Globes continued

Among Australian Ford fans, this wheel is probably the most admired, sought after and possibly misunderstood wheel of all. Hopefully, we can unravel some of the mystery.

The Bathurst Globe wheel was originally designed and produced by Globe Products of South Australia who were contracted to produce 200 sets to fit to the XA GTHO Phase4 Falcon, which was to be the basis for Ford’s continuing onslaught in the touring car wars in Australia in 1972. However, when the ‘supercar’ hysteria broke out, and the Phase4 was cancelled, Ford were left with the 200 sets. They were also left with no where else to go in their racing program but back to using the XY based Phase3 as their race car. This, of course, resulted in the appearance that Ford, while selling XA’s from their showrooms, were racing ‘last year’s car’. In an attempt to keep the Phase3 competitive, Ford gave away the 200 sets of wheels to Phase3 owners, so that they could be homologated for use in late 1972 in XY GTHO Phase3 race cars. There were good reasons for this desire to use the Bathurst Globes. They were 7 x 15 inch wheels, one inch wider and one inch taller than the steel wheels used in the Phase3’s previous racing season. They were stronger than the steel wheels, they contributed to far better cooling of the car’s brakes, and they allowed access to a much wider range of racing tyre in 15 inch diameter, while also allowing road users to access lower profile - 60 series - street rubber.