon hardtop is about the coolest Australian car of them all. Just ask ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky - speaking of which, don’t forget to read our article on the Ten Best Movie Cars.