One of the best cars I’ve ever driven from a drivers perspective was the Focus ST. I went round devils elbow down Mt Dandenong doing 105.
Glory days were the late 60’s and early 70’s of Bathurst. My father was in the police transport branch and he got to run in the new police vehicles. The Bathurst muscle cars used to satisfy the production car aspect by selling most of them to the police (so I was told).
My father decided to see what Falcon XY GTHO Phase III could do, and got it going on a straight road at 140mph (225 kph) until he hit a rise and was airborne for around 100m, crapped himself of course, holding the steering wheel dead straight with a white knuckle grip, and managed to land it in one piece, stuck to 80 mph after that which felt like he could step out and walk by comparison.
Winner of the 1971 Bathurst 500, driven by Allan Moffat, the Phase III has been described as “…simply one of the best cars in the world, a true GT that could take on Ferraris and Astons on their own terms…” by Sports Car World.
australiastoughestcars.com.au/news/for-sale-1971-ford-xy-falcon-gtho-ph3-390000-musclecarsales-com-au/
I’ve owned two cars ever, both Falcons. An old XF with a crap home-made lpg conversion was a junkheap - but a reliable one - and I drove it for seven years. I’ve been driving an AU for the last 11 years, with very few problems. I’ll probably upgrade in a year or two to an FG once they start to have their price drop in the second hand market. I’m not really a car person, but they’ve just been so versatile and trouble-free.
The plants closing are only bad news for the country in general though. Deindustrialisation has led inevitably to greater inequality, crime, and social dislocation wherever it has happened.
what a farking Rsole. If he and that fat turrd he had as Treasurer hadn't been so incompetent and grossly mismanaged the matter, we may still have had a car industry in this country.Really?
I don’t know the ins and outs of the death of local manufacturing. But I can’t imagine a brand as boring as Ford making cars no one wants helped their situation.
This.
How much more money do you want the government to throw away to build cars nobody wanted to buy any more? Sales had fallen to a point that the plant wasn’t efficient any more.
HM makes a good point about deindustrialisation and loss of jobs in manufacturing. But that’s because both management and unions being too stupid to try and push up the value curve and continuing to try and compete in low value add, high volume markets.
I've owned a couple of Fords over the years. An XF Falcon panel van. It was a piece of sh*t. Died from a cracked head, ending up at the wreckers. Not learning from that I purchased a XE Falcon station wagon. Also a piece of sh*t. Another cracked head. Ended up at the wreckers. Vowed to never own another Ford again.
The alloy heads in the x-series were notorious for cracking. Not surprising when the block is steel and the heads alloy. It was bizarre that they never really got on top of it. Then again, holden put the nissan engine in the VL with the radiator cap lower than the engine head and promptly started cracking heads for the unwary. Then they ditched it for an unimaginably unrefined v6 in the ugly VN series.
Both manufacturers made some appalling decisions but got away with it for two decades because Australians wanted big 5 seat, rear-wheel-drive family cars no matter what. Then they didnt. The falcon has been dead in the water since the early 2000’s. The territory platform was the only sales winner they had (and more recently the Ranger ute has kept dealerships afloat).
The Commodore has always been the better car imo. Im certainly a “Holden man” though, so maybe im just biased.
Its not a good outcome for the nation to see the end of Ford manufacturing. Nor Holden in two years. We make less and less things and i wonder -and worry - what those who like that career field will do in the decades to come. Do we tell all our kids to be accountants and barrista’s? Thats the economy though.
One of the best cars I've ever driven from a drivers perspective was the Focus ST. I went round devils elbow down Mt Dandenong doing 105.
The Focus I had just had woeful fuel economy - about 12 l/100 km. The CX5 I have now gets about 8.5…admittedly with a fair mix of country driving in there.
Back in the day I had an xm coupe…xk sedan…xp station wagon, all refered to as “the chook tins”.
Good times in those cars. Those were the days we could work on them ourselves in the back yard.
Had a few off the newer models later in life as family cars. Buckets of ■■■■ all of them.
I miss my EH and HJ. Holdens win.
what a farking Rsole. If he and that fat turrd he had as Treasurer hadn't been so incompetent and grossly mismanaged the matter, we may still have had a car industry in this country.Really?
I don’t know the ins and outs of the death of local manufacturing. But I can’t imagine a brand as boring as Ford making cars no one wants helped their situation.
This.
How much more money do you want the government to throw away to build cars nobody wanted to buy any more? Sales had fallen to a point that the plant wasn’t efficient any more.
HM makes a good point about deindustrialisation and loss of jobs in manufacturing. But that’s because both management and unions being too stupid to try and push up the value curve and continuing to try and compete in low value add, high volume markets.
MEgz for parliament.
I can see you in a Saab.It was a convertible too.
Cut it out, Reboot.People will have no respect for me.
Don’t think it’s the car that will do that.
I can see you in a Saab.It was a convertible too.
Cut it out, Reboot.People will have no respect for me.
Don’t think it’s the car that will do that.
The puns?
The intolerance of fools?
The pedantry?
Had an old ford falcon, the thing ran great considering I rarely had it serviced and never maintained it. Junked it after it came off second best to a couple of roos I hit driving up to Cooktown.
My cousin is a Holden man and used to give me grief about driving a Ford but it was more reliable than his commodore.
Drove an ef falcoon for about 5 years. Was a good car. Comfy, powerful enough, cheap to look after, never let me down.
First car was 6 cylinder Ford Cortina.
Lost my license within 3 weeks.
Never owned another Ford ever again.
My Famly were always Holden, Dads first car in 1963 was a near new EJ, then many others, until he won a Falcon in a raffle.
Had it three werks, hated it so much that he took it to Kevin Dennis and traded for another Holden. So I always hated Fords.
I now have a Lexus and it is good.
Much has been said about death of our car industry. I reckon we should have never given all of them one dollar of taxpayer money, rather loaned it against all the local assets.
If it weren’t for P Keating we’d be paying $60k for a Corolla.
When I worked at the Broadmeadows factory in security in 2014, there did seem to be really morbid feel about it all, but, that has turned around just 2 years later.
I hope the intervening years have allowed those workers going to get themselves set up for the future (e.g. as mechanics, forklift drivers).
That said I never owned a Ford.
I can see you in a Saab.It was a convertible too.
Cut it out, Reboot.People will have no respect for me.
Don’t think it’s the car that will do that.
The puns?
The intolerance of fools?
The pedantry?
I want to say c) but I don’t know what that means.
I can see you in a Saab.It was a convertible too.
Cut it out, Reboot.People will have no respect for me.
Don’t think it’s the car that will do that.
The puns?
The intolerance of fools?
The pedantry?I want to say c) but I don’t know what that means.
Is it a pantry for pedometers?
The EB’s going fine. It’d wanna be: it cost me all of $500.
Noonan in a Mazda ? How’d he fit behind the steering wheel ?