The $600,000-plus paid for a restored-but-original GTHO Phase III Falcon at yesterday’s Bonhams & Goodman tri-state auction is a hands-down new record price for an Australian muscle car.
The car fetched an incredible $683,650, which included the 14.3 percent, including GST, buyer’s premium. The actual “hammer price” for the car was $605,000.
Bidding opened at $400,000 and, we’re told, it accelerated quickly via telephone bids and from the floor in the Melbourne and Sydney salesrooms. The car eventually went to a Sydney buyer, who had bid on the phone.
Yesterday’s result is significant, and not just because it represented a phenomenal amount of money paid for a classic Australian muscle car. While rumours persisted of $400,000-plus private sales, this was the first Phase III in a long time to come up for auction, thereby setting an official price yardstick for the model.
We hate to tell you so, but Wheels predicted way back in 1977 that the car would become a gilt-edged investment. Writing in the March, 1977 issue (that’s Brian Woodward, dog and shotgun on the outtake from out cover shoot, pictured), Wheels stalwart Mike McCarthy got it right when he said: “This is it – the best investment on the market: the Phase III HO. The superest supercar ever made in Australia, it has no peers. None.”
McCarthy went on to say: “The first HO (Handling Option), the 1969 XW, was a mild performance car and so was the 1970 Phase II version. But the Phase III blows them and all others into the weeds for sheer performance, mystique and special-interest appeal. It is, simply, the King, and needs no more testimonial than that.”
The GTHO Phase III’s new price in 1971 was $5302. When our cover story appeared in 1977, an original car was said to be worth $7500, and Wheels predicted that in 1982 in would be worth a then-astonishing $20,000.
On our Wheels’ value rating in that March, 1977 issue, the car was given a 10-out-of-10 value rating.
All of which begs the question: how much would the rumoured two or three Phase IV Falcons in existence be worth if they came onto the market today? Surely, they’d be Australia’s first $1 million muscle cars.
But back to yesterday’s auction… The Monaro said to be the first off the production line, and with just 73km on the clock (click here for our story) was “referred on the day”, as auctioneers say. In other words, there may be further news to come of it if the buyer decided to negotiate with potential buyers after the auction.
Other big news from yesterday’s auction included the $480,250 paid by an international phone bidder for a 1925 Bentley restored to so-called “Old Mother Gun” specification.
Other cars that performed well at the auction included a 1999 Maserati Quattroporte which sold for $40,680, with the proceeds from the sale donated by the vendor to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Bonhams & Goodman has also donated the seller’s commission to the Service. Bonhams & Goodman auctioneer and CEO, Tim Goodman, said another good result was the $84,750 fetched for a 1972 Rolls-Royce Corniche Drophead Coupe.