New BB/facelifted Falcon in Echuca today.

[WIngman]

Wasn't the BA designation short for the project name "Barra"?

mmm, I maybe on drugs if this is wrong lol

[RPO83]

The next gen won't be BB.

[Bossxr8]

Don't expect sheetmetal changes, just a thourough re-engineering job and a slightly different look. This will be the last upgrade before Orion in 2007.

[RUKIDN]

do you guys rekon its possible it may not even be a B? maybe another _ like when u think they went EA-L then AU by itself and now BA....

[BlueRaven]

So hold on... if the new falcon is called Orion... we can expect the 2007 falcon to be called the OR Falcon?

[Steve_T]

Ok, I been meaning to start a thread on this for a while.

I live in Alice Springs and there are a whole contingent of these test Falcons here at the moment (along with a few other more-disguised models whose manufacturer I haven't determined yet - it's that time of year Anyway I reckon there must be 7 or 8 of 'em. All appear to be BA's and all have Car Bras on and some (all?) have blacked out rear ends.

I found their 'out of the way' base that they're operating out of where the cars are stored and worked on etc. I been doing a few runs out the North road (ie. Stuart Hwy) and the Tanami Road (where they hang out and do most/all of their testing) equipped with full tank of fuel and binoculars lol.

Here's the best I've been able to see of what cars are here so far (or at least what they're disguised as lol):

(NB. All BA's or BA Mk2's with Car Bras)

1) Blue GT (or GT-P) sedan - Mk 2
2) Blue ute
3) Orange/Red sedan (XR8 I think)
4) White ute (I thought an AU3 Pursuit 250 at first but it must be a BA - maybe it's a BA Pursuit - only saw a glance from the rear)
5) Support vehicle - black chassis cab ute with custom built back full of cabinets/draws with tools. parts and whatever
6) Grey ute (can't remember if there was a bonnet bulge)
7) Maybe a grey sedan with a bulge I think (only glanced from the front though so it might of been the above ute)
8) Red sedan - F6 Typhoon!! - this was interesting - saw it kinda close up at Repco - saw some sorta data-logger or whatever mounted on the dash and in the rear of the cabin it was fitted with a pretty solid looking roll-cage! (Kinda implies some high performance testing ;)

This level of testing is not for just something minor/cosmetic - there are some mechanical changes going on.

One person swears he saw the Typhoon floor it driving through town and reckons all 4 wheels spun - combined with what I heard about Ford and Mitsubishi entering a technology sharing agreement kinda puts the 4WD Falcon rumor into my head - hmmm. I also heard rumors of a future performance V8 Falcon - ie. supercharged!

I must try to get more info. On my next day off work I'll go 'Falcon hunting' out North again I also reckon there might be another one or two in their workshop which I haven't seen yet - we'll see.

More info will be posted as I find it out.

Steve.

[tickford2001]

damn steve thats definately a detailed report...now wheres the pics!!! :

[ned]

they make them here, and you guys get all the action up there wtf is with that!

[Steve_T]

Well, pics depend on money and/or the ownership of digital cameras - two areas in which I am severly lacking right now :-/ But ya never know - I may be able to arrange something given a coupla days/weeks (or given a late Christmas pressy from one of you guys like an Olympus E-300 with a long zoom lens ;-)

Originally Posted by ned

they make them here, and you guys get all the action up there wtf is with that!

Hmmm, continuous days of 40+deg. temps with no humitidy whatsoever and very hot dry winds, fine red dirt everywhere - surrounded by more fine red dirt, rough-as-gutz roads in both bitumen and dirt varieties, distinct lack of media/journalists, distinct lack of population esp. car enthusiast population (relatively), big open roads with bugger-all traffic and the only people who would drive on them would be people who don't pay any attention to fancy-looking test cars, oh - and no stupid speed limits. Need I continue? :Reverend:

Steve.

[my gt]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Ken

Someone wanted a pic so here it is (maybe) :
Uncle_Ken

im all for going a bit retro but this is far too much :monkes:

[ford.boy]

Originally Posted by JR.

the original facelift of the AU was going to be the AY.

i think you'll find it was AV :

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by my gt

im all for going a bit retro but this is far too much :monkes:

Remeber the old saying " A peice of string and a peice of cord...:SaiyanSmi

[JR.]

Originally Posted by ford.boy

i think you'll find it was AV :

Nope. If you do the plant tour at Broadmeadows the plastic guards they put over the front quarters to protect them while building are all stamped AY, as are a couple of other BA specific parts on the line.

At least this was the case as of February 2004 anyway.

[WASP]

Sounds very interesting, but a little disappointed they may not be changing the centre section of the BA shape. It's not ‘that’ bad, but it's definitely the most visually challenging aspect of the cars presentation. I guess you can't have everything all the time :(

[T2TL50]

Perhaps it will be BO, for Bloody Overweight?
BW? Brakes Warped?
BQ? Bodgy Quality?
BD? Broken Diff?
BC? Bad Clutch?
BS? Bloody Slow?




BA? Bloody Awsome?