burningman

snagged this over at the aussie board

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The Ford Motor Company would like you to please turn the page. There’s nothing for American readers here, just some funny business from Australia that doesn’t concern you. Please go about your regularly scheduled Taurus leases and forget everything you’ve seen.

Still reading? Okay, but you’re risking total disgust with the current crop of domestic Ford sedans. For American mid-size buyers, Ford excretes the tired, charm-free front-drive Taurus with a Tupperware interior and floppy handling. Meanwhile, Australians get their kicks in a rear-drive bomb with wind-smoothed sheetmetal and a Euro-tune suspension. Where’s the justice?

It turns out that we Star Spangled singers have been getting the shaft for years. Ford introduced the Melbourne-built Falcon to Australia in 1960, and it never stopped evolving. Redesigned for 2003, today’s Falcon has independent suspensions at both ends and overhead-cam engines across the line. It’s an entire Ford dealership packed into one model, with various versions sold as taxis, cop cars, family wagons, executive limos, even pickup trucks. Haul a steer to town with the “one-tonne” Falcon Ute flatbed, and then have the town over for steaks with the “BBQ Ute” edition, a Falcon fitted with a broiler and companion esky (a beer cooler) housed in an aluminum cylinder the size of God’s own septic tank.

The Falcon XR6 and XR8 are the swaggering road burners of the family. For a base price of U.S. $37,859, an XR8 driver sits behind Ford’s 5.4-liter DOHC 32-valve V-8, outracing a kookaburra’s call with 349 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of steamship torque. Ford calls the engine the “Boss 260,” but to Australians it’s a hallowed “vee-bloody-eight.”

Antipodean fuel is pricey, however, so Ford has developed the new $36,065 XR6 Turbo, which is just a well-aimed spit from the XR8 in performance. It gets—now follow this closely—a 4.0-liter DOHC 24-valve inline-six with an electronic throttle and variable valve timing on both cams. A Garrett GT40 ball-bearing turbo spins a humongous 3.2-inch-diameter compressor wheel, blowing 5.8 psi of air and allowing the so-called Barra 240T to drop 322 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque into your choice of a four-speed automatic or, if you’d rather stir with a stick, a five-speed manual.

Thanks to Garrett, we were able to peel off a few quarter-miles in Detroit with an XR6 manual. Once your left hand learns to shift, it’s a 14.3-second ride with a trap speed of 98 mph while 60 mph passes in 5.9 seconds, the Barra roaring nicely to its 5900-rpm redline and the turbo whooshing hard. The power flows in a silky wave from the naturally balanced six, a gentle push at first that quickly grows into a linebacker’s shove once the big turbo gets its wind up. Minus the driver, there are 3849 pounds to stop, and the ABS disc brakes bring the Falcon down from 70 mph in a commendable 169 feet.

The XR6 has familiar domestic-sedan dimensions and might pass unnoticed in Detroit but for the body-color aero add-ons, gaping nose ducts, and 17-inch five-spoke wheels inside 235/45 Dunlops. Once a native looks down the sides, it’s only seconds before he or she discovers the misplaced steering wheel and invariably asks, “What is that?”

It’s a proper interior, for one thing, lined with squishable matte-finish moldings and sharp-acting buttons, and simple dials read with a quick glance. The XR6 trim treatment is subtle, just a few silver-painted swaths. Nothing feels penny-pinched or flimsy, especially the deeply bolstered bucket seats. Were this a cop car, the folding back seat would be a perp’s paradise. Despite the high driveshaft tunnel, there are scads of head- and legroom between the large taxi-duty doors. The deep trunk will swallow a full bullet-proof ensemble.

What the marketers call the Falcon’s new “Control Blade IRS,” we call one big trailing link, two lateral links, and a toe-control link. It’s all mounted to a drop-in subframe because the Falcon wagon still rides on a live axle and leaf springs. Compared with Ford’s main Australian rival, the Holden Commodore (the basis for the Pontiac GTO) with its semi-trailing-arm rear suspension, the Control Blade is space-age stuff.

Brutally rough roads can unsettle the mechanism, the body skittering sideways with repeated hammer blows from the pavement. Otherwise, the stiff structure dissipates much of what the suspension doesn’t soak up. Screw the wheel, and the XR6 responds fervently, the nose tucking into corners and the rear end staying planted. Safety still reigns: With the power turned on, the rear end barely twitches and the front rubber plows more readily when the corner speeds get warm. The mediocre 0.82-g skidpad run was performed with the front tires turned at agonizingly high angles. Serve it just medium spicy, and this bird tastes much better.

Enquiring minds want to know why Ford thinks you’d rather drive a Taurus, especially now that American streets are prowled by Hemi-powered Chrysler 300Cs. Ford has an answer, mostly with front drive and all-wheel drive. It has the 2005 Five Hundred and then the Mazda 6–based sedan known until recently as the Futura (oddly, Pep Boys owns the rights to the former Ford name). The Falcon missed its window for the U.S. market years ago, the millions already spent by people paid to make other plans.

Unless you plan a move to Australia, better just turn the page and forget everything you’ve seen here.

Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
Price as tested: $38,850 (base price: $36,065)
Engine type: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, iron block and aluminum head, port fuel injection
Displacement: 243 cu in, 3983cc
Power (SAE net): 322 bhp @ 5250 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 332 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm

Transmission: 5-speed manual
Wheelbase: 111.4 in
Length/width/height: 193.5/73.4/56.9 in
Curb weight: 3849 lb

Zero to 60 mph: 5.9 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 15.1 sec
Zero to 120 mph: 21.8 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 7.2 sec
Standing 1/4-mile: 14.3 sec @ 98 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 143 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 169 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.82 g
Fuel economy, city driving: 19 mpg
C/D-observed fuel economy: 12 mpg
*Base price includes all performance-enhancing options.
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Sounds like he liked it!

200mphcobra

That 5.4 is should be our Cobra Jet motor!

FrankBullitt05

Here's some pics of the Falcon GT

BlackRiderX

Why does it have 3 windows on each side?

hdwrench

is that the 4 door gto?

preparing for the

jgsmuzzy

Now then,

There's a car for me to import! The steering wheel is on the correct side

It doesn't look too showy either, although it has a look of the Hyundai Coupe about it

Blip

BM --That's from a recent Car & Driver road test of the Falcon XR6 Turbo.



And the C&D article: XR6 road test

burningman

Blip you are da MAN!

I just love the way they do the shifters in these cars. They look so great!

Blip

BM- Glad to help out. What a great car.

Now all this down-under stuff has me thinking about doing an "Outback RooStang" toon...with a little Mad Max on the side. :scratch:
"Time to find the sketch pad," in my best mad scientist voice. :geek:

burningman

HAHAHAHA I await with baited breathe

BigBoyBoelts

Not only the shifter but the whole interior looks like it comes from any car company that is NOT ford its that nice! :scratch:

GT40 2

im writing ford a letter!!

bison

So the back windows can go down.

snakeeyes

When itcomes to cars,it stinks to be in America dont it?? Everytime I read something about the Falcon I get pissed. Oh well. We get the Taurus and 500. yipee.

jgsmuzzy

Let's do a ladder........

We have the Mondeo (rubbish)
Focus (ok)
Focus C-Max (WTF???)
The fiesta (size of a shoebox)
Ka (size of a shoebox that contains baby shoes)

Seriously, Go onto ford uk, read through it and then come back and tell me you've got it bad.

snakeeyes

Dude we got it bad. You just got it worse. We ARE the country from wich ford was birthed,yet we got crap when compared to other countries. :nono: and by the way, you got Jag and Aston Martin. Probably a little more affordable over yonder than what they are here.

jgsmuzzy

I don't think so! These cars were made to be exported! Remember, we pay a flat 17.5% sales tax. I am not sure what DB9's cost there but the 5.9L V12 model here is £103,000 ($186,862) How does that compare?

ManEHawke

you gotta admit that it does look like one. I aint a big fan of the falcon. I don't hate it, and I sure wouldnt mind driving it.

boss351

Hi Guys, Gday from Australia, made me proud to read that article and also your reactions, for years I have wondered why the Falcon could not be made a left hand driver and marketed in the United states,to me the car makes perfect sense to be sold over there with it being a large car with big engines and heaps of power plus all the luxuries plus it being a rear wheel drive car which unless I'm mistaken you don't have over there anymore except for smaller cars, it would be a great car for the Government/police and emergency forces ( could replace those Crown Victoria's ), you can have the car in its everyday family car guise, in either sedan or wagon and you can also have a ute er I guess it will fall in the SUV/Pickup category and you could bring back the Ranchero name plate, or you could go for the XR6 and XR8 Variants or all the way up to the GT and GTP models and Pursuit utes with the works
:notnice: Its a darn shame you don't get cars like this over there, even we got the butt ugly Taurus and it was a sales disaster but its the same Ford marketing clowns who have decided not to bring the new Mustang to Australia, it would have made sense to have a import/export to each country with us sending you Falcons and receiving Mustangs in return, both cars have a market in each of our countries but try telling the bean counters at Ford, they would rather bring over some little buzz box car from Europe and wonder why it doesn't sell in numbers, selling the Falcon in the US would really help Ford in Australia as the market is so much bigger, and models that are put on the back burner such as the return of the GT HO could finally become a reality with the extra car volumes sold over seas, when I look at the new models Ford have coming out in the US and in other countries its no wonder Ford hardly gets anyone excited, other then the new Mustang and the GT the cars are pretty plain and ugly, so go and picket your local Ford dealer and whinge and complain that you want the Aussie falcon cruising down your highways if any country has similar tastes and racing heritage to the US its Australia the home of the petrol head

boss351

http://www.fpv.com.au



5.4 Litre GTP Sedan

5.4 Litre Pursuit Ute

Hi performance 4 Litre 6 cylinder Turbo (Typhoon)