TEAM Johnson is going to have another Ford V8 muscle car to play with – and it’s not a Touring Car Masters car.
The Queensland-based team that runs the TCM Falcon driven by Steven Johnson is going to undertake work on the ex-Kingsley Hibbard Falcon XY GT-HO that briefly raced in the Improved Production touring car era of the early 1970s.
The genuine GT-HO Phase III re-surfaced a few years ago and its sale was handled by Ecurie Bowden in Queensland.
Now owned by a private collector in the sunshine state, it’s going to receive a meticulous and careful restoration to preserve it, rather than restore it back to new.
“Visually the body and under carriage will not look any different but we will be fully rebuilding all the mechanicals so this car can be driven by the new owner,” says Steve Johnson.
“It will be a massive challenge with some very tedious ‘operation-like’ work to keep its story, but we are really looking forward to it.
“Preservation not restoration is the plan here. Anything mechanically that needs to be replaced will be replaced. As much as we can, we’ve got to try and preserve how it was found as a barn-find, but we want it to start and run.”
The V8 Falcon was raced briefly by Hibbard in the early 1970s, debuted at the 1971 Sandown 250 and last raced in May 1972 at Calder.
It was the cover car of Australian Muscle Car Magazine’s Issue 101.
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