It’s funny that I consider myself more a GM man than anything because some of my fondest memories have been in Fords. The first car I bought with my own money was my old BA Falcon. It was also the first car I took on a road trip and the first car I did a burnout in. The first donut I did (poorly) was in a Mustang. And the first time I drove a rear-wheel-drive car – and listened to that glorious screech from the rear wheels – was in one of these, an XF Falcon.
(For the record, I’m almost always a responsible driver.)
The XF was the final revision of the 1979-vintage XD shape before Ford introduced the more aerodynamic and modern-looking 1988 EA. The XD had ushered out the 1970s-style coke bottle curves of the XA-XC series and introduced crisp, angular, tailored lines in the same vein as the European Granada and American Fairmont. Underneath, however, looked very much like the 70s Falcons, although the XE and XF revisions improved the Falcon formula. The XE introduced a new coil spring (instead of leaf spring) rear suspension to the sedans and offered the Falcon’s first optional fuel injection. The XF had revised front and rear styling and some minor mechanical refinements, as well as a new, 5-speed manual.
An old friend of mine had an old XF. On a couple of occasions, I drove us out in the XF to a large, empty parking lot so he could practice driving as he didn’t have his licence yet. From memory, his was a base GL with the optional three-speed auto and carbureted 4.1 six, producing 138 hp and 233 ft-lbs. This was about 10 years ago but I still remember how big the XF felt compared to my Holden (Opel) Astra – never mind the fact the XF was only as long as a front-wheel-drive GM A-Body at 188 inches, albeit an inch wider than an ’86 front-wheel-drive GM H-Body at 73.2 inches. By Aussie standards though, these were big and that’s why Ford wrestled the top spot on the sales charts from the more compact, European-style Holden Commodore as fuel prices decreased during the 1980s.
I still remember, too, the sound the rear tires made as I hooked a right at some traffic lights from a stop, as well as the scolding my friend gave me for wearing out his tires. But I wanted the full experience: here I was in a big, rear-wheel-drive Australian sedan and I loved it, loping along highways and hooning around empty parking lots. Funnily enough, that experience with the XF was probably what led to my purchase of a Falcon instead of a front-wheel-drive sedan like the Mitsubishi Magna (Diamante). And now here I am on Falcon #2 and I’ve generally liked them better than the one Commodore I owned. Maybe I am a Ford guy.
Is there a car brand with which you keep crossing paths?
Photographed November 2017 in front of Brisbane City Hall.
“Have You Reminisced About A Ford Lately?”
Every. Single. Day.
It’s how I found this place. ;o)
Great find William. Growing up, I preferred the exterior design of the original North American Fairmont to the European Granada. With the passage of time, I find the cleanliness of the Granada / XF Falcon design has aged much better. They still look elegant and well proportioned today. Wish we had these in NA.
The second generation Nissan Maxima appeared especially influenced by the original Granada design.
Interesting point, perhaps the second generation of the Mazda 626 mainly the sedan version was also influenced by the XD/XF Falcon design?
Nice recycled Fairmont wagon tailgate.
Good eye!
Cool! I would have never noticed that if I stared at it for a week!
I was wondering why it reminded me of a Fairmont.
It is funny that as dedicated as I was to the cult of Mopar through the 70s and 80s (and beyond) I have found myself in more Fords than I would have expected, and through a wider variety of ages. A couple of 60s models were DDs in the late 70s but then I spent several years in some 90s models as DDs as well. Add a sprinkling of Fords as “play cars” and I may have owned more Fords than anything else. Just checked – yes, 8 of them.
As bad as Ford was for overweight, tacky, bloated, poorly built, and rust prone domestic cars in the 70s, they did an incredible job redeeming themselves and their product line by the mid to late 80s, and moving forward. Much credit going to Ford of Europe for the promising new direction by the late 70s/early 80s.
For me, Toyota. In the first phase of my automotive maturation, as a small child, there really were no Toyota’s, perhaps an occasional FJ Land Cruiser or an old Toyopet. As a pre-license teen, there were slant nose Coronas and slightly more modern, but equally dull Corollas,a nd the overstyled Celica. After I got my license, Toyota hinted at enthusiast cars with 1600 Corollas and sportier Celicas, but still nothing to compare with a modded Datsun 510 or an RX3. But now, 40+ years after my first car, I realize I’ve owned five Toyota’s. Two practical but still satisfying: Corolla and Prius. And three practical, but with a fun side, for where they could/can go if not for how they get there: Land Cruiser and two 4wd pickups.
I hadnt driven an XF in years when a mate asked me to take his in for an alignment, his was a Kiwi new car no pollution equipment fitted but the carb engine it was a Fairmont with digital dash and a few other niceties but I’d forgotten how they went and was a bit surprised at how sluggish it was, it drove a lot better when I brought it back sort of went where I pointed it but for a 4.1 it didnt have much get up and go, great cruiser though thousands of Taxi drivers will attest to that.
My brother has a XE Fairmont thats had a warm 351 transplanted in it should be on the road soon, that should go ok though as well as his FG XR8 I doubt it.
When i first saw these Australian Falcons and Fairmonts in a World Cars book in the early 1980s, I wondered if they were based on bigger Mazdas like the 929. I know it’s not the case but there is a definite resemblance.
The Fairlane based on this generation looks even more so.
A friend had one of those LTD models lots of creature features inside and really good AC which was a bonus coz the windows among other niceties on Tracies car never worked it was kid proof no need to lock the windows to prevent them playing with them.
I greatly admired Ford Australia’s efforts, they were the perfect blends of European and (old)American values in car building, I’ve never been envious of EU market cars or JDM cars most of my peers are here in the states, Australian Fords are my forbidden fruit. I prefer the original XD or XE front end though
The XD does look the purest, but if you drove one, you might be a bit shocked – Euro, it is not. But Falcons from the later EA onwards became better and better cars, eventually ending up that exact blend of US toughness/big engine response, with quite Euro dynamics and a garnish of uniquely Aus specialties of excellent seats and ride.
If you must go eating things a snake told you not to, be a consumer of a late-ripened one.
No. I’ve had three Falcons, driven many more, and still, no.
None were bad cars as such, but all were crude, sort-of wilfully anti-enthusiast. Steering either heavy and 5.5 turns, or powered and no feel at all. Autos, even in the XF here, that were designed to change gear at 3,600 rpm on flat throttle, wise enough because at the 4,000rpm power peak, it was all getting at bit stressful. Fair old shouting match from the wind over about 50mph. In all the XD-XF’s, terminal (and most dangerous) rust hidden inside the scutttle and plenum, with lots of smelly wet carpets after rain as the first inkling your Falc would fold like origami if you should crash it.
To be a bit fair, a manual-steer wagon wound up to about 85-90mph or so, running on LPG as most seemed to – it made the 15 mpg affordable – on long drives on remote and crapulous country roads, that was a good way to travel. Seat reclined some, one hand up on the wheel, lots of room inside, no need for much thinking. Steady, pretty unruffled by bad surfaces on none-too-curvaceous journeys where precision and feedback would just end up being an irritant, and driven by everyone else out there so no local Mr Plod ever booked you for doing the same speeds he was, because he assumed he knew you.
And the XF seemed quite exciting when they were new, so space-agey inside, rounded off in the front, coloured bumpers and such. But fairly soon, I came to dislike them the most, as I decided they looked like a cut-and-shut by a dimwitted crook, the front of a round car welded onto a square one (funny, that). Then the interiors quickly looked soiled and saggy, and then Mitsubishi Aus released the Magna, a stunning Euro-standard miracle of refinement, and the Falc suddenly felt like the stinking, leaking, creaking, 800,000k taxi that they actually were 10 years later. (And yes, I know that 10 years on, every one of those stunning Magnas were long dead from appalling driveline faults, mine included, whilst the Falcons just kept tortising on, but after a bad ride in an XF taxi, even a dead Magna was still nicer – well, at least as a place to recover and reminisce about the days when it ran).
Alright, so maybe I have reminisced about Fords lately.
Just not fondly.
I knew Wayne Draper, part of the design team at Ford. He freely admitted the curved front was a mismatch with the square body, a desperate, (but sales wise, very successful) facelift of a dated model.
No
Ah, reminiscing of the XF Falcon!
The sound of a poorly tuned one idling “dugga, dugga, dugga”.
The number of stolen and burnt ones in my local State Forest.
That they offered three speed column shift manual with the base 3.3l (200ci) carb engine. Utes and panel vans could have this through to early ‘93.
I had 2 Fords. The first and worse was 1959 Ford Fairlane. The next a 1985.5 SVO. The SVO was my first new car and a revelation compared to the all the old British sportcars, VW I had. The only car I really miss is my 2007 Audi A3. It was the best car I ever had. Unfortunately I can’t afford any new Audi today. Nor am I in a position to get a good used car.
Wait a minute. A couple of you have compared the Australian Falcon unfavorably to the Mitsubishi Magna/Diamanté. I have no first-hand experience with the Mitsubishi, but it was never well regarded in the US by either the press or the buying public. That suggests the Australian Falcons must have been pretty bad. I’m disappointed, because they certainly seem cool to me.
The Magna/Diamante was a fantastic car. But the brand never shook off the reputation of fragility due to the early model’s well-publicised automatic transmission weakness – it was never designed for the torque of the 2.6. That’s pretty much accepted folklore, and many people looked elsewhere because of what they’d heard.
Buy an early manual, as we did, and it was a great car. You really got the impression you had somehow scored a much more expensive car for a bargain price. It felt almost Peugeot-like. We got nine years and 220,000km out of ours before it began using oil and CV joints packed it in.
Buy a third-gen, as we also did, and it was even better in most ways. Not as quiet to ride in, and a bit more understeer with the 3.5 V6, but it had all the power we ever needed. We got 350,000 km out of ours over seventeen years before I crashed it. 🙁
We looked at a new Falcon before we bought our ’89. Absolutely no comparison, the Magna was far superior to what Ford was selling then. Later Falcons had more power, better equipment levels, but still the same compromised packaging – like rear seat access! When we bought our ’00, we never bothered comparing.
Magnas were a nice drive though they had issues a friends teen daughter scored a manual 85 the model the roof pillars rusted away on a proccess that was well underway when she got it but it was a better car than the JB Camira she had for her first car, a little bog and some paint the and the Magna served a couple of pink slips and years reliably, the automatics were rubbish and tainted the entire brand the Sigma FWD it was harvested from never had the 2.6 engine only 2.0.
The ’84-’85 aero-looking Galant (a favourable US review was republished on CC at one point) was re-engineered by locals here as the Magna to compete in the biggest (Falcon/Commodore) market. It was done literally by widening the whole car a couple of inches down the middle. They also reworked the 2.6 into a much peppier engine than it had been, and lots of suspension work. Pete’s assessment is spot-on: the result felt like a high-class Euro, 90 mph silent cruising in French-style comfort, and being FWD, more useable room than the Falc. A uniquely Aussie success.
Like Pete, I too had an early manual and absolutely loved it.
But at just 4 years old, and 90,000 k’s it had rust, and was using lots of oil, and I bailed. The engines were a lottery. Some lucky folk got huge miles, some got an 80k grenade. The majority were dead by 150k (the competition would do 300+). The autos were beyond awful, and worse, kept on being awful (if slightly less so) right through to the next model. It was a Deadly Sin, because it was the large seed from which Mitsu’s ultimate closure here grew.
The Falc and Commodore did indeed take years to become refined cars, but were always tough and effective. And carefully optioned (suspension & tyres), and with big torquey motors, they were more fun than FWD.
For the record William we will believe you were an almost always responsible driver ( Just like the rest of us😌)
I had some experience with the American Falcons/Fairmonts. The Aussie versions sounded like they were much more fun!
Spooky, darlings. My dad isn’t a car man, but he was kind of a Ford man, and I have accidentally been one too over the years.
I was reminiscing today about driving around Margaret River with my then fiancee in our EL Falcon. What triggered it was I bid on some cars in a Copart auction and was outbid on all except the low-ball bid I put on a… Crown Vic.
These Falcon sixes are awful with the only redeeming feature is torque.
Like in America during this decade both GMH and Ford Australia were seemly run by idiots.
Ford Oz spent nearly two decades building up the Falcon in motorsport and as a sporty large car with performance variants whose DNA supposedly filtered down into the rest of the range, in the mid sixties it was advertised as ‘Mustang Bred’.
By the late seventies early eighties it was over with this philosophy.
Ford Oz was more interested in any sport other than motorsport like sponsoring the Australian Tennis Open.
The only reason the XD was homologated for racing was because a hobby racer brought a local eighteen month old Melbourne taxi in 1979 to install his XB coupe running gear in.
So I’m guessing it wasn’t a surprise that for the XF FomoOz ditched the Cleveland and built the last V8 Falcons in 1983 as XE’s.
Incredulously Ford Oz kept building Clevelands for the next four years for locally assembled RHD Bronco’s and for De Tomaso for installation in Panera’s.
Meanwhile Ford US introduced the 5.0 HO with electronic sequential fuel injection using a two piece manifold in 1986.
I also find it extremely incredulous and upsetting that the ass clowns at Ford Australia didn’t introduce or consider using this tech on the locally built Cleveland especially unlike the RHD drive leading bank Holden V8 which required a clean sheet design all Ford Oz had to do is cast a Cleveland specific lower manifold.
Given that Australia lagged behind the US in emissions, adoption of unleaded and has no retarded CAFE rules it was entirely possible to walk into a Ford dealership in 1986 and purchase a 300-350hp fuel injected Toploader/9 inch equiped Falcon 5.8. (I’m guessing that the T5 would be too weak.)
Thanks to the V8 til 98 campaign and GMH introduction of the regular production 304 efi V8 in the VN Commodore in 1990, Ford Oz sheepishly reintroduced the V8 option in 1992. (US built 302w?)
A fuel injected Cleveland would have been one of the greats, especially if 3v style heads were developed.
A 4V 351c is the only motor I know of that use of a plate between the block and header to restrict flow is a performance upgrade.
Ford Oz did turn a dog into a god eventually with the Barra 6, who says you can’t polish a turd.
As for XD-XF Falcons I’m well aware of the rusty cowl problem as I owned a 83 Bosch injected Fairmont Ghia 4.1 project car with the gorgeous Honda cast head, alloy rocker cover and inlet manifold.
The internal cowl pressing seems to be the original LHD 1960 US Falcon, to drain water I jacked the front passenger side up, if I was storing one outside uncovered I would recommend driving after any rain, making sure to turn left at speed to drain the cowl.
Also restoring one I’d use surfboard/boat/spray foam to build up the inner cowl and fibreglass over it, at least a litre of water seems to sit there.
I’d love to build a Ministry of Transport Tauranga ‘Pursuit Intercepter’ XD complete with correct paint job with sirens and flashing light.
Traffic duties and Police were seperate government departments in New Zealand until being amalgamated in the late 1980’s.
In 1980 most traffic cops had CB750s/Ford Cortina MK4 2.0, the actual police HZ Belmonts with wheezy 3.3 red sizes.
I can only imagine the shock when a proto yuppie in his 911,Rx7 or his 77 bandit Trans Am, cruising at the ton on the Hauraki Plains, passes what he assumes is a MOT Cortina parked up on the roadside then 30 seconds later 5.8 litres has powered the MOT car almost nose to tail, the driver having just shifted the top loader to fourth.
A mate in Napier had a factory black XE on his lawn rust had taken over so no longer his daily, on close inspection it had once had white front doors, it had the injected six ex MOT apparently, gone now hes out of Fords.
Mmmm, loads of experience with XF Falcs over the past 27 years, and I still like them.
In 1986 my grandparents traded their ’84 XE Ghia EFi on a new XF Fairmont (the XE’s fuel injection proved highly troublesome so the decided to go back to a carb-engine for a while). Once I turned 15 in 1988 I was allowed to drive it in the paddocks around the house. Well I was until I discovered the speedo worked in reverse and started reverse-slaloms through the thistles, which my grandmother observed and which ended my driving days of their cars for a few years…! The back seat was comfy though, and the a/c was fantastic!
In 1991 when I was 17 (1991) a friend’s parents has an ’87 XF Ghia which I (as a full licence holder) drove on numerous occasions. The driver’s seats was bit flat and too close to the floor, but I loved the wall-to-wall velour interior and dashboard design – it had a 3-DIN stereo! The interior was a great design at the time, and still looks good today I think, and the polished ‘Snowflake’ alloy wheels are still beautiful, but the best feature by far was the incredibly low window line – so different to the mobile bunker school of design that’s become so prevalent this decade.
Through the mid-late 90s, my employer drove an ’85 XF Ghia, it had the rusty cowl problem, which cost an absolute fortune to solve.
Other than the poorly-designed cowl, I think the XF has held up well. There’s still the odd one around – including a mint white one locally. Yes the XF did have a whiff of cut-and-shut about it, but I liked the results. A very late EFi Ghia would be on my list of top-10 cars to one day own. Thanks for the memories WIlliam!
I can experience the real thing when ever I like at the moment, I have just bought a new small reasonably priced car, but I still have my BA ute.
I have discovered the difference between high buzzy engine revolutions, and good old Aussie Grunt.
The quality feel of things like the new cars power windows compared to umm… what the Falcon has.
I love the way the big Falc feels on the highway, it fits me like a favourite pair of jeans.
Not sure how long I will keep the old girl, I don’t really need it, but utes are handy, and once a week or so I need my fix of driving a proper car.
Keep it. It’d be worth approximately nothing anyway. The BA is a properly good car, even as a leaf-sprung ute.
And you’ll become popular. My favourite bumper sticker, on a Falc ute as it happens, driven by a woman: “Yes, this is my ute. No, you can’t borrow it.”