The first Australian Falcon and what does it mean?

In trying to decide which was the first Australian Falcon we need to define 'first' and also 'Australian'. Some would contend the XK deserves the title because it was manufactured locally and within a few months boasted a more rugged front end than its US and Canadian counterparts. But apart from this upgrade, the entire design of the car was American.

The XM represented a styling departure from Detroit because managing director Wallace Booth believed that Australian customers would be more impressed with a mechanical upgrade than the new outer skin used on the American Falcon. But it was still hardly all-Australian.

In a way, the further down the line of history you go, the more Australian the Falcon becomes. But it is the XA of 1972 that many consider to be the first genuinely Aussie Falcon. That's because by the time it was launched in February 1972, there was no US model on which to base it.

Nevertheless, to describe the XA in these terms is to risk placing insufficient weight on the local engineering work that went into every previous model.

Consider, for example, the XP which drove those hardest of racing miles in the You Yangs. One doubts that any American-manufactured Falcon could have copped such punishment in the hands of racing drivers, day-in day-out, on a track designed to test handling rather than permit high speeds.

Some of the drivers recruited for the job -- and Ford PR people were eagerly seeking out anyone willing in possession of a competition licence -- could hardly believe their eyes when they saw the tortuous circuit on which they had to average over 110km/h for 70,000 miles in cars which could barely top 150.

The XA story makes compelling reading and it is, essentially, an Australian story. Here was absolutely the first Australian Falcon that could not claim close kinship with an American model.

Sometime early in 1968 the decision had been taken to discontinue production of the US Falcon. In May of that year, Ford Australia's Jack Telnack, Brian Rossi and Allan Jackson flew to the States to begin work on what would turn out to be the XA. There they collaborated with senior Dearborn stylists because the Australian operation at that time was considered too small to have complete autonomy in so important a venture.

Ford Australia's Product Engineering centre had yet to make the big move north from Geelong to Campbellfield and, while the studios were fine for the development of a new grille or chrome mouldings, they were not up to the job of conceiving a whole new design. Plus there were insufficient expert clay modellers in Australia to handle the job.

Nobody at Geelong, Broadmeadows or Campbellfield felt slighted by the Americans' involvement. Instead this was seen as a great opportunity for Ford Australia to demonstrate its credentials to the parent company.

Very early on in this project the Americans suggested that an abbreviated version of the new Fairlane/Torino -- a car of which they were proud -- would do the job. By using the centre section of this vehicle in conjunction with a shorter wheelbase and shorter front and rear overhangs, an attractive new Falcon would emerge, they believed.

But the Australians had immediate doubts. They thought the good looks of the Fairlane/Torino derived from its length and flowing overhangs (shown to maximum advantage in Clint Eastwood's Grand Torino).

A clay model was built and everyone then agreed that the drastically shortened Fairlane/Torino looked crook. So out came the proverbial clean sheet of paper. The three Australian engineers worked 90 hours a week through the hot American summer to complete the job in October 1968.

Bill Bourke, who had masterminded the XP Durability Run was, by then, managing director. He reported directly to Ford President Semon (Bunkie) Knudsen. The latter was so impressed with the XA design that he told Bourke to build a design centre in Australia.

That is where the XD was created, a car which won immense admiration throughout the Ford design world. Great, but not the first...

The phrase grandfather's axe might have been invented to describe the Falcon's straight six. Even the advanced twin-cam unit used in the FG range has aspects in common with the XK engine, but in fact the whole axe is effectively new. 

At some point in the 1980s, perhaps around the time Holden dropped the Kingswood/Premier, the Falcon became the most Australian car. But the company never made much fuss about this credential.

Punters tended to think of Holden as Australian and Ford as American. Ironically, by the time you have the VB Commodore and the XD Falcon, it is clearly the Ford which is more Australian. As for the comparison between the VN with its American V6 engine and transmission and the EA with its reworked SOHC six and Australian Borg-Warner automatic, the contrast is obvious.

In the final judgement and at the risk of understating the Australian engineering input into earlier models, dating back even to the months before the XK went on sale in September 1960, the XA deserves the accolade of first Australian Falcon.

Perhaps, however, it is better to think of it as the first Australian-designed Falcon and, indeed, the first of a long line of such cars, through to todays FG which have stood out in the international world of Ford.