Joe Agati’s passion for Australian muscle cars is more than just a passing interest. He began spinning spanners on project cars back in the very late 1980s, and by the time he hit 19, he managed to own his dream car – a 1967 Ford Falcon GT that he tuned for drag racing.
“From the moment I discovered the XR GT, I knew I had to make it mine,” Joe said. “It’s one of only 596 ever made, and it marked the beginning of the Australian supercar era.”
Joe raced the car in local competitions in and around his hometown Melbourne for a couple of seasons, spending countless hours fine-tuning the engine for better performance.
“My best time over the quarter-mile was 13.92 seconds at 92 mph (148 km/h) – which isn’t very impressive nowadays – but it was consistent, and I had a lot of fun,” Joe said. “When you start drag racing, you think that the person in the lane beside you is your competitor – but as you get better, you learn that consistency is the key to winning. Your focus switches to launching as fast as you can when the light turns green and perfecting every single gear shift in those few seconds of action.”
Joe set his racing aspirations to one side as he pursued degrees in computer science and economics and later an MBA. Now, he's the IMG ET Strategy and Integration manager at the Customer Relationship Centre (CRC). There, he works with teams across IMG to make the customer experience with contact centres better.
Outside work, Joe’s life revolves around his family and friends. He loves spending time as much time as he can with his wife Rosanna and their four kids, and family holidays are usually spent around a surf beach.
He still has his classic 1967 Falcon GT. He rebuilt it alongside his daughter Georgia, and despite the car sitting idle for over 30 years, it was in pretty good shape. He and Georgia went through every inch of it, bumper to bumper, even rebuilding the engine together.
“The feeling of hearing the engine roar back into life was something else. Every time that V8 turns over and revs up, it's like an adrenaline shot," he grins. Now he's got a new project, a 1968 XR Ford Falcon 500, which he's restoring. This one's got a special place – it was my childhood family car and has been in the family since the early 1970s.
"I enjoy driving the GT to work and on weekends. It's got this road presence that's hard to beat," Joe says. He enjoys sharing stories with others who grew up around similar cars. Connecting with those memories makes the car even more special.
For Joe, it's not just a car; it's a vessel of memories and stories. It's a piece of his life, sparking memories and conversations wherever it goes.
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