Ford Falcon: From Catastrophe to icon

Where to start now that Ford's Falcon has come to the end of the road? The beginning is logical isn’t it?

That was October 1960, when the first US-designed, locally-built Falcons started rolling from a newly-built factory at Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

This was the XK Falcon and it wasn’t much good. There had not been enough toughening of the American-designed car to cope with Aussie conditions; the hammering delivered by our rough roads caused its front-end to collapse.

Sales slumped with it and Ford’s image was tarnished.

“It was a heap of shit, frankly,” says now-retired Ford Australia engineer Allan Wembridge.

“Here we took their little shopping car their wives used to use. We were told not to complain and we started to build it and sell it as our front-line car.

“And it just didn’t fit.”

Wembridge was one of Ford Australia’s small group of engineers and product planners who had warned Ford’s executives that the XK was not up to the job. In those days what little testing there was usually involved country blasts on weekends, camping by the side of the road and then heading back to start work on Monday.

To their credit Ford and Ford Australia realised more had to be done if Falcon was to become a serious challenger to then-dominant Holden in the local six-cylinder sedan market.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds for a local proving ground at the You Yangs near Geelong was personally approved - so it is said – by Henry Ford II. Another one million pounds – a huge sum in those days – was allocated to the task of fixing the Falcon in time for the 1964 model-year XM Falcon.

But the You Yangs wouldn’t be ready for use until 1965, so where to go in the second half of 1963 to test on rugged roads…? A location away from prying eyes yet close enough to civilisation where an engineering team could be based and perform major development works was required.

Cape Catastrophe in South Australia was the answer. Named by the British navigator, Matthew Flinders, after eight of his crewmen were drowned in waters nearby in February 1802, the cape is at the southern tip of the remote Eyre Peninsula, near Port Lincoln, famous then and now as Australia’s tuna fishing capital.

It was a place that provided the privacy and rugged roads fit for Ford’s requirements. And here the engineers put in the work to truly make the Falcon Australian. This was Ford’s first local proving ground and the place where the Falcon began to establish its own local identity.

DEVELOPING A PRECEDENT
Those weeks of hard slog established a precedent that flowed on through another six Falcon generations, led to the development and manufacture of the Territory (the only true SUV ever built in Australia) and laid the seeds for the ongoing research and development work that Ford will continue here after the plants clang shut today and Falcon production ceases after 56 years (and Territory after 12 years).

The Ford Asia-Pacific Product Development Centre, which comprises sites at Broadmeadows, You Yangs and in Ford’s original Australian home of Geelong, is now an integral part of the Blue Oval’s global research and development effort. It is the ‘homeroom’ for the acclaimed Ranger and Everest, works on many other global and market-specific models and employs more than 1100 staff.

Once Holden and Toyota cease manufacturing next year, Ford’s local R&D operation will be the biggest single automotive employer in the country and by far the most important.

So much of what has happened since traces back to the decision to Australian-ise Falcon and the work to develop the XM Falcon in the second half of 1963 at Cape Catastrophe.

“This was the first concerted ‘let’s go test the car in a semi-controlled condition’, if you like,” confirms former Ford Australia vice-president for product development Ian Vaughan, who joined the company months after the testing was completed in 1964.

“Prior to that we had been driving all over the place; Arkaroola, central Australia, back of Bourke and all that sort of thing.

“Back then the organisation was just a handful of guys with no test facilities or any of that sort of stuff -- so they had to operate out in the bush.”

Vaughan retired from Ford Australia in 2000. His last and what he rates as his greatest achievement was getting the green light for the Territory SUV.

“The last 50 years has been important in establishing where we are today,” Vaughan told motoring.com.au.

“The big sign out the front [at Broadmeadows] says ‘Asia-Pacific Product Development Centre’ and you don’t just build one of them overnight.

“You learn over 50 years about Australian conditions, rough conditions, designing a Falcon platform, designing engines and all that sort of stuff. You gather all that experience and intellectual property over the 50 years and in the process you make the Falcon really durable and world class, recognising it had to be better than the American car it started from.

“And then you have the Territory program, which was learning about all-wheel drive, torque transfer front to rear, fold-down seven seat layouts and all that sort of stuff. Those learnings allowed Ford Australia to get the Ranger program… which is a real feather in its cap,” Vaughan explained.

LAUNCHING AT THE CAPE
And yet that small period in time in 1963 might have been forgotten if not for Ford’s decision to not only develop the XM Falcon at Cape Catastrophe but also launch it to the media there.

This was a big deal, with 50 journalists flown in from around the country to be hosted by a coterie of Ford Australia executives led by managing director Wallace Wray Booth. The journos were wined and dined, and there was even a mayoral reception. But most importantly they drove the XM on the roads where it was developed.

As a result there is a rich trove of newspaper articles that reported on the XM launch, the Cape Catastrophe experience and the mood of the moment.

“The new Ford Falcon can add another label to its ‘Made in Australia’ tag … it’s now designed and tested here as well,” wrote Trevor Davis of The Age.

Declared the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s renowned motoring editor David McKay: “I drove Ford’s new XM Falcon today at Cape Catastrophe, south of Port Lincoln, on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. This is the area in which Ford engineers have proved their latest models and I can’t think of more destructive roads anywhere in Australia. Rocks, thick dust and heat are the main features of the desolate countryside and the new XM Falcon came through the test remarkably well”.

And this from Peter Livingstone of the Melbourne Sun: “Ford’s Falcon for ’64, developed after an almost unbelievably rugged test programme, stands head and shoulders above any of its predecessors.”

The photography is even more dramatic and poignant. Shot by renowned Melbourne photographer Gordon de Lisle, it shows Falcons slewing around dusty corners, splashing through mudholes, rattling down rocky roads and flying off humps.

In one striking image a Falcon drives along a rocky path on a cliff top with a small island in the background.

THE PLAN CAME TOGETHER
So from this our plan was developed; take the last Falcon and last Territory from Broadmeadows back to their roots, retracing Ford’s footprint in Australia along the way. At Cape Catastrophe reunite the last Falcon with its past and sample an XM that still lives in Port Lincoln on the roads where it was developed.

It was a trip where we wanted to remember the past, mourn the present, celebrate Aussie automotive design and engineering and take solace in the fact that, in Ford’s case at least, it is ongoing.

For both myself and colleague Marton Pettendy this is personal. My father was a Ford dealer in north-western Victoria who was caught up in the XK/XM debacle. Funnily enough he still loves Fords and wouldn’t drive anything else. My three daughters grew up in the back of an EF and then an AUIII Falcon wagon.

Marty grew up in Geelong and worked night shift at the Ford casting plant, making the money to get him through university.

“Like my father, like my uncle, like my mates and like a lot other school leavers I worked at Ford,” Marty says.

“We pressed ring gears, we made seats for Falcon, we welded fuel tanks for Capri. We were part of a family, part of a company and part of a manufacturing industry.”

We leave Broadmeadows in suitably gloomy rain. The low white assembly buildings are as they have been for decades, but the old HQ building that has dominated the site since 1964 is now being converted into the headquarters of the Asia-Pacific Product Development Centre. This is past and future melded together.

We cruise past the You Yangs proving ground, stopping briefly on the dirt road outside to watch Taurus and Escort development cars whistle round. Neither will ever be sold here, which emphasises how integral this place now is to Ford’s global product development plans.

Then to Geelong and the red brick plant that dates back to 1926. It’s quiet, a bit rundown and there’s little sign of activity. It’s a far cry from the halcyon days in 1990s when close to 90,000 Falcons were sold per annum and this facility was supplying the body pressings and inline six-cylinder engines for them.

Who could believe it would all tumble so quickly?

Our next stop is at the National Motor Museum in the Adelaide Hills village of Birdwood to pay tribute to Lew Bandt’s legendary Ford Coupe utility. It’s appropriately unrestored and a shrine for Marty, who is a lover of Falcon utes.

From Adelaide to Port Lincoln it’s a 650km trip on roads that allow us to stretch the legs of our XR6 Sprint and Territory Titanium, skirting the gulfs of Saint Vincent and Spencer, shaded by the very bottom of the Flinders ranges, wading through a spectacular sunset rainstorm, then turning south at Port Augusta onto the Eyre Peninsula.

These are the highways and byways these cars were truly designed for.

The Falcon is all muscle and explosive power from that Geelong-built 4.0-litre inline turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine, riding restlessly on its sports-tune suspension and 20-inch Pirelli P Zeros. As ever, it is a great-value rear-wheel drive sports sedan.

The Territory is just a class act. Soothing, comfortable yet still among the best SUVs to drive. And its cabin practicality is outstanding. There are lessons others can still learn here.

Port Lincoln is an impressive, thriving and clearly buoyant place.

Rodney Blacker lives here in retirement. In 1963 he was one of three partners in the local Ford dealership, Blacker Motors, along with his brother Geoffrey and his father H F Blacker. Photographs of the time show him posing proudly during the XM launch with his father and brother and Wallace W Booth.

Now Rodney is a fair bit older, a fair bit frailer and a bit hard of hearing, but he remembers when the future of Ford in Australia was shaped on rocky roads on the Eyre Peninsula. More than that, he remembers why they ended up there.

“We were putting in so many claims against the Ford Motor company [for the XK and XL Falcon] that they were questioning us very much that all these things couldn’t be going wrong with the product,” Blacker explains.

“No exaggeration, we reached a state of desperation. My brother wrote a letter, not to the local branch in Adelaide, but addressed to the manager of the Ford Motor Company in Adelaide, Wallace W Booth, who had been sent out here [from Ford USA] as a trouble-shooter.

“They knew they had bloody troubles and Booth got this letter and he was singular in what he was doing, which was to solve the problem.”

Blacker’s letter urged Booth to sort out the Falcon and to use the tough roads around Port Lincoln to do it.

“They [Ford] obviously didn’t realise what sort of road conditions Australia had and what was on the Eyre Peninsula was a good example of outback roads,” Rodney explained.

BLACKER BASE CAMP
The Ford test crew arrived in Port Lincoln in the winter of 1963 and set up in a Blacker Motors bulk store that is now the site of the local Mitsubishi dealership.

Using the Cape roads as their homeground, but ranging far and wide across the Eyre Peninsula, six drivers and mechanics drove 1000-mile (1600km) days on a 500-mile (800km) route for weeks, working in shifts to thrash two XM prototypes.

“There wasn’t much to see, they were going in a shower of dust and you got in the road if you went down there,” Rodney Blacker recalls.

“I did go for one ride and the test driver said ‘I promise I’ll get you off the road into the air’. We came down with a hell of a bloody thump ... it was no thrill.”

Our motoring.com.au convoy collects our Port Lincoln-based XM from its owner, Matt Kayser.

Funnily enough he’s a Holden man and he proudly shows off the paperwork proving his Dad was the first owner of a Sandman panel-van in Australia. But partner Natasha Becker is a Ford lover and they both wanted an older local car. Guess Natasha won out.

They are incredibly generous with their pride and joy, which turns out to be a Deluxe with a 170 cubic-inch (2.8-litre) inline six – at least that’s what it says on the compliance plate. What throws us a bit is the blue cylinder-head that came with the base 144ci engine. The 170 should be red.

Time to go and find those roads then.

Back in the early 1960s when Ford was testing at Cape Catastrophe it was part of a flora and fauna reserve, but in 1972 the whole area was included in the Lincoln National Park.

As a result there’s been a lot of development on the road system. Rutted tracks have become bitumen roads that wend their way through scrubby, rocky bushland -- occasionally rubbing shoulders with a spectacular shoreline. We see the same view that the Ford engineers saw back in 1963, but we are not feeling what they did under our wheels.

Local Ford expert Hagen Zerk is here to help us. He pulls out a map and points us in the right direction. But first his father Peter, who worked for Blacker Motors back in the days of the tests, presents us with a copy of his prized possession, a photo of an XM leaping off a hump.

The water pipes and telephone lines in the background help us figure out exactly where it happened. It was on what was called the Tulka-Wanna Road. It’s not far away and on cue our route almost immediately turns to dirt, initially smooth and then potholed and rocky.

Marty is driving the XM, making mental notes as he does for a drive impression piece. Following along in the FGX, it’s a poignant moment. First and last Aussie Falcons on the road where it all truly began for Ford’s local development and engineering.

Then Marty hands the car over to me. I am Initially worried about driving on these roads. But after a while it’s impossible not to relax. The old XM seems unfussed about it all, so I may as well be too.

There’s no doubt the testing here resulted in a huge number of important modifications to the XM. In fact, Ford claimed 1500 at the time.

They included numerous changes to the suspension which now featured stronger ball-joints, new front upper wishbones, coil-over shock units and relocated rear spring-hangers. Also new were bigger axle shafts and tougher engine mounts. As if to emphasis its separation from the US donor car, the interior and exterior styling also went their own way.

Peter Story was a young apprentice mechanic at Blacker Motors in 1963-4 and he remembers the testing and the production car that came from it.

We reunite him with the XM at Hagen Zerk’s garage, appropriately surrounded by Falcons of various ages and stages of restoration. Peter Zerk is there too, along with another former Blacker’s employee, Dean Andrews. They crowd around the XM, reminiscing about old times.

A lifelong Ford man, Story has no doubt the XM was a better car than what came before it and that it played a role in the development that came in Falcons after it -- starting with the XP, a car immortalised by the 70,000-mile (110,000km) durability run at the You Yangs in 1965.

“We thought it had to be a good car to withstand [the testing] punishment. It certainly cured a lot of problems although it still had the two-speed Fordomatic and we had a few problems with those,” Peter recalls.

“But then the XP came out and ironed out all the bugs. But this (the XM) was the catalyst.”

THE END OF THE ROAD
Our drive ends at a wind-blown cliff-top carpark and instantly we realise we are in the same spot where that Gordon de Lisle photo of the XM on the rocky track was taken 52 years ago.

There in the back ground is that small island, surrounded by a raging sea.

We have really made it. Back to the birthplace. Both the start and end of the road. It’s a poignant moment.

“We came to give the Falcon a proper send-off, the send-off it deserves and I didn’t think I’d be sentimental about it. I thought that was out of the way now,” reflects Marty.

“But after 25 years of road tests, reviews and comparos  – and that’s only half of that car’s history – the finality of it is here and now. It hurts.”

He’s right. It does hurt. A lot.

In 1964 Wallace W Booth told the assembled pressmen at Cape Catastrophe how proud he was of what the Falcon had evolved to become.

“The car is all-Australian and will serve the conditions of the Australian car buyer,” he said.

That car’s job is done and the industry’s job is now done too.

We have completed the circle, brought the story of the Australian Falcon to an end at the place it began. We’re sad to be here, but glad we made the effort.

In more ways than one it’s been an incredible journey.

Special thanks to one of the Port Lincoln automotive scene’s biggest characters, Neville Owen of Owen Motors, whose help and enthusiasm in the preparation of this feature was invaluable.

Related reading:
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Ford Falcon: From Catastrophe to icon
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Ford Falcon 1964 Review
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Falcon Friday: Fast facts
Falcon Friday: Ford R&D 1960s-style
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Falcon Friday: Ford’s five finest Falcons
Falcon Friday: Why we’ll miss the Ford factory
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