Metric

Most XA GT’s had 7,000rpm tachometers.

Metric

And, in a carry over from the XW and XY’s, some XA GT’s had 8,000rpm tachometers.

Metric

All well and good, except, there were some other subtle differences. XA GTs featured a 140mph speedometer.

302 Cleveland

This shows how to identify the heads when they are off the car. From the factory, Ford differentiated the two engines by painting the 302C’s rocker covers red as seen on these XA’s.

Thorn Red 2

Perhaps the most famous, and continuing the success carried over from racing the XW and XY, was Allan Moffat who drove some quite awesome looking hardtops at Bathurst.

This is the car Allan Moffat drove in the 1975 Bathurst race.



And this is the XB hardtop that is privately owned.



The car is a 1975 XB Falcon 500 hardtop, fitted with a 302ci Cleveland V8, three speed automatic trans, and factory ordered GT/GS options - dash, steering wheel, bonnet, grille and rear wing.

Thorn Red

As the inventors of the Australian muscle car with the GT Falcon, Ford were very keen to use the GT as its weapon of choice in the hard fought battles of the Australian Touring Car Championship and Series Production racing. Visible success in these motorsports boosted sales and marketability of GTs and Fords in general. While it can be argued that the Phase cars, in all their forms, were perhaps the most successful at this, the later racing hardtops of the seventies were perhaps equally as visible.

The stillborn XA Phase4 was developed as a four door homologation racing car, and it was to be followed by the Phase5 which was to be based on the hardtop chassis. There were several good reasons for progressing to the hardtop, most notably that its was over an inch lower in windscreen height than the four door, and the rear wings were bulged - adding three inch extra width to a hardtops - to accomodate much wider racing rubber.


The hardtops then fought Ford’s racing battles through the decade of the seventies, from 1973 to 1979. The teams racing them received factory support for 1973 only and then they were basically on their own, and facing fierce competition from the V8 powered Holden Toranas, which were smaller, lighter and more nimble. It is great credit to the teams that the hardtops triumphed in 1973, 1974 and 1977 at Bathurst, and brought us the driving excitement of Allan Moffat, John Goss, Kevin Bartlett, Murray Carter and Dick Johnson.

The "Last" V8s Part 2

Figures show that Ford registered 66,849 Falcon/Fairmonts in 1982. Figures also show that of these, 3340 were V8 powered. That is almost exactly 5%. This is a far cry from the early years of the Cleveland V8, for example, 1972 when of 77,093 XA Falcons, 23,150 were powered by the ‘new’ Cleveland V8. This is almost exactly 30%.

The six/V8 percentage figures seem to have dropped off dramatically in 1977, perhaps as a result of the improved cross flow headed six, and then plunged even more in 1980, when yet again, improvements were made to the six, this time the fitting of the alloy cylinder head. The V8’s problem may not so much have been a falling out of love with the V8 as a falling in love with the improving six.

While some of the above figures cannot be completely relied upon, and it should be remembered that 1982 Falcon/Fairmont registration figures include the last months of XD production, the figure for XE’s fitted with V8’s is known:- 2389.

You would expect that there may be some logic to how Ford fitted their V8’s to the last Falcon’s. But then again, if you have been working your way through this site, you will find that there was little logic to much of what Ford did with regard to their cars.

To understand the V8 XE’s you have to first understand that Ford built cars for the general public, and they built cars for their greatest fans, the police. By the time the XE came along, Australian police forces were very comfortable with their big, V8 powered interceptors/chasers. Hence a proportion of the V8 powered cars went to them.

Ford were also keen to use V8’s in the XE station wagon as they appreciated that many of their wagon customers needed the extra torque inherent to the V8.

And Ford also knew that they had customers who wanted big, fast, sporty optioned V8 powered cars. And for them, they refined and sold their ESP’s.

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.

XA GT

The XA GT was the first Australian designed Ford, and the GT version was a more refined car than its predecessors (which had been designed more as road going race cars than true Grand Tourers).

Ford hoped to change this with the XA, but in so doing lost some of the raw appeal that had endeared the XR-XY to the public.

The XA's, while fitted with the same 351ci Cleveland V8, appeared not to be as quick. Ford, however, had a plan and waiting in the wings was the four door XA Phase 4.

Sadly, a wave of media hysteria over Super Cars and government interference led to the cancelation of the new HO. Whatever the perception was of the road going XA GT's performance, in racing hardtop guise, it remains the only Falcon to win twice at Bathurst.

1868 XA GT four doors were produced, and 891 hardtops.

Marketed under the 'Born on the Wind' slogan, the XA was a great success for Ford Australia and a confident statement of its independence.

XA GT Identification

Decoding the Body Prefix Number:
All Falcon GT’s have the same engine number and Body Prefix number
Prior to 1971 Ford used a dual numbering system
They had a V.I.N. (Vehicle Identification Number) which was different to the body prefix number/engine number
The V.I.N. number as stamped on the front edge of the passenger side spring tower, and body prefix and serial number as stamped on the passenger side front of the radiator support panel
The body prefix number also corresponds to the number stamped on the I.D plate
From Jan. 1971 onwards, Ford went to the 3 way system
Body prefix and serial number as appeared on the I.D. Tag was the same on the engine and spring tower
Body prefix numbers of Australian produced cars:
JG33AB12345
J – identifies the country of production (Australia)
G – identifies the assembly plant (Broadmeadows)
33 – identifies the model of car (Falcon GT Sedan)
A – identifies the year of production (See chart below for year and month codes)
B – identifies the month of production (See chart below for year and month codes)
12345 – is a unique number identifying each vehicle
Date Codes:

Year Codes Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1972 M B R A G C K D E L U S T
1973 N J U M P B R A G C Y D E

Paint Codes:
J = Calypso Green
8 = Cosmic Blue
I = Jewel Green
G or T = Lime Glaze
U = Ultra White
7 = Walnut Glow
Z = Wild Violet
S = Yellow Glow
Q = Yellow Fire
A = Yellow Sand
X = Red Pepper
E or K = Wild Plum
Y = Kelly Green
A or O = Summer Gold
B = Onyx Black
C = Skyview Blue
3 = Polar White
P = Primer
Y117 = Rothmans Blue
SPEC = Whatever You Like
Engine Codes:
T = 351 4V
H 351 4V GTHO only
Transmission Codes:
L = Four speed manual
B = Floor shift automatic
Trim Codes:

B = Black
W = White
A = Blue
G = Green
R = Red
Y = Burgundy
U = Dark Grey
C = Chamois
P = Parchment
S = Saddle
2 = Cloth Inserts. This code followed the trim colour code eg B2 was black with cloth inserts
Model Code:
18238

Production Numbers:
4 Doors Built December 1971 - September 1973 = 1868 units
1971 = 1
1972 = 1222
1973 = 64

Bonnets

Bonnets

Bonnets

The pressings in the bonnet leading up to the scoops themselves are curved on the Mustang as above.

Whereas they are straight on the Falcon.



But, are the actual scoop inserts identical ? Anyone know ?

Bonnets

Anything else ? Well, yes.



The Mustangs bonnet release latches are far closer to the front of the bonnet than the Falcon’s, reflecting the difference in location of the radiator support.

Bonnets

Back to the Mustang-Falcon comparison. Here are the bonnets.



Falcon



Mustang

The deep fore and aft ribs that separate the hoodscoops are further apart in the Mustang than in the Falcon and there is a more prominent crease line down the centre of the bonnet on the Australian car. The leading edge is more pointed so to accomodate the greater overhang of the Falcon’s bonnet in relationship to its grille.

Bonnets

What is even more interesting is if you consider this November, 1968 styling clay for the proposed new Ford Maverick.



The side profile, bonnet and tail panel and tail-lamp opening look awfully like what became the XA.

Bonnets

Styling Influences

One of the more interesting issues involved with the Australian Fords, especially the XA and the XB models, has been to spot the styling influences, especially in comparison to their U.S. cousins, and therefore try and deny their designers any credit for originality.

Lets examine some of the cues.

The car that the XA is most commonly referenced too is the 1968/69 U.S. Ford Fairlane as seen below.



And compare it with the XA Falcon.



The Falcon is a wider, lower car. It can be seen that the hump in the bonnet was probably derived from the similar, but wider, hump in the bonnet of the U.S. Fairlane and the sidelight/indicators in the leading edges of the front wings were a Ford worldwide styling cue - as also seen in the European MkIII Cortina and Taunus. But the larger 7inch headlights were undoubtably more effective than the smaller 5inch U.S. ones, and the addition of the driving lamps helped too.

As to which is better, well ... no contest.

Bowdens photos

Bowdens photos

Corporate Colours

Y045, Corporate Blue

What better ‘corporate’ colour to offer customers than your own ? Yes, Ford built one XA GT four door, one XA GT hardtop and one XA GT RPO83 hardtop, and painted them Ford Corporate Blue.

There is one other ‘odd’ colour which may or may not be a ‘corporate’ colour: Y266, Bechel Yellow. If anyone knows what Bechel Yellow is, or whether Bechel actually was an organisation, we would be keen to know. One XA GT hardtop built in January, 1973 in this colour.