My XB GT
Some History
I know the moment I first really had the idea of owning a classic falcon. It was years ago when visiting my wife's God parents in Sydney. Their son had an XC Cobra which was being restored. It was then the fire was lit that would continue to burn within till I finally bit the bullet and bought my very own piece of motoring history. Before I head into that part of my life I will give abit of history. Not too long before the fire was lit I was a Holden man. My early dream amounted to owning a VS SS commodore. I did actually own a VK Berlina at one stage. But that was the one and only Holden I ever owned. The time came for me to update the car after my VK was stolen so I started looking at my options. We drove around looking at various car yards and driving an assortment of vehicles, one of which was my targeted VS SS. My wife's Brother whom I had known for many years was a devout Ford man. He drives an ED XR6. I guess for no real reason one day in Woolworth's I stated to my wife " How bout we buy an XR6". After much debate it was decided and I found myself an EF XR6. My wife and I walked onto the car lot to look at the car. My wife took one look at it and stated " Im not buying that, its white ". Following that statement it made it difficult to get much from the salseman se we headed elsewhere. Eventually returning to buy that very same white EF XR6. Why, because that was the only manual ef xr6 we saw. This car proved a fine daily driver and we had few problems with the car. The thing that changed the fate of the EF was the release of the AU. At first I hated the car but it grew on me over time and in the end I loved its aggressive looking nose in the XR range. After months of looking in car yards at AU's just sitting there circumstances eventuated that allowed me the chance to buy one. I tracked one down via the internet and made a private purchase.Eventually upgrading to an AU XR6. And so my Ford roots had been well and truly laid. No inkling of Holden love remained.
The Purchase
I think I am lucky. A lot of people hunt for months and even years to finally settle on the car for them. My hunt lasted just three weeks. I had test driven an XC at one stage which was a school boys back yard recondition. Rebuilt from the ground up was his bold statement. There was so many things wrong with it I only test drove it out of curiosity. After this drive my flame was rekindled again. I started researching models, prices, availability etc. I know I liked the more curvy models like the XA/B/C's. XA's were more expensive than XB's and XC's don't have a GT. Not that at this stage I knew a GT was in my future. I was looking at XC GXL's as an option. Or possibly a Fairmont Coupe. I had been looking at prices for GXL's and found out I would be paying over 10k for a good model. After getting used to the idea of paying this amount I started noticing how close this figure was to the price tag for a bargain XB GT. Maybe not a Coupe, but a GT none the less. So with this in mind I started expanding my research to include GT's. I began posting to various website's and GT clubs to slowly gather the knowledge I would need to have any idea what I was looking at when the time come.
That time did come, a lot faster than I ever imagined. Whilst driving my wife to the train station I noticed out of the corner of my eye a coupe parked next to a golf course. Driving past it I noted it had GT stripes and was an XB. On my way back after dropping my wife off I checked it out again but noted it was not for sale but just sitting near a man mowing grass. I figured it was his and he had just taken it out for a spin. I kept on driving. The car stuck in my mind and after ten minutes I had to turn around and headed back to have a closer look. I parked near the car and had a better look at it. It looked rather striking in its light brown finish with Mulberry colored stripes. It had GT351 decals and I thought it may be a replica. But damn it looked good. After a while of waiting for the guy to stop mowing and come over I got out of the car and stood near the coupe. A man I hadn't seen noticed me and came over. He wasn't mowing lawns, he was in the golf course, fixing golf carts. I introduced myself and commented on his car. He didn't seem too worried about talking about it so I asked him two very important questions. Was it genuine, Would he sell it. As it turns out it was indeed genuine. But even more surprising was that he would sell it. I asked him what he would consider taking for it and again was surprised when he named the price. At that stage I was not financial enough to buy it but said I was interested knowing I would be financial enough in a few months.
Over the next two months I kept in contact with him and studied the model as much as I could. The price was as right as it would ever get for a genuine XBGT Hardtop. I was however having some trouble finding a color code for this car as I hadn't looked at the compliance plate yet. Eventually through a GT club website I was informed it was Sandstone Beige. Subsequently I found out this was a very rare color to have in XBGT form. In hardtops there were only 10 made. In sedan if memory serves there were 24 or so. In total there were only approx 34 cars ever produced in this color. Its options list was impressive also. It came with factory fitted Air which was apparently more expensive to fit as an option than it was to have it dealer fitted making it even rarer. It also had a sun roof and power steering. It missed out on power windows though, which for a car optioned up was a little disappointing. When the time come for me to part with the cash, it was rather strange. There was no actual dealing done. He had told me his price. I had indicated my interest. When that time came I just rang him and asked for his bank details, transferred the money and that was it. Never did I actually make an offer to him directly. Never did he come out and say he was selling the car to me. The time came and I transferred the cash. That was it. I transferred the cash via a Telegraphic Transfer. Which is a way of transferring money so it hits their account very fast. I picked the car up the same afternoon.