Jalopnik
eric bana
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australian international motor show
Special Ford Falcon GT Celebrates FPV's 5th Anniversary
The special-anniversary-edition Aussie muscle keeps rolling out at the Australian International Motor Show. First it was the HSV 20th Anniversary GTS and now we have this, a special FPV Ford Falcon GT that commemorates the five years of Ford Performance Vehicles. The 5.4-liter V8 still delivers the same ground-pounding 422 HP through a Tremec 6-speed manual or ZF 6-speed automatic as used in standard FPV GTs. However, you can now reign it in with special Brembo six-piston front / four-piston rear calipers surrounded by new 19" rims. FPV is only making 200 5th Anniversary editions, in your choice of black with silver accents, or silver with black accents. We just wish Ford's American lineup would develop an Aussie accent in addition to its new European twang. Press release after the jump. More » -
top gear
Top Gear Australia's Ratings Slump Despite Holden Vs. Ford Shootout
If we lived down under, we would have tuned in to SBS on Monday at 7:30 to watch the Top Gear Australia shootout between the iconic Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon...but we don't. Watch the clip and judge for yourself, but we think that even though it may not be quite as polished as the UK original, this segment wasn't all that bad. So why did the ratings for this second episode drop off significantly from the series premiere's, even though they were actually expected to go up? More » -
down on the street
1963 Ford Falcon
Since we started off the week with a Falcon cartruck, we might as well take a look at an early Falcon with no truck bed. This '63 usually parks on the same block as the '69 VW Beetle, not far from where a Navy A7 crashed in the early 70s and became a grim Alameda legend. We've seen a couple of Falcons in this series, including a '62 and another '63 (if you consider the Mercury Comet to be a Falcon, then we've also seen this '64 and this '65).
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el camino
PUTC Sets Up Aussie Sh-Ute-Out Between Holden VE And Ford Falcon FG, We Demand Dibs On Round Two!
Color us here at Jalopnik red with jealousy. Our friends at PickupTrucks.com sent their Aussie stringer James Stanford out back to let him get in touch with his inner hoon. What better way to do it than by running a brand spankin' new 2008 Holden VE Ute head-to-head with a 2008 Ford Falcon FG Ute? Stanford found out all the really important technical details on the two new car-based pickups — like both can hold a slab of 24 stubbies (beer bottles) behind each seat. Yes, the important technical details were covered, but how do each Ute do at going frontways? Sideways? Backways? You'll have to head over to PUTC for the specifics, but according to Stanford, the Ford out-drags the Holden, but the Holden took down the Falcon by a few tenths of a second in the almost-quarter-mile. We think we'd probably call that a tie. Sounds to us like they should send team Jalopnik over for the round two, eh?
[PickupTrucks.com]
4:00 PM on Tue May 20 2008
By Ray Wert
2,547 views, 44 commentsLatest by KnightEagle: U all have all the fun. Been looking to replace my gas quzzling F-150 can pass everything but a petro more »
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new cars
Full Details On Ford Australia's Multi-Flavored FPV Falcon Lineup
When Ford of Australia first announced their lineup of F6 FPV lineup we didn't pay too much attention to the various minor differences in the F6 Falcon lineup. Little did we know how far the Ford Performance Vehicle group was going to go in order to meet the needs of anyone with the cash to throw around $60,000+ USD on V8-powered goodness. Each vehicle in this range comes with the new 5.4-Liter Boss V8 good for 422 horsepower and 407 lb-ft of torque mated to a ZF six-speed auto transmission or TR6060 six-speed manual gearbox. The GT is your basic high-performance sedan while the GT P takes it a couple of steps further. The GT E is at the upper extreme, offering similar performance without all the boy racer styling and colors for the hoon with a briefcase. Press release below the jump.
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offbeat news
Aussie Anti-Hoon Laws Taking Natural Course, Government Wallowing In Cash
Eventually, auto enthusiasts of the Australian persuasion will rise up with pitchforks and torches and rebel against their fun-hating government. On Sunday, police in New South Wales descended upon a gathering of motorheads and proceeded to search 72 vehicles, issue 39 tickets and impound 18 vehicle — one of which was a rare $200,000 Ford Falcon GT. This wouldn't be such a huge deal except for that part about the impounding being permanent, and the vehicles being sent to auction, and the proceeds going to government coffers. Adding insult to injury for that Falcon driver, what was the offense? A second burnout ticket. More » -
down on the street
1965 Mercury Comet 202
Hey, if you shoot enough photos of old cars on the streets of Alameda, sooner or later you'll get a shot that looks something like a Robert Bechtle painting! The photo above made me almost happy enough to forget my frustration that there's a super-original, 4-speed-equipped '68 AMX parked a couple doors down from this Comet... in a driveway, and thus off-limits to DOTS. The pain!
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industry news
Conflicting Reports On Future Design Home Of Ford RWD Platform
The webs, they are a churning. On Monday The Detroit News published an article stating that Ford would be taking advantage of the weak dollar and moving development work of its next generation rear wheel drive platform from Australia to the United States. That's all well and good but then Carpoint of Australia went and asked Ford of Australias Manager of PR Sinead McAlary about it. Her response of "It's too early to speculate on that" has set off a flurry of speculation that there's a turf war raging within Ford over the home of the platform. So for the record the current story line is this: DetNews publishes story claiming RWD platform moving to USA, Carpoint gets Ford AU on record with a "not so fast" response, and Ford USA is not on the record for anything. We called Ford directly to see if we could get some clarity on the story, and the result was a resounding maybe. More » -
industry news
Mustang Aussie: Ford To Focus On The Falcon, Not So Much Mercury
We hear this AM that Ford's taking a page directly from GM's Aussie-loving playbook. Bryce Hoffman of the Detroit News, who's never met a job he couldn't hand-le when it comes to Ford, is reporting they're looking at bringing the rear-wheel-drive Falcon platform up from down under to provide the basis for the next Ford Mustang. In addition to the muscular two-door, it'll also be used for new sedans from the Ford and Lincoln brands — replacements for the Crown Vic and Lincoln Town Car — both scheduled to meet their demise come 2011. The only problem is, Auto Week reported this same thing like umm, in January. So we've got a more important question that Bryce has seemingly left unasked.
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