First Drive: Falcon Ecoboost

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http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/f...205-1oe40.html

Ford’s new EcoBoost Falcon may have two fewer cylinders than its six-cylinder brethren, but it’s lacking nothing in performance.

For a while there, it looked like Queensland would never win a Sheffield Shield. But a few years ago, that changed.

The smart money also suggested that our Stateside friends would never elect an Afro-American to the office of president. Wrong again.

And for my part, I would have bet real money that I’d never be sitting in the driver’s seat of a four-cylinder Ford Falcon. And yet, here I am.

Advertisement: Story continues below Never say never, it seems.

Australian Falcons and big capacity six-cylinder engines go together like beer and eskies. Always have.

But in an attempt to offer its customers a Falcon with improved fuel economy and regain some lost sales, Ford Australia has –in a nutshell - taken the turbocharged four-cylinder engine from the Mondeo EcoBoost and slotted it into the FG Falcon’s cavernous engine bay.

See more details of the new Ford Falcon four-cylinder EcoBoost.

No technical details have been forthcoming, but in Mondeo EcoBoost form, the 2.0-litre engine pushes out 149kW of power and 300Nm of torque, good numbers in themselves, but down on the 195kW and 391Nm respectively of the traditional, six-cylinder-powered version of the Falcon.

In the Volvo S60, the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder produces 177kW and 320Nm, which is close to where we’re expecting the Falcon. It makes sense from a marketing perspective – there’s more than the Mondeo EcoBoost but less than the bread-and-butter of the Falcon world, the inline six-cylinder that’s twice its size.

That said, the seat of the pants suggests a power figure closer to 170kW for the four-cylinder engine in the Falcon Ecoboost.

And let’s not forget that the AU Falcon of 1998 boasted a power figure of just 157kW, and nobody ever complained that that car was underpowered.

But more importantly than just numbers, how does the four-cylinder Falcon EcoBoost feel to drive?

Just sitting in the car with the engine running is an exercise in altered perceptions. Revving the engine reveals a fairly refined powerplant, but one that is identifiably missing a couple of cylinders. It’s not quite as dramatic as watching a grown man with a toddler’s voice, but it’s still a bit mind-altering.

With the six-speed automatic transmission offering a little slip to mask a tiny bit of turbo-lag off idle, the four-cylinder Falcon steps off the mark quite well.

It revs up with enthusiasm, too, although the last 1000rpm or so feel a bit hard to come by. Again, this is not uncommon with turbocharged powerplants, which often produce their best at low or middle engine revs – where most people use them most of the time.

But what is impressive is the engine’s mid-range punch which gives the sort of relaxed progress that has been a major characteristic of all Falcons over the years.

Against the stop-watch (but not as scientific as tailored testing equipment) the Ecoboost Falcon doesn’t appear to give much away to its six-cylinder stalemate.

A 0 to 100km/h dash in the six-cylinder FG Falcon of 7.1 seconds was almost matched by the 7.6 of the EcoBoost car.

The best news is that the Ecoboost Falcon has shed about 60kg and this shows up as a much more talkative, entertaining front end.

The Ecoboost not only steers more accurately and naturally, it wants you to know it as well.

The bottom line is that the biggest hurdle for the Ecoboost Falcon will be a cultural one, not an actual product limitation.

Ford is still being very tight-lipped on pricing and while it’s tempting to think the Ecoboost Falcon will be the entry-level car, previous suggestions have been that it would actually carry a price premium. In other markets, the EcoBoost variants of certain Ford models are actually marketed as premium products and priced accordingly.

However, Ford is understood to be stepping away from this, accepting the fact that Australians generally don’t like paying more for fewer cylinders.

Best guesstimates – and a nod and a wink from Ford insiders - have the Falcon EcoBoost being priced at the same price as the six-cylinder versions it will sell alongside; the Falcon four-cylinder EcoBoost wll be available as an entry-level XT, G6 and flagship, leather-clad G6E.

The Ecoboost Falcon’s launch date has been delayed since the model was announced, but look for it early in 2012.