The "Golden Age" of Ford Australia?

[Crazy Dazz]

When do you think this was?

Some would argue it was when the XD Falcon stormed past the undersized Commode, and Ford itself took overall sales leadership in Australia.
Personally I think the axing of The Cleveland took the shine off that.

The reign of the Barra was pretty good also. Twin cam VCT sixes, OHC V8's across the range, FPV's, the ZF, Territorys, You could still get Fairlanes and Wagons, the Focus was the world's best medium car, and the lower end was held up well by the European Fiesta.

But for me (and perhaps this is aged based) it will always be the mid-70's.
The X-ABC Falcons were demonstrably superior to the Kingswood, a choice of upto 6 engines, Utes & PV's with proper doors, Hardtops in a variety of configurations including the Landau. Fairlanes that looked like more than a stretched Falcon and LTDs that looked completely different again.
Cortinas were made in Australia, including the somewhat lethal 6 cylinder variants, including wagons, as were Escorts, in 2 door, 4 door, and PV. F100's & Broncos assembled locally with Australian engines.
(NOT in any way suggesting that those cars were anywhere near as good as modern equivalents, but for their time it was good to be a Ford fan.)

[tranquilized]

Good question!

From a sales perspective it would have to be the 80's - XE and XF were selling like crazy, as were the Laser and Telstar. But from a product perspective there wasn't much to love about the 80's. Laser and Telstar were badge engineered Mazda's, the conspicuous lack of a V8 in the Falcon like you mentioned, and the VK/VL was just a better car than the XF I reckon, just too small for the time.

Having said all that, Ford were the top selling brand for a lot of the 80's so it's gotta be considered their "Golden Age"

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Like mentioned earlier, it might be a generational thing, but XA/XB era were the Golden Age IMO.

Love XB's, best Falcon ever IMO, I don't care if they are worth a mint or worth scrap, I will always own some XB Falcons till the day I die.

I have owned my Coupe since 1986, and will never sell it, will never sell my XB ute, or Fairmont either, so there is three I will die with.

[joolz]

I would say just before Mr Button reduced the import tariffs. So yes the 80's. Yet the 90's were also pretty good. But from there it was down hill for most of Australian Automotive manufacturing.

[Wretched]

Performance and image it would have to be the 70's.

[Bossxr8]

The 80's. Ford could do no wrong, they probably had the highest selling car in just about every segment. Falcon was no 1, so was Fairlane, Laser, Telstar etc.

Came within a whisker of burying Holden too around 84, if GM didn't give them a massive cash injection to save Holden they would have been dead and buried.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Performance and image it would have to be the 70's.

Definitely agree with this.^^^^^^^^^

If this is not the 'Golden Age' of Australian Motoring History I don't know what is....

[superyob]

I would pinpoint Ford's Aussie high point as the 70s. XB Falcon best ever Aussie car for its time and the humiliation of Holden at Bathurst 1977...

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

Definitely agree with this.^^^^^^^^^

If this is not the 'Golden Age' of Australian Motoring History I don't know what is....

image

image

One of my favourite cars HQ Monaros rock!!

[Beastie]

I don't remember much about the 70's, but that's because I was born in 68...

Growing up, my dad always had Fords. The first Ford I remember was his XW, then XB (351), XD (250), XF (250) and so on.

The one day that I will never forget is after he sold his XW, we went to the local Ford dealership to look at new cars and he was so close on picking the XB Coupe, but ended up with the Sedan (2 kids under 10)

I just loved the XB Coupe and will always have a soft spot for it - hopefully Ione day I will have the $$$'s to do one up.

So for me it's the 70's

PS - I'll also never forget the 1, 2 finish at Bathurst.

[CoupeKing]

Walking down to the shops to get min chips and you see/hear an XR GT tear past.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

The 80's. Ford could do no wrong, they probably had the highest selling car in just about every segment. Falcon was no 1, so was Fairlane, Laser, Telstar etc.

Came within a whisker of burying Holden too around 84, if GM didn't give them a massive cash injection to save Holden they would have been dead and buried.

It was a certainly a good time for Ford. The Falcons were awesome, and yeah Locally built Laser was the no 1 small car. I was never really sold on the Telstar/ TX5. Not enough differentiation from the 626, and a liftback when Aussies ta that time wanted wagons.
BUT just as Holden had made a massive mistake with their VB Commode, Ford dropped the ball with the V8. That decision allowed Holden to continue selling their Kingswood based utes & Statesman, and surrendered the performance market to Holden for almost a decade. But for that mistake, Ford could have buried Holden so deep they never would have dug their way out.

[Sprintey]

2 eras: Bill Bourke, and Geoff Polites.

70's performance, coupes, racing, Aussie built components like the V8s and decent marketing ("Build your own GS")

Geoff grabbing the reins and doing the Barra Turbo and Territory programs. Actually advertising ("Can't get enough of this")

Both were MD's who well and truly got behind the Aussie product.


Honourable mention: Tickford tunes on XR6/GT's in the 1990s. Dedicated engines that became hand-built, dedicated suspension tunes, and wings. With AU more Australian design and content than any other car ever.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by superyob

I would pinpoint Ford's Aussie high point as the 70s. XB Falcon best ever Aussie car for its time and the humiliation of Holden at Bathurst 1977...

Yeah, its hard to go past that Iconic 1-2 finish, as the pinnacle of that era.

[OzJavelin]

Not sure about where other people lived, but I was a teenager in the mid-80's and while Ford might have been selling everything they built then, their cars had a boring image. V8 Commodores were "the in thing" .. Brock Commodores even more so ..

.. however if you had more brains than cash you could pickup a 351-powered XA-XC cheap and blow most of them into the weeds. Only the turbo-VLs were a real challenge.

The mid-eighties were a woeful time for new cars, but fun for destroying cashed-up-bogan's dreams using old Clevo power

[Freiherr]

Don't forhet the 265 Hemis, I had one in the 80s and it was a blast to drive. I think the 70s were the golden years for cars, pinball, women, music, fashion and anything else you care to think of.

[superyob]

Originally Posted by Freiherr

Don't forhet the 265 Hemis, I had one in the 80s and it was a blast to drive. I think the 70s were the golden years for cars, pinball, women, music, fashion and anything else you care to think of.

Times 1000!!!

[Syndrome]

1966-1976

XP to XB

[1TUFFUTE]

Simply because I missed all of the wonders of the XB Falcons through the 70s and 80s firsthand.......I'm swayed to thinking the recent ERA of the Turbo Falcon in the Xr6Turbo,G6ET and so on...along with smaller master strokes like the ZF auto.

Just can't beat the undeniable fact that from being the best lineup of bang for your buck performance car for so long, (in the world sometimes)and with the amazingly cheap aftermarket mod potential!

XR6Turbo Era

[superyob]

Originally Posted by 1TUFFUTE

Simply because I missed all of the wonders of the XB Falcons through the 70s and 80s firsthand.......I'm swayed to thinking the recent ERA of the Turbo Falcon in the Xr6Turbo,G6ET and so on...along with smaller master strokes like the ZF auto.

Just can't beat the undeniable fact that from being the best lineup of bang for your buck performance car for so long, (in the world sometimes)and with the amazingly cheap aftermarket mod potential!

XR6Turbo Era

How good would this have been if they had officially raced against the best that Holden could bring to the track in a touring car championship? I may have expanded my taste for 60s and 70s iron...

[1TUFFUTE]

Originally Posted by superyob

How good would this have been if they had officially raced against the best that Holden could bring to the track in a touring car championship? I may have expanded my taste for 60s and 70s iron...

They probably would have....if the powers that be hadn't of banned turbos years before. We'd probably allready have turbo 6s n 4s running around in the Supercars series right now.(instead of 2018) Twin turbo 7ltr HRTs

[malazn mafia]

Mid 90s with the ED->EF makeover. Definitely pulled Falcon out of the 80s , superseded all its Japanese and local contemporaries by a mile, and topped the sales charts. And 2002-2004, the amazing turnaround year under the reins of Geoff Polites. Only Ford Australia could take an AU falcon and transform it into the BA, while also developing the Territory, in such a short time and small budget, in our high cost industry. Overall, of all the local carmakers, Ford's story is the most compelling and inspiring. The other local carmakers were just assemblers of foreign models or disguised Opels. Ford played the underdog many times and were often rejected as foreign even when they had the most local content and engineering.

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

It was a certainly a good time for Ford. The Falcons were awesome, and yeah Locally built Laser was the no 1 small car. I was never really sold on the Telstar/ TX5. Not enough differentiation from the 626, and a liftback when Aussies ta that time wanted wagons.
BUT just as Holden had made a massive mistake with their VB Commode, Ford dropped the ball with the V8. That decision allowed Holden to continue selling their Kingswood based utes & Statesman, and surrendered the performance market to Holden for almost a decade. But for that mistake, Ford could have buried Holden so deep they never would have dug their way out.

IIRC, Holden dropped the WB ute and Stato around the same time as the XE (which was the last of the V8's until EB) and partly prompted by the introduction of unleaded petrol in 86?

Agreed though, the 1980's may have been Ford Australias golden year from their point of view but it was essentially resting on it's laurels with a fairly bland lineup, building up all those Ford fans through the 60's and 70's with aspirational model Falcons gave Ford those sales but with the lacklustre 80's image, new Ford fans weren't being created and ford started to pay the price in the 90's onwards to a degree.

[blackf6]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

One of my favourite cars HQ Monaros rock!!

Speck savers mate.

[vbvbvb088]

Originally Posted by Kieron

IIRC, Holden dropped the WB ute and Stato around the same time as the XE (which was the last of the V8's until EB) and partly prompted by the introduction of unleaded petrol in 86?

Agreed though, the 1980's may have been Ford Australias golden year from their point of view but it was essentially resting on it's laurels with a fairly bland lineup, building up all those Ford fans through the 60's and 70's with aspirational model Falcons gave Ford those sales but with the lacklustre 80's image, new Ford fans weren't being created and ford started to pay the price in the 90's onwards to a degree.

I think WB dropped due to tired tooling, available engine but then again there was a ULP VL V8 but not to liked and plant rationalisation. (Dr terry will know). Reason why VL Calais had pop-up front was to differentiate ate as the absolute top of GM-H line as no statesman\LWB variant.

[TheInterceptor]

Older era, 70's.

Modern era, 90's.

Having said that, anything from 1970 to 2002 was fantastic. Past that, ehhhh....look forwards to when these modern falcons become cheap enough to be bush hacks...

[XG_Falcon]

60's and 70's.

[P6LTD351]

1982 - 1995. No contest.

Sure previous years had arguably better cars, but the 80s and early 90 - mid 90s saw Ford Australia as number 1 for the majority of that period. Something they could only dream of previously. No V8? No worries!

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

If we are talking an "old' and a 'modern' Golden Age, I would say early 70's, ie XY/XA/XB, sorry but IMO The XC does not fit the Golden Age performance vehicle IMO.

Then the modern era would be the FPV GT era, it put Ford back on the map of the V8 buying public IMO.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by P6LTD351

1982 - 1995. No contest.

I would consider this era the worst time for performance orientated Ford buyers, and it would certainly not be a golden era, rather an era of shame, it was for me living through those years surrounded by proud Holden V8 buyers, while I was holding on to my 70's muscle car wondering where Ford was at Bathurst.