$750,000 for 36 year
old Ford Falcon
By Joshua Dowling
The Sun-Herald, Sunday 3rd June 2007
| CAR collector Harry Christian has sold a Ford Falcon that cost $5,000 new for a
record $750,000. But it's not just any Falcon, it's one of a limited number of specially built road cars modified
for use on a racetrack - a 1971 GTHO Phase III. Just 300 such Falcons were made in the early 1970s and experts
believe fewer than 100 remain.
| The previous record amount paid for a Falcon GT-HO was $683,000 at a Bonhams and Goodman
auction in March. That car was bought by a Queensland collector who last year also bought the last Holden Monaro
built. The announcement of last week's record sale price came as new figures show muscle cars are becoming a better
investment than shares or property. Five years ago, the same Falcon GT-HO would have sold for $100,000; 10 years ago
it would have sold for $50,000, said Mr Christian, expert valuer and owner of Australian Muscle Car
Sales.
"The market has just gone nuts," Mr Christian said. "These cars are being bought by cashed-up baby
boomers who couldn't afford one of these cars as a kid and now have the money to buy one." He said the cars were being
bought by "extremely well-heeled people". "They are not people who have hocked themselves up to the eyeballs to get one
of these cars. These guys are worth many millions of dollars and just want to keep adding to their collection."
| 
Some experts predict the muscle car bubble is poised to burst, but Mr Christian believes it will be
a long time before prices will come down. "If someone has just paid three-quarters of a million dollars for a car, they're
not going to want to sell it cheaply," he said.
Source :
www.sunherald.com.au
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