| The $680,000 Ford Falcon By Ashlee Pleffer The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 27th March 2007 LAST year he shelled out $187,600 for the last Monaro. But the pricey Holden is no longer the most expensive car in Darryl Mattingley's garage. This week he paid a record $683,650 for a 36-year-old Falcon that isn't even road registered. The 56-year-old outbid a field of rivals for the rare 1971 Ford Falcon GT-HO
Phase 3 with only 40,000km on the clock, at a classic car auction in
Melbourne on Sunday. It is the highest price ever paid for an Australian muscle
car at auction. Yesterday Mr Mattingley sounded a little unsure about buying the
Phase 3, of which only 300 were ever produced.
"I must be silly; but I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been happy with
it," he said.
The 56-year-old said he had been chasing a GT-HO Phase III for quite a while and he had put months of consideration into his latest investment, which included consulting his wife, Shelly. "She was helping with the bidding and the financing, it's not something you do without approval, it's a big investment," he said. The father-of-five said he would not drive the car, rather
keeping it as an investment. He said he was building up a collection that he
hopes to sell in the future. | 
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