These photos were taken in Hunter Street, Wonthaggi (Victoria) circa 1972 on the front lawn of Lou Bernardis parents home where he lived with his new wife and newborn baby daughter. The young Bernardi family didnt have enough money for their own place, although they had saved up enough for a block of land until Lou irresponsibly went and bought a Wild Violet Falcon XY GT instead. Lou found the GT in a caryard which was located on the corner of Warrigal and Dandenong Roads in Oakleigh (Victoria) way back when. Although second hand, it was showing just 4,000 miles on the clock at the time. Lou was 22 years old and just out of the army, and recently married. He was attracted to power and speed, wanting something cool and exciting so he spoiled himself buying the GT. In short, he took the option of a less than ideal living situation for his brief affair with the car he loved. He just had to have it. On the first day of owning the car, Lou raced against an XA GT owned by his friend Chris, during the late afternoon. It was a raced from Wonthaggi to Inverloch (which is about 10 miles between the townships). The accelerator was flat to the floor - pushed as far as it could go. It took them just 3 minutes to get there! Fitted with a factory 8-Track radio tape player, Lou quite appropriately blasted Deep Purple and The Beatles Abbey Road album. On the Labour Day weekend in 1973, Lou remembers taking his wife and baby daughter (she was just six months old at the time) for a drive to Adelaide. On the way, he hit a locust plague so bad that he couldnt see out of the windscreen. His baby daughters milk had curdled in the blistering heat on the way and she was hungry, so they stopped at the Halfway Hotel at 2am in the morning. The owner of the hotel happened to have one room left and even heated his little girls milk. The GT was traded-in for an XB Fairmont V8 at a car dealership in Leongatha, which was owned by a guy named Ted Scoble in mid-1974. It had 25,000 miles on the clock. Bright purple hues were popular for a brief period in the early 1970s but quickly lost favour from the buying public. Wild Violet is often regarded as one of the most desired colours for an XY GT today and we wonder if Lous old GT, which also had a wind-back sunroof and saddle trim still lives. Youll also notice that Lous car had a half beige vinyl roof with Landau style accents on the C pillars, chrome wheel arch moulds and an aerial on the rear quarter panel. We also notice the rear brake drums are painted red. The registration was KWA-961 (Vic). Read more like this in Survivor Car Australia magazine, order your subscription here SurvivorCarAustralia.au
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 21:04:20 +0000
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