Thanks to the gas crisis of the mid-'70s, while we were struggling with a shortage of new horsepower-packing street machines from the Big Three, our counterparts in the Land Down Under were treated to some awesome new rides from FoMoCo of Australia, including the Cleveland-powered Falcon.
The Aussies have always been big on road racing, which is the origin of the Falcon XB-GT. These were factory-designed race cars built for the sole purpose of kicking some Holden butt. Reed Herman of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an American who took early notice of these cars, but he also understood the unfortunate red tape he would have to endure in order to obtain one. So he waited.
Rolling stock consists of American Racing Torq-Thrust IIs with P245/45R16s up front and a
Many years later, the Australian Ford Falcon reached an age that enabled Reed to import one onto American soil with little, if any, resistance from the Feds. Shortly thereafter, he found just the '75 he wanted. His original intention was to simply restore it, but that idea quickly took a back seat. The car is now the only Australian Falcon in the United States with a big-block conversion. Granted, it's not a real XB-GT (only 123 '75 XB-GTs were built), however, Reed has gone to great lengths to create an ultra-cool street machine that's very similar to the Aussie original.
The sheer rarity of the Falcon makes it attractive to most collectors, but for Reed, it's all about aesthetics, heritage, and building a bird of a different feather.
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Based on an iron '69 block, the original 429ci big-block has been punched out to displace
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No, the photo is not backwards. This is a true righthand-drive Falcon just as it came off
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Reed emphasized that the XB-GT paint scheme is just as it would have been from FoMoCo of A