Monday, March 05, 2007

Weight-saving quiet achievers


WHEN the new Fairlane rolled off the assembly lines at Ford Australia in 1967 it created two major milestones in Australian motoring history.
That Fairlane was the first long wheelbase Australian-designed and built luxury car, and it was the first one to use aluminium for the grille and side mouldings.
Prior to the Fairlane, cars used heavy steel pressings which were then chromed.
In 1979, Ford again revolutionised the local car industry by putting plastic bumper bars on its new XD Falcon. It was also the first mass-produced car in the world to have a plastic fuel tank which was virtually indestructible.

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