Have you ever wanted to cruise down your local main road, imagining it’s 1992 and you’re leading a pack of angry IndyCars zigzagging left and right in your rearview mirror, all within the caged confines of the Gold Coast street circuit?
Well, here’s your chance.
The official race car of the 1992 and 1993 Gold Coast IndyCar races is for sale: a 1991 Ford EB Falcon S XR8 “time capsule” with a factory-tuned 5.0-litre naturally aspirated V8.
Hidden away for over three decades, this fully road-registered vehicle remains exactly as it was in its heyday, with its retro 90s livery and even the amber light bar on the roof.
Nor was this an EB XR8 with a few stickers on it. This was actually a concept car designed to showcase Ford Australia’s performance capabilities. The EB race car appeared at motor shows and was featured in the leading motoring magazines of the day.
According to the seller, the interior is full leather and was installed by Ford Australia’s design centre, the suspension was redesigned by Ford Australia engineer John Mole, while the unique body kit was designed by Ford stylist Wayne Draper. The car has a five-speed manual gearbox and an original Momo steering wheel.
The car features the original roof-mounted light bar and “extremely rare” three-piece Compomotive wheels, while it is painted in a unique pearlescent white, “paint code FQ,” the seller said.
The seller claims the car was built at the behest of Ford’s then global boss Jac Nasser, while development of the engine – built using cutting-edge parts from Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) – was led by Ford’s own engine guru Bob McWilliam.
In the early 1990s, the car came to the forefront at the Sydney Motor Show to mark the return of the V8 to Ford Australia’s Falcon range, the vendor said.
Located on the New South Wales Central Coast and with 35,000km on the clock, the seller is asking an ambitious $115,000 and describes it, perhaps haughtily, as “the most famous and historically significant Ford Falcon of the modern era”.
We just think it’s pretty cool – and definitely a survivor, when most cars like this would have been scrapped or left to rot in the back of a warehouse somewhere.
And yes, you should definitely buy it.