RATT's first drive of BF Falcon and SY Terri

Today I had the opportunity to drive the BF Falcon and SY Territory.

To cut to the chase here are the impressions:

Styling:
Very subtle but a progressive change. The front bar makes an XR look like an FPV product when looking at it through the rear vision mirror.



The new non-XR bodykit for sedans is much more aggressive than the BA version as well.

I like the new wheel designs, especially the G8, which looks very similar to the BA XR8 style wheels.

Driving:

Well, let me say from the outset that the BF Falcon is the smoothest driving Falcon ever. The ZF 6 speed auto transforms the Falcon into a very un-Falcon like driving experience.
The gearing is spot on. There was never a moment where the car was in the wrong gear.
An interesting note is the transmissions ability to let the car start in second gear and still it felt better than the current 4 speed auto in its rate of acceleration from a standing start.

The ZF also has a very good new feature. Basically if you find yourself in 6th gear in full manual mode, and you need to accelerate hard but with no time to down change, all you do is flatten the foot and it will down change to 3rd or 4th depending on speed. It will then stay in the gear in changed to as it is still in manual mode. It's designed to get you out of trouble if need be.


One other thing is that the ZF will still hold a gear in full manual mode even when bouncing of the rev limiter. Which itself is not as harsh as it is for BA.

Brakes:

The "performance" brakes found on all V8's and XR's are a huge improvement over the standard brakes. The felt a bit spongy but I'll put that down to the low km the test cars had.

Here are a few other pics:




Territory

The Territory will also feels like a much improved vehicle. The 6 speed auto makes it a more lively performer, as well as much smoother.

The Barra 190 feels quite good, more powerful and quieter. The transmission certainly makes it feel more powerfull than it is.

The reverse camera will also sell the Territory as well. It is such a brilliant idea that I am amazed why it did not have it as an option earlier. It will make other reverse cameras available on the market look very ordinary.

The new optional alloy wheels on the Territory are also a worthy addition and worthy of consideration particularly on TX.