Big bids roll in for Lloyd’s historic Ford Phase auction

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 18.10.2018

With two days of bidding left, will we see a new Australian record?

Big bids roll in for Lloyd’s historic Ford Phase auction

Hot off the heels of a string of extremely high-profile and extremely expensive sales this year, Lloyds is now in the midst of yet another sale that is lining up to be a big one.

Headlined by the near-mythical Phase IV GT-HO, and featuring two track red Phase IIIs, rounded out by an extremely original Phase II – the auction, still with two full days of bidding left, is shaping up to be a big one!

| Read More: FORD FALCON GT-HO PHASE III SELLS FOR $1.030 MILLION

The 1970 Phase II XW on offer is finished in Reef Green over black vinyl trim. Lloyds purports the car to be in very good original and unrestored condition, with 14,875 miles on the odometer.

Sale of the purported ‘matching numbers’ car comes with plenty of paperwork, original accessories booklet, supplementary manual and ID letter from Ford. Current bid is at $187,000 at the time of writing.

Two Track Red XY Phase IIIs are also up for grabs. Of which two have sold recently for north of seven figures.

One of the cars on sale bears 36,986 miles on the odo, and was initially destined for Bathurst in 1971, to be helmed by Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan. The car unfortunately ended up with a DNS at the Great Race, and was repainted in Wild Voilet in the early 70s. Under its current owner, it has been restored to its original Track Red hue, and is presented for sale now with CAMS log book, larger race camshaft and some spare wheels included. Bidding currently resides at $352,000 at the time of writing.

The other Track Red Phase III is distinctly more original, and likely one of the best in the country. It featured in our magazine back in issues 357 and 369 and is a concours winning car.

Just 2874 miles are on the odometer, and was fully restored in 2009 by the current owner.

Current bidding for this one is sitting at a slightly-dearer $376,000 at the time of reporting.

While Phase IIIs are usually the star attraction at any auction these days, the big-ticket item at Lloyds this month is none other than one of the three fabled Phase IV race cars.

It was constructed at the height of the big three battle of Bathurst, in 1972.

Developed to further cement Ford’s domination of the Great Race, the Phase IV ended up stillborn and never saw the track after a journalistic whirlwind spat out headlines such as "Bullet on wheels" and brought on the media-fueled ‘Super Car Scare’ that left the 340ci Charger, Torana XU-2 and the Phase IV all dead in the water.

While the Phase IV never got the chance to earn itself any actual motorsport provenance, the car still teases the dreams and imaginations of revheads around the country. Intended to be piloted by Allan Moffat and Fred Gibson at the Great Race, just three cars were built, none of which ever got their chance at glory.

The cars remain almost mythical, and this chance to buy one surely won’t come around too often.

There’s no precedence for a Phase IV sale, so where the hammer smacks down is up to anyone’s guess. The current bid is at a whopping $1.56 million, with two days still to go.

We’ve had a string of record breaking sales this year for unheard of amounts of money; most notably kicked off by million dollar sale of Jeff Thompson’s Phase III GT-HO at Lloyds back in June.

It was the first time a Phase III broke the seven-figure ceiling at public auction, and follows whispers of another changing hands behind closed doors earlier this year, and another rumoured transaction back in 2009.

We’ve seen record prices for Aussie cars across the board, similarly with the Torana A9X’s record setting auction also from Lloyd’s March auction this year, to the tune of $365,000.

And the even more recent, absolutely eye-watering sum of $2.1 million dollars paid for Peter Brock’s two-time winning VH Commodore – at Lloyd’s Champion collection sale at Bathurst.

Clearly, Australia holds an unseen appetite for investment-grade home grown hero cars. Will the Phase IV over take Brock’s VH? That’s up to the market…

We’ll report back with results, stay tuned!

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