Corporate Colours

Y113, Rothmans Blue.

Rothmans are the tobacco company, famous in earlier times for their ‘King Size’ cigarettes with their distinctive blue advertising colour and packaging.



Two XA GT four doors were painted Rothmans Blue, and one RPO83 hardtop.

Corporate Colours

Y107, Ansett Blue.

Ansett was an Australian airline founded by Reg Ansett in 1935. It went bankrupt in 2001. Originally the company was known as Ansett Airways, then Ansett Airlines of Australia, and finally Ansett Australia. In its final days, the aircraft tails were painted a striking blue shade, but in its heyday the aircraft carried an orange colour scheme.

Not much help if we are looking for a colour called Ansett Blue. However, here is an older picture of an Ansett aircraft, and yes, the paint scheme features blue.

So, that could be the Ansett Blue, perhaps ? Now, all we have to do is compare it with the one, and only, XA GT that was painted Ansett Blue. This car still exists, and it is an RO83 car too. Unfortunately, the car has, at some point, been repainted Cosmic Blue. However, parts of the car are stilll visible in the original paint and the owner reports that it is like the XW colour Starlight Blue, but with some more green in it.

Here is a Starlight Blue XW GT for comparison with the aircraft above.
However, the tale of the Ansett Blue XA GT is even more interesting because the car was ordered to be painted Aluminium, just like 12 other XA GT’s.
Except, somewhere during the ordering process, Y017 Aluminium became Y107, Ansett Blue. We bet the dealership, and the new owner, got a bit of a shock over that one.

Perhaps as a final hint of what Ansett Blue looks like, there was also a trucking company called Ansett Freight Express, and here is one of their units. Could this be Y107, Ansett Blue ?

Spoilers

Mountings for the RPO8s rear spoiler.

Dash it

Well, the dash changeovers lesson was relatively straight forward.

Except.



This a dash from an XA GT RPO83 car.

The RPO83 was a special model produced by Ford as a means of homologating parts so that they could be used in the ATCC race cars. Originally, there was supposed to have been a Phase4 version of the XA model that Ford would have sold to the public and used as the basis for its race cars, but the Phase4 was cancelled, and the RPO - Regular Production Option - 83 was offered instead, almost as quiet method of slipping some of the ‘race’ car parts out of the factory door.

What interests us is that the RPOs were all produced at the end of the XA model run. Production was started in May but was then delayed by ten weeks of strikes so the vast majority of RPO83’s were built in August, 1973, the month before XB production was due to start. As a result, while the early - May - cars had the standard \ / \ / XA auxilliary gauge dash, quite a few of the later - August - ones came with the strange combination shown above, \ / / / with the fuel and temperature gauges from the XB model.

The move to two compliance plates

During production of the XA, to comply with new regulations effective from January, 1973, Ford changed to twin plates, which carried on to the XB.



A 1973 XA RPO



A 1975 XB GT

Winged sump mark 2

With the cancellation of the Phase4, Ford still wanted to be able to use the winged sump in their race cars, but had to prove it was a factory part, so they fitted them to production cars. This fitment appears to have been a bit hit and miss, as popular speculation says they were not just fitted to GT’s, but also to ordinary 351-equipped Falcons, and even F100 pickups. What can be stated as fact is that the winged sump was not part of the RPO83 option, as fitted to late - August/September, 1973 - XA GT’s.

Here is the original ‘4 dot’ headed, square block, CK617 engine being removed from an RPO83 car.



No wings.

Cleveland engines part 7

Originally in the U.S. this number was on a metal tag that was attached to an ancilliary bracket or more usually sandwiched under the coil mounting bracket, but later in life they were reduced to a white paper sticker on the front of the right hand valve cover. For some reason, which is still a bit of a mystery, the 351C’s built in the U.S. and shipped for export acquired the letter ‘C’ in front of the ‘K’ and became CK601, CK604, CK608, CK609, CK614, CK616 and CK617, and this is what appeared on the paper tag on engines fitted in Australia. There is a some credence to the thought that the ‘C’ stood for ‘Canada’ as they initially received non-emission export engines, and for simplicity, the ‘CK’ then applied to all export engines. It is also worth mentioning that in the US the switch from using a metal tag to a paper decal took place in February, 1973, yet the paper decals were appearing on Australian engines before that.
Here is an example of a coil tag that was fitted to an XA GT RPO83.


What is interesting about this tag is that XA GT RPO’s were built in August, 1973. The tag decodes as - ‘351C’, the engine; ‘72’, the model year; ‘5’, the change level or version; ‘G26’, 26th of July assembly date; and ‘CK617J1’, the engine code. On U.S. tags there is usually a digit in front of the ‘G26’ which signifies the year of production. The year is missing on this Australian or export tag which may have been a a deliberate policy to allow Ford to stockpile export engines, either in the U.S. or at their destination.
It is also worth mentioning that the equivalent paper tag for this engine reads ‘CK617J1-W’ and it signifies a special order, manual transmission only square block import engine with big port heads. Some more of what this means is explained below.
Here is an example of the paper tag for a ‘CK608’ engine, showing its location.

As these paper tags appear in several of the pictures I'll use over the next few days, here is a breakdown of their significance:
CK608 A1 70-1 - manual D block 4 heads (XW-XA)
CK609 A1 70-1 - auto D block 4 heads (XW-XA)
CK616 J1 71-3 - auto D block 4 dot heads
CK616 J3 72-5 - auto D block 4 dot heads (1971 casting
CK616 J3 72-5 - auto square block 4 dot heads (1972 casting)
CK617 J1 71-1 - manual D block 4 dot heads
CK617 J1 72-5 - manual square block 4 dot heads
CK617 J1W 72-5 - manual square block 4 dot heads

XA GT - RPO83

Due to the “Supercar” furore and the late decision to cancel the production of the Phase IV, Ford had a lot of special parts lying around, but with no car to put them on. In 1973, Ford decided it was time to retire the aging Phase III from the racing programme and start running the new XAGT models. However, if they were to be a force at Bathurst that year, they needed to homologate a number of performance parts. The solution was Regular Production Option (RPO) No. 83.
To meet the homologation requirements, Ford produced a total of just 250 XA GT “Specials” – including both sedan and hardtop versions – but did so very quietly and with no official press release, to avoid any negative public and political comment. In fact RPO 83 was a nil cost option, with the sedan costing $5087 and the hardtop $5203.
Externally, these cars were indistinguishable from standard GT’s. From the driver’s seat, the only tell-tale sign was the inclusion of a manual choke. However, when you lifted the bonnet, the major components of the RPO 83 option became apparent. The specials received the 780 cfm Holley carburettor and the fabricated extractor system originally destined for the Phase IV. Not so obvious was the modified sump, which although not the special “eared” sump of the Phase IV, did include additional baffles to help minimise oil surge.
While Ford refused to acknowledge that the cars produced more power, they did concede that the modifications were designed to improve mid-range torque. Road testers at the time indicated that the performance of the XA GT “Specials” was a dramatic improvement over the standard models, suggesting that the modifications provided an additional 30 to 40 bhp over the standard rating of 300 bhp.
The additional power and torque enabled the new cars to come close to the Phase III in terms of outright performance, with quarter mile times in the high 14’s (as opposed to mid 15’s) and a top speed of 140 mph (as opposed to 130 mph) being suggested.
Although quite a few of the RPO 83s were also fitted with power steering, everything else – spring ratings, transmission, diff, etc. – was the same as on the standard GTs. This also included the brakes and contrary to reports written in some more popular magazines, no production XA GT (including RPO 83s) came out with rear wheel disc brakes. The only XA GT I know of that was fitted with rear disc brakes was one of the race cars which had them fitted illegally. Interestingly enough, this car actually went through scrutineering without the rear discs being detected and it was only the fact that the car broke an axle and shed a wheel during the race, that the rear disc set-up became known to all and sundry.
While the majority of the cars were sold to people in the know, quite a number were also sold to buyers who knew nothing about the special significance of their vehicles. I believe that these buyers could have been forgiven for being a little confused when people were criticising the XA GTs for not being as quick as their XW or XY counterparts.
Today the RPO 83 is a much sort after model and brings a hefty price premium over the standard XA GT. The only major problem is finding one for sale.