Unique Cars Magazine caught up with Rex Kilmer at the Cortina Nationals to talk about his 1965 Ford Mk I GT500 Cortina.
I owned the Ford dealership in Nowra and had wanted one of these for years – since I was a kid. I knew of this one and it was a good rust-free car.
My late wife was suffering from cancer and I took this on as a project to keep sane. It was stripped down to a bare shell. Everyone told me I was crazy because at the time they weren’t worth much money. This was around 1995. We went in to all sorts of detail to get it right. And so it has a special place in my life and I’ve had it ever since. As you can see the paint has lasted well, it’s still perfect. It’s a factory colour – Ivy Green.
We did the motor and gearbox. The transmission needed new bearings, while the motor was completely stripped and rebuilt. We put in new brakes and suspension, of course.
I always wanted one, and so it made sense to ensure it was the best one you could have.
It’s a fantastic thing to drive out on the highway as it can keep up with modern traffic. That gearbox is terrible around town but is fantastic on the open road. It’s a four-speed with close ratios and a really tall first. You can do 55mph in first gear.
It’s a Lotus box, and after they had been raced most people took it out and put a normal transmission in. It was built for no other purpose than to win Bathurst. Second gear was the right ratio to get through The Cutting. Things like the brake air scoops and bigger dual-filler fuel tank were standard. They had more power than a normal GT – something like 98hp versus 83 on the GT.
Apparently Ford lost £200 on every one they made – they only built 110 of them. The rules at the time were you had to build 100 identical cars and there was such an uproar they later upped it to 300 cars.
Someone told me there are only 26 of them left, but I don’t know if that’s right. We had eight of them up here for the nationals.
I paid $10,000 for the car, but people told me I was a lunatic for spending all that money and then restoring it. Now, of course, it’s worth a lot more. But that wasn’t the purpose behind it. I just always wanted one. I just love early Fords. I have an XR Falcon that I bought new, when I was 21. It’s done just 70,000 miles.
The Nationals was a fantastic event. I have a few cars and go to different events and most of them are as boring as batshit. But that was a good fun weekend.
