50 Cents - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Ford High Octane - 1981 XD Falcon Tru-Blu

The XD Falcon arrived in 1979 as Ford Australia's answer to a fuel-conscious market still rattled by the oil crisis, yet the Tru-Blu racing variant — built for Peter Brock and Dick Johnson's campaigns — became the car Australians actually remembered. This coin is part of the Royal Australian Mint's 2018 Ford High Octane series, which used pad printing technology to apply colour directly to the coin surface rather than enamelling, a process that allows photographic-quality detail impossible through traditional die work.

Dick Johnson's 1981 Bathurst campaign in the XD ended when a spectator's rock destroyed his car during the race — a moment that prompted a public donation drive to fund a replacement.