My GT Falcon and HQ Monaro

Jodie Johnson owned a 1972 HQ SS Monaro when she met her future husband Paul Johnson at a friend's birthday party in September 2000.  They were both into muscle cars and hit it off immediately. They were engaged in February 2001 and married that December.

But little did Holden-loving accountant Jodie know when she met truck-driving Paul that he was a Ford fan.  "I suppose opposites attract," she says.  Paul agrees: "Ford or Holden; it doesn't matter. I know what the superior make is here."

The Johnsons now have a collection of muscle cars in their garage and have started an online muscle car club that has 190 members from as far as Perth.  Jodie still owns the HQ, while Paul has a replica 1970 Falcon XW GT replica, a 1971 six-cylinder Futura and a recently acquired 1971 XY panel van.

"The panel van is quite a rare one. It's a project for us to do next," says Paul.  "Jodie enjoys working on them. It makes my life a lot easier with her having an interest in cars. We've got a lot in common to talk about."

The GT replica is a standard XW, but with factory made genuine GT parts fitted.  "It's got all the GT parts like the interior, motor, gearbox, dashboard and stripes; it just doesn't have the GT code on the compliance plate," he says.  He bought it in Sydney four years ago for $18,000. Back in 1970 a GT would cost about $3500.

Genuine GTs now fetch around $100,000-$160,000 while replicas can go for as much as $70,000.  "I don't know what it's worth, but it's got all the right parts," Paul says.  "I bought it as is and I've just changed the tyres, carbies, clutch and diff housing."

It has a 351 Cleveland GT engine producing about 400hp with a four-speed top-loader manual gearbox and nine-inch diff.  "I had GTs before and I'd been looking around for a few years for a good replica. I couldn't afford a real one because the prices went silly for a couple of years," he says.

"I'm not kicking myself that I didn't keep the '74 XB GT. I don't regret it at all.  "This is by far my favourite Ford because of the colour. It's a total selling point.  "I knew it was a replica straight away because of the compliance plate and it was advertised as a replica.  "The next best thing to a real GT is a replica."

Paul has displayed his car at hot rod shows while Jodie gave up on the show circuit two years ago to go drag racing.  Her brother bought the car 20 years ago with plans to rebuild it.  "My father got sick of it sitting in the shed doing nothing so I bought it off him for $10,000 and finished it off," she says.

"When we rebuilt it, it only had a 253 in it and was basically a show car.  I got sick of the show thing and cleaning it all the time, so we decided we'd make it a `go car' and took it to the drags."

It now features a 454 big block engine which propels it to "high 12s" on the quarter mile strip.  "The cost all up is about $40,000," she says.  "It only comes out on weekends these days. My daily drive is a 2005 Nissan Pulsar. Pretty sad, huh?"

She also owned a VK Commodore which was `pretty awesome" but when their daughters Mercedes, 4, and Palana, 2, came along the Johnsons traded it in for something with airconditioning.  Jodie says that given their love of muscle cars, Palana's name is often mistaken for Torana.