XR6 Turbo review by The West Australian

[Road_Warrior]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/mot...mily-thriller/

The XR6 Turbo is the dazzler in the Ford Falcon line-up, a sedan that stunned the motoring world with its strong-yet-silky power delivery when unveiled in 2002.

Its engine - a 4.0-litre turbo six cylinder - was ahead of its time, with the auto world since racing to do likewise, by deleting cylinders and adding turbos.

This provides engines with extreme verve for their size while the lighter weight in the front end aids steering and handling.

Other key advantages are sipping fuel use and low CO{-2** emissions. For example, the current XR6 Turbo uses 11.7L/100km while the 5.4-litre XR8, whose production has ceased, slurped 14L/100km.

This engine downsizing trend will extend later this year when Ford introduces to the Falcon range a 179kW turbo engine with just four cylinders. Who would have thought?

Since 2002, the XR6 Turbo has been vastly improved but its price has increased by only about $5000 to $48,990 (manual) and $50,990 (auto). The advances, worth well over $10,000, include iPod and Bluetooth connectivity, climate- control air-conditioning, electric seat adjustment for the driver and bigger alloys.

The 2011 buyer also gets a brilliant ZF six-speed auto compared with 2002's ordinary four-speeder, an extra 30kW and 50 Newton metres of torque plus a 1.0L/100km fuel saving.

Safety has been lifted markedly by the addition of anti-skid stability control, bigger brakes, side and head airbag protection for front occupants and an array of subtle protection systems that include crash sensors, staged-release airbags and a sophisticated body design that distributes crash energy much better.

In a crude sense, the XR6 Turbo provides amazing "bang for the buck", as does its similarly priced Holden SS V8 rival. The Ford's output of 270kW equates to a price of $180 per kW while a similar-size BMW 550i with 300kW works out at $600 per kilowatt.

The Beemer has advantages in many other measures, but the Falcon nevertheless provides a lot of luxury-cruiser refinement for the price. The cabin is quiet, the driver is cosseted in an electric- adjustable seat, the ride is excellent, the steering light and easy and the power delivery progressive with no fits or starts.

In short, the XR6 Turbo could be enjoyed as a regular, practical and spacious car around town and as a wonderful country loper that transforms into a cheetah for passing road trains.

Buyers would have a car that is respected, comfortable, well kitted out and involving to drive.

It might surprise some readers that there are many muscle car drivers who think just like that.

Partly because of the $50,000 price tags, the owners are often quite mature people who don't abuse their pride and joys.

The desire to test the car's 5.2sec. zero-to-100km/h acceleration time and adept handling is nevertheless strong but there are safe, reasonably priced outlets. These include driver training and track sessions with the WA Sporting Car Club (9306 8022) at Barbagallo Raceway and by MC Motorsports (1300 137 470) at the RAC Driving Centre near Perth Airport. Specialty car clubs also enable owners to hear the full growl of the engine in track days along with more casual cruises.

Though the XR6 Turbo's crash-safety rating has lifted since 2002 from four to five stars, I am going to pinprick Ford's airbags strategy. For side protection, thorax-head airbags are provided for front occupants but those in the rear miss out on the curtain airbag head protection provided by key rivals such as Holden.

Curtain airbags are available as a $300 option, a piddling amount that surely is not worth the muddying it does to an otherwise very strong safety story for Ford .

Lacking child-friendliness is the provision of just one child-seat anchor point in what is a very spacious, family-size car.

To take the sports-luxury feel up another notch, buyers could opt for a $5000 pack that adds leather seats, dual-zone climate control, a 150W premium audio system and 19-inch alloys.

I can't end without informing Freo cappuccino strip cruisers of my test car's sensational colour.

I dubbed it Dockers Purple Haze - but Geelong sponsor Ford prefers to call it Viper.

Give it curtain airbags and parking sensors as standard equipment and I'm sold