Ford Falcon XA, XB and XC Hardtop

What the Falcon hardtop is

The Ford Falcon XA, XB and XC hardtop is the two-door coupe Ford Australia built from August 1972 to 1978 (regular production ended in March 1978 and the last 400 bodies were finished as Cobras from July), and the last two-door Falcon passenger car it made. It came with six-cylinder and V8 engines in Falcon 500, Fairmont, GS and GT form, and its best-known versions are the XA and XB GT, the 1975 John Goss Special and the 1978 Cobra. An XB GT hardtop is also the car under the Mad Max Interceptor.

Ford Australia had built hardtops before. The XM Falcon added a two-door hardtop in July 1964 and the XP carried one until September 1966, so the XA of 1972 brought the body style back after six years. The best GT, Goss and Cobra examples now sell for six figures as collectible Australian muscle cars.

Design and model years

The XA was the first Falcon designed in Australia, styled under Jack Telnack with Brian Rossi and Allan Jackson and help from Ford's US headquarters. Its coke-bottle hardtop resembled the 1971 to 1973 Mustang, and its long frameless doors were shared with the Falcon utility and van. The XB added a more muscular nose and standard front disc brakes. The XC softened the styling.

Engines and trim levels

Ford offered 200 and 250 cubic-inch sixes (3.3 and 4.1 liters) and 302 and 351 cubic-inch Cleveland V8s (4.9 and 5.8 liters). In XA form outputs ran from 130 bhp for the 200 six to 260 bhp for the two-barrel 351, while the 300 bhp four-barrel 351 was reserved for the GT. On the XB, the GT hardtop came only with the four-barrel 351.

The XC arrived in July 1976 to meet the ADR27A emissions rules, with lower compression, exhaust gas recirculation, a new crossflow head for the sixes and four-barrel carburetors on every V8. With that hardware and a switch from SAE gross to DIN ratings, the 4.1-liter six is listed at 92 kW against the XB's 116 kW, and the 4.9-liter V8 at 151 kW.

The GS (Grand Sport) Rally Pack first reached the hardtop on the XA, adding stripes, 12-slot steel wheels and full GT-style instruments without the GT's ducted hood.

The XA and XB GT hardtops

The XA made the GT a two-door for the first time, with dummy vents on the front fenders, a hood with NACA-style ducts and the 300 bhp four-barrel 351. Ford sold roughly 890 XA GT hardtops. Between April and August 1973 it also built about 250 XA GTs with the RPO 83 package (a Holley 780 carburetor and 2.25-inch headers), roughly 120 to 130 of them hardtops (sources differ), at the regular price and with no visual change. XA GT hardtops won Bathurst in 1973 (Allan Moffat and Ian Geoghegan) and 1974 (John Goss and Kevin Bartlett).

The XB GT arrived in September 1973 with a twin-nostril hood in the style of the Mustang Mach 1. With 2,899 sold (1,950 sedans and 949 hardtops), it outsold any other single Falcon GT series unless the XW's GT-HOs are counted with its GTs, and it was the last Falcon GT until the EBII GT of 1992. There was no XC GT. The Cobra filled that role instead.

The John Goss Special

Ford released the John Goss Special in August 1975 to celebrate Goss's 1974 Bathurst win, at a time when hardtops made up only a single-digit share of Falcon sales. It was a Falcon 500 hardtop, not a GT, with the 302 V8 as its only engine and a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic.

The figure most often cited is 700 cars, an initial 400 in July 1975 and 300 more from September to November once the first batch sold out. They split 386 manual and 314 automatic. At least one reference gives only 400, and the cars were never numbered.

The XC Cobra

When XC hardtop production at Broadmeadows wound down in March 1978, Ford was left with more than 400 unsold body shells. Edsel Ford II, then a senior executive at Ford Australia, backed a Shelby-style car celebrating Allan Moffat and Colin Bond's one-two finish at Bathurst in 1977. Production began in July 1978 and the Cobra went on sale in August.

All 400 wear Bold Blue with a Sno White overlay and a numbered dash plaque from 001 to 400. Standard equipment included four-wheel disc brakes, a limited-slip differential, 15-inch Bathurst Globe wheels, front and rear spoilers and dual exhaust. Period pricing from January 1979 put a road Cobra at A$8,705 and a Bathurst version at A$10,330.

The Bathurst Specials carried a functional rear-opening hood scoop, dash-switchable twin radiator fans, a transmission oil cooler, extra suspension bracing and reworked rear wheel housings. Their specification grew from a dozen homologation GS hardtops Ford released in December 1977 (records give 12 or 13). Car 351, which has a 351, is the one known exception to the engine split.

The Ford Landau

The Landau was the luxury version of the hardtop, sold from August 1973 until the new LTD arrived in 1976. It used the XB GT's running gear and 111-inch wheelbase but wore the P5 LTD's front and rear styling, a vinyl roof and a 351 V8 with a three-speed automatic. Alongside the LTD, it was the first Australian-built car with four-wheel disc brakes. The usual production count is 1,385, though an unsourced figure of 1,402 also circulates.

Buying a hardtop today

Check these rust areas first:

• Rear quarter panels and the braces and support panels behind them
• The roof and roof gutters, especially under a vinyl roof covering
• The A-pillars and the base of the windshield frame
• Sills and seat floor braces

Reproduction sills and floor braces are available, while pillar and roof sections on one recent XA GT restoration had to be fabricated and its quarter panels were new old stock. Mechanically, check for valve-train noise and oil smoke at startup, hard gear selection, creaking front suspension, warped rotors, coolant leaks from hoses and core plugs, and oversized tires rubbing the body.

How to verify a genuine GT, Goss or Cobra

Start with the compliance plate model code. On XA and XB Falcons the five digits read product line (18 for Falcon cars), model year, body style (1 for a two-door hardtop) and series (8 for GT, 3 for Falcon 500), so a genuine XB GT hardtop reads 18318. A John Goss Special should be a Falcon 500 hardtop with a 302.

Then confirm the engine. Australian-built blocks normally carry a GF (Geelong Foundry) mark beside the oil pressure sender, though some later ones carry CF. Imported four-barrel engines in XA and early-1973 XB manual GTs carry coil tags CK608, CK609 or CK617, while most XB GTs have Australian engines with no coil tag, and casting date codes show when a block was made. Do not trust ID tags or plates alone: one genuine 1974 GT hardtop sold in 2023 had correct GT body stampings but reproduction ID tags.

For a Goss car, paint codes S and Q were reused in 1976 for Satin Brown and Coolmint green, so a code alone proves nothing. Look for the whole package of white wheels, bumpers and grille, orange 302 lettering and white trim. For a Cobra, Option 97 cars must have the rear-opening scoop and the extra cooling and bracing. Fakes exist, and a register book now lists the factory production schedule, options and selling dealer for all 400 cars, so cross-check the build number before you pay.

Importing a hardtop to the US

As a general rule, a vehicle under 25 years old must meet every Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard to be imported permanently, and every XA, XB and XC hardtop is far older than that. You still declare the car on DOT form HS-7 and EPA form 3520-1. The EPA exemption for cars 21 or more years old covers only cars in their original, unmodified configuration, and a replacement engine qualifies only if it is the same model as the original, so a car with engine work may need an EPA-approved independent commercial importer, which is expensive. Passenger cars carry a 2.5 percent base duty, and since July 24, 2026, products of Australia also carry an extra 12.5 percent Section 301 duty that cars 25 or more years old do not appear to be exempt from, so budget for about 15 percent in total and confirm the current figure with a licensed customs broker before you buy. Check your state's registration and emissions rules too; in California, only 1975 and older gasoline cars are exempt from smog checks. The CBP vehicle import page (opens in a new tab) lists the rest of the paperwork.

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