The "Last" V8s

25th November, 1982 marked the date of the last production V8 powered Falcon. At least, that is what the Ford publicity machine at the time said. It would seem a strange thing to ‘advertise’, that your car company was abandoning producing V8 powered cars after fifty years and three months, and yet there were the management and workers pictured ‘celebrating’ the last of the V8’s as a Silver over Charcoal 4.9 litre , manual transmission equipped Fairmont Ghia ESP rolled off the line.

Except, of course, as we know now it wasn’t the last Falcon V8, as the V8 re-appeared in the EB Falcon less than ten years later.

Plus, there is even some doubt that the featured ‘last Falcon V8’, the above mentioned ESP, was actually the “last” one at all.

However, what can be said was that in November, 1982, after an eleven year production run, and some 250,000 examples, we saw the last fitting of an Australian cast and assembled Cleveland style V8 in a Falcon.

Ford’s rationale in cancelling the V8 was impeccable. As the 1980’s arrived, the world was suffering its second oil crisis, and many countries were still in recession. Large cars, like the Falcon was, with large engines, like the Cleveland V8’s were, seemed like anti social dinosaurs. The competition had downsized with the European derived Commodore, a nimble, classy looking car alongside the broad shouldered, blocky Falcon and its siblings.

Giving the XD Falcon - which Ford themselves had given a Euro style as opposed to the US style of the XA-XC’s - an aerodynamic makeover; a sophisticated, engineering upgrade to its suspension and dynamics; and, most importantly, a modernised and fuel injected version of its solid straight six, seemed the logical step.

Ford had the first two improvements in place for the introduction of the XE Falcon in March, 1982, but the third, the efficient and more powerful six, was still some months away. No worries. Just drop in the big old bent eight. Okay, we’re shutting down the line for other things, but we will have plenty of the old donks left to tide us through.

And then, magically, and unexpectedly, the economy got better, the oil crisis passed, and Australians started liking their big old Falcons again, and maybe, just maybe, Ford could be Number One in sales. And, em, whoops, we seem to have run out of V8’s.