50 years of Aussie Falcons

[FG XR]

cheers, cant find any pic of it on the net, would be good to put the BA / BF and FG models on there

[Watto_Cobra]

Excuse the average photo. Old camera and had to pin the corners down. Poster is a lift out from the Herald-Sun. It stops at BA, so an updated for FG 50th Ann. would be good.

[Brute6]

I hear that Ford were going to be releasing prices on June 1, now its been pushed back to July 1? Wish they'd hurry up!!!

[Professor Farnsworth]

myford has a bit of info also, following up from the ford link on the previous page.

Originally Posted by www.myford.com.au

A new exterior paint colour will be introduced in conjunction with the release of the Falcon 50th Anniversary range. Called "Sunburst", the new XR hero paint will be the launch colour for the XR 50th Anniversary models – Sunburst is an intense and saturated effervescent burnt orange with metallic orange/gold highlights.

G Series 50th Anniversary models will be available in two new prestige paint colours to be introduced for the FG Falcon range in May and August. Arriving first is "Havana", a soft neutral mocha metallic with smoky brown graduated hues and a dark, deeper bronze highlight.

Coming on line in August, "Edge" is a dark charcoal with a hint of blue that features a dark, sparkling luxury metallic highlight.

also here is the blurb and list of the 50th anniversary lineup:

Originally Posted by www.myford.com.au

The Falcon 50th anniversary range will include G Series and XR models, with six individual variants available across both sedan and Ute bodystyles:

* G6E 50th Anniversary
* G6E Turbo 50th Anniversary
* Falcon XR6 50th Anniversary sedan
* Falcon XR6 Turbo 50th Anniversary sedan
* Falcon XR6 50th Anniversary Ute
* Falcon XR6 Turbo 50th Anniversary Ute

all together now... "Where's the flamin' XR8?"

starting to look as though it will be an FPV item only. Sorry if this has been confirmed already, didn't read the whole thread, and haven't checked the coyote thread for a while.

[BigAL_250]

isn't Ford not allowed to make any more 5.4's due to Euro IV or whatever?

[Professor Farnsworth]

Originally Posted by bigal_250

isn't Ford not allowed to make any more 5.4's due to Euro IV or whatever?

yeah but the xr8 is meant to be out some time this year, so why not include it in the celebrations? even if it were released in december it'd still be in the 50th year.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by bigal_250

isn't Ford not allowed to make any more 5.4's due to Euro IV or whatever?

The 5.4's already finished. No more will be built.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Professor Farnsworth

yeah but the xr8 is meant to be out some time this year, so why not include it in the celebrations? even if it were released in december it'd still be in the 50th year.

Why start releasing "limited Editions" on a car that that is still 2-3-4 months away!! Makes no sense to me & there is no need for it.

[outback_ute]

Originally Posted by mm31

car was sold and registered in 1960 from what ive been told fords came to thier senses and bought it back not long after and put in storage. hasn't run in about 15 to 20 years.
i was cruising the plant in it yesterday it drives like new except the brakes are still a bit dicky.

Thanks for the reply. Being sold originally reminds me of a quote I heard about Ford being in the business of selling new cars not running museums, probably around the time they sold off a heap of concept cars in the US.

[Professor Farnsworth]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

Why start releasing "limited Editions" on a car that that is still 2-3-4 months away!! Makes no sense to me & there is no need for it.

re-read what i said.

if the xr8 is to be released this year like it's rumoured to be, then why not have a 50th anniversary edition of it, with a note saying 'not available until november 2010' or such. Being released later in the year would still make its release fall in the 50th year. Not everyone wants a NA or turbo 6, and i'm sure many would be fine with waiting a few more months for their 50th anniversary XR8.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by Professor Farnsworth

re-read what i said.

if the xr8 is to be released this year like it's rumoured to be, then why not have a 50th anniversary edition of it, with a note saying 'not available until november 2010' or such. Being released later in the year would still make its release fall in the 50th year. Not everyone wants a NA or turbo 6, and i'm sure many would be fine with waiting a few more months for their 50th anniversary XR8.

Why would you want to do a special discount value pack on an FPV product that starts at 57 kay plus on roads...

That theory doesnt add up..

[Professor Farnsworth]

Originally Posted by bfiipursuit

Why would you want to do a special discount value pack on an FPV product that starts at 57 kay plus on roads...

That theory doesnt add up..

for the love of..

my comment was based on it still being a FORD product. i initially said, after seeing the 50th anniversary offerings:

Originally Posted by Professor Farnsworth

starting to look as though it will be an FPV item only.

However if it were to be a FORD line and not FPV, i said 'why not include it'.

If you know conclusively that it will be FPV, then obviously my comment doesn't stand.

[charles_wif_xf]

A bit of related news, Ford is giving away a 50th anniversary Falcon on Hey Hey its Saturday tonight apparently.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Professor Farnsworth

re-read what i said.

if the xr8 is to be released this year like it's rumoured to be, then why not have a 50th anniversary edition of it, with a note saying 'not available until november 2010' or such. Being released later in the year would still make its release fall in the 50th year. Not everyone wants a NA or turbo 6, and i'm sure many would be fine with waiting a few more months for their 50th anniversary XR8.

That still does not make business sense!! It will only devalue a bring spanking new V8.. I'me guessing Ford will have a nice back log to get through at limited discount. Why offer huge discounts on something that you dont need too & at a point in time when you wont be able to built enough of them at limited discount pricing?

[My poor XF]

Originally Posted by charles_wif_xf

A bit of related news, Ford is giving away a 50th anniversary Falcon on Hey Hey its Saturday tonight apparently.

Just saw that, good bit of advertising too it finished with a 50 yrs of falcon screen.

[ute351]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

XK
Prices ranged from 1137 to 1318 aussie pounds ($2274- $2512)

FG (Based on Xt spec)
Official RRP $37,690 to $56,390

In today's money, allowing for inflation, an XK would be the equivilent of $27,704.83-$32,115.19

[prydey]

rather than start a new thread i thought i'd dig this one up.

latest wheels mag (july) has a '50 years of falcon' section in it which is a fair portion of the mag. its a pretty good read and reasonably comprehensive too. $8.50 well spent on this one.

[4.0i_SiX]

Thought I would post up a pic of my 62 XL Falcon deluxe. Long live the falcon

[draxx]

Thats a nice clean looking falcon - thanks for sharing!

[Joe5619]

When are we going to start seeing some adds from Ford about this?? It is just a little over one week away.. What in gods names are they waiting for??

[vztrt]

http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...0625-z8mx.html

50 years young
DAVID MORLEY
June 26, 2010



An icon of the Australian car industry is celebrating its half century. DAVID MORLEY traces its history.

It may not seem like it but the Australian-made Ford Falcon has now been part of the local landscape for half a century.

If you can remember the day the Falcon first hit showrooms, chances are you're retired, or not far off it. For those who weren't getting about back in 1960, it's difficult to imagine an Australia without the Falcon badge playing at least some role in proceedings.

Few Australians won't have owned, driven, or at least ridden in an Aussie-made Falcon, either as part of the family garage, or as the transport of choice for cabbies.

The Falcon badge is older than Ford's other famous nameplate, the Mustang, although it's younger than the recently discontinued Fairlane. It's one of the longest-running automotive brands, both in outright terms and as a badge that's still on sale today.

But more than that, not only is the Falcon Ford's signature dish in this country, it's also the model that made the blue oval brand here such a tour-de-force.

Until 1960, Ford Australia was an assembler, rather than a manufacturer, of cars. From the time the company set up its first production facility in Australia in 1925, it had been building cars - starting with the Model T - from imported kits.

Government legislation that penalised fully imported cars helped force the move to local production on Ford and it established its assembly works in a converted wool store in Geelong, which at the time was this country's fourth-largest city.

It was a profitable operation, assembling 150 cars a day (at one point the factory was assembling 12 different cars and commercial vehicles).

By the mid-1950s, though, the sands had begun to shift. Ford was losing ground to Holden with its locally made (and insanely popular) FJ model.

The locally assembled Zephyr was still selling against the Holden but the latter cost $300 more and, as the Holden grabbed even more hearts and minds, Ford's market share fell below 10 per cent.

Clearly, the company needed to expand. To do that, it needed to take arch-rival Holden on at its own game: local production.

The seed was sown.

That grew into the establishment of a production facility and, after much discussion, in 1957 the Victorian government offered Ford a 182-hectare parcel of land just west of the Hume Highway at Broadmeadows in Melbourne's outer north.

The going price was $1250 a hectare, with the government sweetening the deal with a range of interest-free loans and infrastructure upgrades, including rezoning the land to allow heavy industrial use.

Designed for a daily output of 200 cars, the Broadmeadows plant was augmented by a new $14 million foundry at Geelong to cast the components of a brand new six-cylinder engine.

Observers originally thought the locally produced Ford would be a Mark II Zephyr with a distinctly Australian flavour. While these did roll off the production line, they were simply kits that were assembled here.

No, the real news was to come in 1960. The Falcon had arrived. Although built at Broadmeadows, the XK Falcon of 1960 was unashamedly an American design.

Thankfully, though, it was a compact car (by US standards) and not one of the land yachts that the US held so dear.

Park it alongside the latest 50th anniversary Falcon, and the old girl (and this is the very first car to roll of the Broadmeadows line, on June 28, 1960) is small; demure even.

But beyond that, car 0000001 is also, even five decades on, undeniably elegant.

The sweep of the flanks and rounded nose suggest an aerodynamic signature the car may not live up to, and the tapered rear-most window pillar gives the car a lightness and delicacy that only this, the XK model, ever really captured.

Ah yes ... delicacy. Sadly for Ford - and anybody who bought an XK Falcon - the model's daintiness extended beyond its visuals.

Before long, Australian owners, particularly those who used their cars on the typically poor roads of rural Australia at the time, discovered that US virtues can soon become hopelessly lost in translation.

As well as a too-soft ride that left the car bottoming out as it ran out of suspension, many an XK simply - and literally - fell apart miles from anywhere when the suspension collapsed under the strain.

Jump in behind the wheel and even today those memories are enough to keep things down to a crawl over speed humps; memories and the fact that the Olympic air-ride tyres (6 inches x 13 inches) look like the originals, complete with perishing and tiny splits in the carcass.

Slowing to an almost-stop also means shifting back to first gear and, again, you're reminded of how the good old days maybe weren't always so good.

First gear in the Falcon's three-speed manual lacks synchromesh, so any attempt to engage it while the car is rolling is rewarded with the horrible sound of the gearbox gnashing its teeth and some slap-on-the-wrist feedback through the column shifter.

Beyond that, though, the gearbox is quite sweet to use and the shifter vastly more accurate than experience with Holdens of the same era would have suggested.

This is all helped by the fact that the lower ratios in the gearbox are only called into use at low speeds.

The flexibility of the engine means that once you're in top gear, you can pretty much leave it there until the speed falls to about 30km/h, at which point second gear comes into its own.

In contrast, what the Falcon buyer of 1960 would have made of the modern-day car's six-speed automatic transmission is anybody's guess.

The same goes for the current FG model's interior. While the XK might bear "Deluxe" badges, there's not a thing inside that would give the PlayStation generation the idea that it's anything but bare bones.

Switchgear is limited to an indicator stalk, lights, wipers and a choke button, all of which poke out of the dash ready to inflict vase-shaped puncture wounds in a shunt.

Nor is there anything approximating padding on the dashboard. It's all painted metal, including the door cappings, while the floor is covered with thick, hard-wearing vinyl.

Sitting in the front, it's difficult to ignore the feeling that you're propped between the metal frame of the bench seat and that jaw-like dashboard similar to the bait in a bear-trap that's ready to be sprung.

Did I mention there are no seatbelts? Later models had mounting points for them but they weren't standard fitment until years later.

Actually, driving a car without seat-belts in 2010 is without a doubt the most confronting part of the XK Falcon experience. It's a very close second to that dream where you turn up at school in your pyjamas. Vulnerable is hardly a strong enough word.

Beyond that, though, there's a lot to like. The engine is smooth and barely audible at idle, and, when you rev it up, your ears soon tell you it's the granddaddy of the six-cylinder in the current-model car.

The brakes are drums all round - and unassisted at that - but they have good feel and pull the XK up straight.

While the ride is a bit busy, even on those old Olympic tyres, you don't have to steer, adjust the ignition advance and feed the horses like you did with other cars of this vintage.

A lack of seatbelts aside, the big eye-opener with this car is the steering.

Designed by chiropractors (presumably), it's geared super low for a shoulder-burning five turns lock to lock when most modern cars manage with three or less.

Even at the time, buyers complained of the Falcon's tardy response to the helm. In 2010, it's just comical as you flail away at that big white tiller with its skinny rim and its tenuous connection to the front axle.

Clearly, then, there's ample evidence of five decades of progress when you step from the XK into the current-day FG, just released in better-equipped 50th anniversary trim.

So there should be. But what makes cars such as the original Falcon so fascinating is that they give us an insight into what once passed for culture.

With the current FG XR6's stability control, anti-lock brakes and airbags (although still no standard curtain airbags, as in rival cars), it's easy to determine that safety is a major driving force in modern car design.

The XK? No such luck - but just in case you're thinking 1960s Ford didn't have its corporate finger on the cultural pulse, consider this: in the original Falcon, you did get front and rear ashtrays. Big ones, for a big country.

While they don't make 'em like that any more, at least they do still make 'em.

For more on the Ford Falcon's 50th anniversary

FAST FACTS: WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE YEARS CAN MAKE

1960 XK FALCON DELUXE

HOW MUCH? From $2398 plus costs

ENGINE 2.4-litre overhead valve six-cylinder

POWER 67kW

TORQUE 187Nm

TRANSMISSION Three-speed manual, rear-wheel drive

SUSPENSION Front, independent, coil springs; rear: live axle, leaf springs

BRAKES Drums

LENGTH 4602mm

WIDTH 1778mm

KERB MASS 1105kg

STANDARD FEATURES Windscreen wipers, sunvisors, fuel gauge

SAFETY FEATURES None

2010 FG FALCON XR6

HOW MUCH? From $42,990 plus on-road and dealer costs (regular XR6 with manual)

ENGINE 4.0-litre twin-cam six-cylinder

POWER 195kW

TORQUE 391Nm

TRANSMISSION Six-speed manual

or optional six-speed auto, rear-wheel drive

SUSPENSION Front: independent,

coil springs; rear: independent, coil springs

BRAKES Discs

LENGTH 4970mm

WIDTH 1868mm

KERB MASS 1704kg

STANDARD FEATURES Cruise control, airconditioning, remote central locking, power windows, power mirrors, powered driver's seat, CD audio with MP3 input, alloy wheels

SAFETY FEATURES Dual front and side-front airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, stability control, anti-lock brakes, driver fatigue warning

[Professor Farnsworth]

anyone see the special on channel 9 last night?

sunburst looked very nice on the videos they showed, but i'd say it will become as overdone as blueprint

[vztrt]

http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...0624-z2ez.html

Ford puts a 'petal' to the mettle
DAVID MORLEY
June 25, 2010



The first locally made Falcon's reputation as 'a bit fragile' had to be given the boot — and fast.

It may have become a national institution in the five decades hence but the first years of Ford's locally built Falcon were troubled.

Ford Australia had simply grabbed an off-the-peg US design and, within weeks, the car's shortcomings were apparent to local owners.

The XK Falcon was designed for marble-smooth US roads and when confronted with Aussie goat tracks, its fragile suspension fell apart.

Any car designed for 1960s Australia that earned itself a reputation for fragility wasn't long for this world and the situation required swift action. Ford came up with a high-risk publicity stunt that is still talked about reverentially today.

The 112,000-kilometre endurance test of 1965 could so easily have been a disaster sufficient to spell the end of the company in this country.

But this audacious piece of marketing turned public opinion and to this day, arguably, forms the basis of the Falcon's reputation for ruggedness and reliability.

The idea was simple: take five production Falcons (sedans and two-doors) and flog them around the clock for 10 days until they'd cumulatively covered the distance at an average 113km/h.

The car was the then-new XP model; the venue, Ford's brand-spanking-new proving ground at the You Yangs near Geelong. Lord, how it could have gone wrong.

According to former Ford works racing driver Allan Moffat, who drove one of five Falcons that completed the marathon, even at the time the drivers and organisers had no doubt that this was a hugely risky venture.

"Apparently, some taxi drivers had been complaining about the Falcon's strength," is how Moffat remembers the impetus for the marathon. Former motoring editor of The Age and then editor of Wheels magazine, Bill Tuckey, remembers the early Falcon's failures well.

"Ford in this country was gone for all money until that stunt," he says.

"They'd burnt the fleets so badly that they were up the creek."

Moffat wasn't called up initially but was soon drafted as the event started to take its toll.

"I received an SOS phone call - a lot of the hero drivers had quickly got the idea that it was going to be hard work and had found other things to do. And could I step in?" he recalls.

"We weren't using the high-speed oval - that hadn't been built yet - so we were driving on the proving-ground road course ... If you know it, it goes up hill and down dale and there are enough corners on it to give the brakes a hard time. It was certainly a hairy track."

Tuckey had been covering the event as a journalist and was surprised to see at his car club a notice on Ford letterhead asking for anybody with a Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) competition licence to report to the You Yangs proving ground.

The endurance run had simply used up the available drivers, so Tuckey stepped in to drive a stint.

"Luckily my stint was in daylight," he recalls. "But even then, you'd come flying up past the big granite boulders and then take the plunge over the top on those skinny bloody Dunlops.

It was so quick; and then you had a hairpin waiting for you at the bottom. I reckon we were doing anything up to 180km/h as we charged down that hill."

The damages bill at the conclusion suggests maintaining the average speed was dangerous: of the five cars involved, four rolled and at least one left the road and hit a huge rock.

They were held together by fencing wire and optimism at stumps, with running repairs including hammering them roughly into shape.

"The mechanics also had power jacks that they were using to pull the cars back into something like their original shape," Tuckey remembers.

Part of the problem was mounting driver fatigue.

"We were each driving a couple of hours at a time - maybe a bit longer, the cars weren't hard on gas - and whenever we stopped, we changed drivers and the crew changed brakes and tyres," Moffat says.

Tyre wear was a problem; a set of four lasted just 12 laps on the "green" proving-ground bitumen. "Dunlop had a truckload of tyres arriving every day," Moffat recalls.

"For eight or nine days we were there. We were bivouacked right on the main straight and we were there 24 hours a day."

At the end, Ford had won a major PR battle and saved its own corporate neck. That same year it won the prestigious Wheels Car of the Year award.

"And we did it without the loss of a single engine, a single gearbox or a single differential," Moffat says. "And I'm happy to report that I brought my wagon home in one piece."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

[Sprint XR8]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

When are we going to start seeing some adds from Ford about this?? It is just a little over one week away.. What in gods names are they waiting for??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQ1u6Euy9A

[galaxy xr8]

Originally Posted by Professor Farnsworth

anyone see the special on channel 9 last night?

sunburst looked very nice on the videos they showed, but i'd say it will become as overdone as blueprint

Yeah I seen the show, I'm undecided on sunburst untill I see it in the flesh, to me it look's a little like the old Tiga Mica on the commy, not really my thing, I think it will date to early.

[Bossxr8]

Sunrise will have a special segment about the 50th anniversary tommorow, they may be broadcasting from Broadmeadows or have a reporter there, i'm not sure which but they are doing something.

[XR6WGN]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FALCON

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Sunrise will have a special segment about the 50th anniversary tommorow, they may be broadcasting from Broadmeadows or have a reporter there, i'm not sure which but they are doing something.

Yeah I caught a bit of it this morning. Grant Denyer was hosting it and gushing a fair bit, also had the man himself Moffatt. Don't know what else there was as I had to leave for work.

There was a TV ad last night too, it was pretty lame, but I noted they mentioned EcoBoost in the ad.

[FPV+fteT3]

Have a look here about 1/2 way down the page click on red writing and see 3 short videos not the whole show but worth a look.

http://motoring.ninemsn.com.au/cars/...alcon-turns-50

[galaxy xr8]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Yeah I caught a bit of it this morning. Grant Denyer was hosting it and gushing a fair bit, also had the man himself Moffatt. Don't know what else there was as I had to leave for work.

There was a TV ad last night too, it was pretty lame, but I noted they mentioned EcoBoost in the ad.

I caught a quick glimpse of it aswell, I think I seen Frosty there aswell ?.