I saw this Ford XD/XE Falcon very recently, and was shocked. American Curbsiders might be mystified by my surprise; it looks like a fairly generic, 1980s two-door sedan/coupe, right? Crisp lines, not entirely unattractive, but not entirely memorable either. One problem, though, and it’s something my fellow Aussie and Kiwi Curbsiders will have noticed by now: Ford didn’t make a Falcon two-door in the 1980s.
1979-82 Ford XD Falcon
Americans and Canadians saw two-door Ford Granadas, Fairmonts and Tempos during the 1980s, but those of us down under have always been more practical folk. We like our cars to have four doors–unless they are utes, that is–and we have never had a long-lasting relationship with coupes. Sure, the Holden Monaro was sold over two decades, but even it was available as a four-door at certain points. The Chrysler Valiant Charger died before its sedan/wagon/panel van/ute counterparts, and the Ford Falcon Hardtop seemed to be sold only in short bursts (1964-66 and 1972-79). The 1980s saw no coupes engineered in Australia, with a plan to bring over the Opel Monza as a flagship Holden coupe scrapped.
I saw the Falcon two-door as I passed through a set of lights, and quickly pulled to the side of the road to snap it as it drove past. I missed a shot of the front clip, but it appears the automotive Dr. Frankenstein grafted on the 1979-84 Ford FC/FD LTD clip, something often done with old Ford/Holden utes. As for the body, I don’t know how they did it. Perhaps another Curbsider from Oceania can shed some light?
Is it a ute cabin with a sedan back section grafted on? My very quick glance confirmed it was pretty expertly done, but then again it was dusk and the car was moving (which explains the awful photograph). Interesting though that this backyard mechanic did a better job of welding than Studebaker did with its 1953-55 two-door sedan.
While pony cars and muscle cars were careening out of dealerships in the 1960s, and personal luxury coupes wafting effortlessly out in the 1970s, Aussies saw comparatively few coupes. The ones we did see, though, were striking. There’s the aforementioned Holden Monaro pictured above…
…the Chrysler Valiant Charger…
…the Ford Falcon Hardtop…
…and the ultra rare 1973-76 Ford Landau (only 1,385 produced!).
Clearly, Dr. Frankenstein made this Falcon as homage to an era where Aussie automakers actually built coupes, even if it was conservative sedans, wagons and utes that kept them in business. The next Aussie coupe wouldn’t come until 2001 with the reborn Holden Monaro, which has the dubious distinction of being the last Aussie coupe.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: Holden HG Monaro GTS
Cohort Classic: 1971 Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T Hemi Six Pack
Some googling pulls up this:
http://www.musclecarstables.com.au/details.php?id=279
Though a Falcon message board mentions this ad in passing as “trying to pull a fast one”, so the claims of it being Ford Commissioned as opposed to a separate company may be BS.
Another angle
It was not a backyard creation but was not a Ford Factory car ether. What you have there most likely is a conversion creation made by a company called Spanmore Coachworks who made these into coupes. The car was called The Falcon XE ESP Coupe
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SPANMOR-2-DOOR-FORD-XE-FAIRMONT-GHIA-ESP-2-PAGE-MAGAZINE-FEATURE-ARTICLE-/221392789633
Thanks for the explanation. It clearly looks way to good for a back-yard hatchet job.
I’ve heard that name before. Spanmore did stretch limo conversions of LTDs of that era.
I think they did those gumby looking wheelchair taxi cabs too.
They would have put a lot of food on the table
The 4 door looks a lot like the Mk2 Euro Granada I had in the mid 80s.More Aussie cars please.Could it be a well executed home brewed example?I saw a Mk1 Zodiac coupe made with convertible doors,a lot of work,it also had a 302 and auto box.
That Falcon did look very like the Mk.II Granada, but IIRC the only common parts were the indicator lens (and possibly headlights?), which was changed on later facelifts of this Falcon anyway. The Falcon is a few inches wider than the Granada.
Correct, front indicator lenses on the XD Falc were the only shared parts.
Here…now you can see it better!
I like the XD/XE Ford Falcon coupe than the XA/XC Falcon coupe.
I prefer the XABC twodoor but not to drive the roof hung seat belt carves an uncomfortable channel in your neck and belt wear is compulsory down under.
Looks quite a bit like an ’87-’93 Mustang LX coupe.
Same thought here. This company appears to have done a lot of fabrication that could have been saved by just grafting on Mustang notchback parts that look to be about 90% same proportions.
Its only a cut n shut a new side window to cut zap it together and spray putty the seam a rub down and paint not as big deal really compared to stretching them
Bryce – To me it looks as if the front door has been extended. From memory all that generation Falcon and LTD including the utes had the same front doors. It could be the angle of the photo but that door does look stretched. I would have thought that was reasonably difficult?
4th year panel beater apprentice is given a HQ door sawn in half they have to hand make the other half and gas fusion no filler rod weld it back together, easy as falling of a log to a good tradesman and your right the doors do look longer but to a friend of mine who was the top panel beating apprentice from Tassie its just a little job. Ive cut n shut mudguards successfully doors are quite easy.
The doors are definitely longer. No great challenge for a coachbuilder like that, but enough work that they don’t often extend the rear doors on limousines even though it would help ingress, the length is added in other areas that are already being changed.
Looks like the C-pillar has been modded as well.
That was my first thought–the reshape of the C-pillar. again, maybe not difficult for a professional, but it’s a nice custom touch that required some labor.
Not quite the right kind of front bumper for a coupe, I daresay.
That thing on the front bumper is called a Roo bar which is a necessity in a country where there are large hopping marsupials hopping about.
From the rear view, the red 2 door looks like a Mazda 323 sedan from the mid 80s but with 2 doors removed.
Love the Valiant, they managed to use all 3 Mopar names on one car.
The U.S. is following Australia by doing away with 2 door coupes. Aside from the “pony cars” even trucks are switching to 4 doors.
What a creation… It’s got a bit of an American GM ’80s vibe with that notchback.
The Euro Granada was available as a 2-door and visually very similar to the Falcon, but were they related in any way besides the badge?
(img source: wiki)
Headlights are the same – I remember them saying that when the car went on sale. Probably the Ford badges too, though I wouldn’t count on that. Other than that, they just went with your guys’ styling themes, cranked the copier up 20% – then stood by and raked in the cash! 🙂
The side windows are deeper from memory but parked side by side they sure look the same, some Granadas turned up in NZ why I dont know the big UK Fords became very unpopular with the advent of the V6 MK4 Zephyr/Zodiacs.
We used to call it Granada in Europe with InLine 4 and small V6 engines. BUT the Aussie Falcon looks a lil’ bit sharper…and maybe has got bigger engines… Anyway Granda had been a great success story in Europe… For long time we used to call it as typical “gastarbeiter” car as eastern-european and turkish guest workers travelled by them overloaded up and down between their homelands and Western-Europe.
It deserved its popularity probably because of its (by Euro terms) quite impressive sizes and reliability especially the estate wagons and sedans… Granada’s predecessor the Consul had 2 door saloon and coupé. Technically almost the same with only minor updates for the favor of Granada. A significant saloon car of ’70’s and ’80’s Europe. I like them…
The European Granada and the Granada-looking Australian Falcon are a classic case of convergent evolution. No, they are not related in any way, apart from looking almost the same, at least from a distance. The Falcon is related mechanically to the US Falcon, but received a body update that resembled the European Granada. Only the outer panels differ from the earlier Australian Falcon. It’s a Falcon with a Granada-looking suit, so to speak.
Aaron Severson did an excellent write up on this, I’m surprised he isn’t here already explaining all of this.
http://ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/australian-ford-falcon-part-2/
On the European two-door Granada, I always thought it could be turned into quite an interesting grand tourer. An Italian make over with an Italian interior and some exterior tweaks. Just throw in a Ford V8 and hey presto! Euro-American grand tourer on the cheap.
The Aussie car ame with 3.3 & 4.1 Litre 6s and 302 & 351 V8s untill the XF when the V8s were dropped in favour of FI, My brother is currently assembling a 351 XE Fairmont in his garage yet to see the finished item but the parts list looks good.
You are right about engines in the Australian Falcons.
Smallest engine was a 3.3 litre in line six, though the 4.1 litre variant was way more popular. There were also 4.9 and 5.8 litre V8’s.
Ford did try a 2L Pinto engine from the Cortina in the Falcon as an economy model but it sucked more gas than a 6 so the idea was canned, 3.3 was the taxicab poverty pack motor mostly.
The other thing was they put the 6-cylinder engines in the Cortina!
That ute appears to have as much room behind the seat as the 79 Datsun King Cab that I had. Whether it does or not, I like it better than the feature car.
Interesting alternative universe.
That was the beauty of an Aussie ute sedan car comfort and room unlike the cramped offerings from Japan
I see lots of 450SLC in the profile and rear tail lights.
That too.
Very cool. I suppose safety regulations worldwide have pretty much killed off the organized custom car business that produced products like this.
I don’t know why that would be the case, though, because stretch limos are still perfectly legal. Something like this is the same procedure, just going in the other direction. If done properly, it shouldn’t affect things like crumple zones, door impact beams, etc.
It could simply be a matter of insufficient demand these days?
For some inexplicable reason, I find that Ford Landau to be very fetching.
Mate o mine had one looked cool 351 engine it went ok but all the power accessories failed in normal fashion.
Where were you in 1974? Ford Australia could have used a lot of people with your sense of aesthetics. Despite living in Australia’s second-largest city back then, I hardly ever saw those on the roads.
It wouldn’t have interested me in ’74, I wanted nothing to do with the Landau type of car. But now, it just looks good; for me it’s like a cross between a Javelin and a T-Bird. I’ve seen this brochure photo before, and I’d enjoy seeing one in the flesh.
The Landau was very much like an Australian version of the Thunderbird. A fully loaded grand cruiser or as we like to call it down under, “a hamburger with the lot.” It came standard with every luxury option in the Ford catalogue with the exception of a sunroof, which was optional. Mechanically it had the 351 C (small port 4v) FMX, 9 inch with track rods and four wheel disc brakes as standard.
This is incredibly rare, I would be surprised if there were more than 10-20 made and probably not even that many. I have seen one, compared to probably a dozen 178-produced 351/manual ESPs and 50+ of the 300-built 1971 GTHO Phase IIIs.
This car clearly doesnt have the standard XE triangular turn signal so at least the fenders have been changed. The roo bar noted by Bryce may indicate a rural Queensland home for the car, it is not something you would expect to see otherwise.
Ltd I doubt any Mustang parts would fit, the cars aren’t the same size. Dave B you could still build something like this, but it would need to be signed off by an automotive engineer.
Lee the ute pictured has almost no storage behind the seats as the bed extends under the rear window to the seat backs in their rearmost position, and a 7′ approx floor length.
I saw one at a show in rural Vic Shepparton actually only one I recall in the metal it was black not a local car, though on Vic plates.
XF front guards and that style of bullbar had the built in airdam to fit the XF front, used to see quite a lot of XE/F plastic front airdams on roadsides back in the day they couldnt handle a roo hit at all the plastic mounts break off my boss in Narrabri had a new XE ute it lost the front bumper and airdam before it got its first oil change a bullbar went on no more problems.
It looks like an early ’80s Maxima given the Red Green treatment.
Does anyone remember a similar Holden Commodore coupe called the Adeyer Sportif?
Haven’t heard of that one for ages! I remember reading about it in (IIRC) Motor Manual way back in the day. Never saw one of them, either.
Heard the name, don’t think I’ve seen one. I’ve seen a couple of V8 Monzas though.
its also been done on a BA
I like it! Though it does bear a more-than-passing resemblance to the Monaro…
Done locally to an XF Falcon too. All yours for NZ$24K. It’s been listed since April 2013: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/hot-rods/auction-687131505.htm