WAYNE DRAPER

The HO name has been synonymous with the Ford Falcon since 1969 when as a young designer I worked at Ford developing the look for HO Falcons. Originally there were only minor body modifications that gave an indication that this Falcon was special. Parts were aerodynamically functional and badging was subtle. The Phase 4 was the last HO at ford I worked on. HO's were for motor racing - so when Ford lost the commitment to its customers to go racing they lost the name too.

The HO group was formed by that designer to build a race car as a 2nd Manufacturer approved by CAMS. That car was the XD Phase 5 HO and as we all know that brought Ford back to Racing whether they liked it or not. We went from there to produce a HO design for every model Ford Falcon made from then on. As a car stylist I concentrated on the Aerodynamic enhancements and left the mechanicals to those who know what is necessary to pass regs and make a Falcon perform. The E series also had suspension mods later used by Tickford, differential changes and finally with the Allan Moffat car, a Supercharger on the 6 and the 8 making it the fastest 4 door again. 

By the late 90s there were those that thought a HO car had no go, which was not necessarily so… You had to guess what was under the bonnet, some had a lot of go and great handling, but you only found out by driving it.

When I began to concentrate on HO again after the Nissan stint working on their performance cars eg, GTR, I realized there needed to be a Mechanical performance side to HO that formed an integral part of the organization. Having spoken to many performance ford guys, seeing what they had to offer and what they didn’t have, I knew we needed to find someone who had the knowledge and the commitment to make the HO  name very special to every Falcon owner again.

By looking and asking I came across a guy that had the heart and the enthusiasm as well as the expertise to build the Phase Autos HO name back to it original mission i.e.….to build a total performance Ford to suit every individual customer’s desire and budget: Special cars for Special people.

This man was known as ‘The WOG’ on Ford Forums and his reputation for helping Guys to get their car going grew and grew. After sitting down with Nick Salamanca and talking together we knew we could build something special for our customers, they would get not only performance but an accruing resale value in their vehicles. Cars built by HO would be desired by every one who saw or drove one, not only would they win prizes at shows they would also win petrolheads as well.

Nick began the Phase Autos HO performance centre in 2008 and will produce performance cars and performance parts for our customers in Australia , NZ as well as the rest of the world. I will continue to style the HO cars and be responsible for Design and Brand. This way our customers will have the best of both
worlds - HO's with GO.

We will build some dream cars that will blow your mind in 2008….old and new. We will present them to the magazines for you perusal, I hope you will enjoy them and seek one for your own enjoyment.

Wayne Draper