Falcons best years, what were they for you

[Eaturbo]

When I look over the years I was wondering to myself what were the most exciting years for the Ford Falcon. The E series was an amazing era and I remember when I seen my first EA and thought wow look how beautiful that shape is. This followed up with a horde of amazing vehicles starting with the
EB XR6/8 than EB GT, ED Sprint, EL XR6 and finally the EL GT. Than we had a few years of less memorable cars in the AU Falcon. Not that it was a bad car but it didn't really bring much excitement, at least until AU3 with the 220kw XR8 and FTE 250kw cars. Than came the BA with a complete new line up of engines, a new shape and a new interior. BF was possibly the greatest era for Ford with it having truely world class engines and gearboxes.

I still remember the first time I saw a BA XR6 Turbo which was at the Ipswitch V8 Supercars and it was before the BA was on sale. Nobody could believe how amazing the car looked and how big the turbo was. Everyone was expecting a tiny little turbo which was the normal for most turbo cars. No Ford had strapped a 550hp turbo on them. It was probably the biggest most advanced turbo 6 ever built. Than Ford just kept them coming BA F6, BA GT Boss 290 BF GT cobra 302.

Than the FG which while it wasn't ground breaking like the BA it still brought with it the FG F6 310 and GT 335.

With so many years of exciting new models and the great Holden Ford rivalry, we were certainly spoilt. Holden pretty much followed Ford ever year with exciting new ground breaking models, even though they never really developed a true performance 6 like Ford did.

So that now leaves us with what in the future. No more tit for tat with Ford and Holden. No more locally built muscle that they raced on weekends at your local drag strip or at the V8 touring cars.

My age has more to do with my love of the E series and B series era. I am 40 and the E series was released when I was 12 and so my first car was a EA Fairmont Ghia. Tell us what were the greatest years for you with the Falcon.

[FPV-F6-310FPV]

For me I love the XFs, EDs, ELs, BFs and FGs.

My first car was an 1986 XF Ford Fairmont. Loved that car, my mates called it the tank.

When I was at school, I remember begging my parents to buy a ED Falcon, but had no luck. When our XF got stolen, we hired an ED Falcon, I wanted to sleep in the car every night lol. The police had stolen the car on NYE of 93/94 to chase a criminal who just jumped in their police car and drove off, so they hot wired our car and took it lol. It was returned in a better condition.

Then when the ELs came out, a new obsession came along, and yes begged my parents for this car.

When the BFs came out, I loved the tough presence look they had, could never afford to get a xr6t at the time.

My favourite all time car growing up was a GT, then in 2009 got my first turbo car and F6s became my favourite. Still would love to drive a GT to say I have.

My current car FGII F6 is my baby, FGs is my favourite design, Love the panda eye and the holden drivers never wanting to take me on lol

Falcon might be gone, but forever will they be cemented in my thoughts.

[Glen 5150]

Plenty of fond memories from and all era's, and each one for different reasons. But, its the B series for me though, it was an amazing comeback from Ford after the love/hate relationship and polarizing views from the Australian public after the AU. With the B series, came a brilliant advertising campaign, you had two great performance engines, a bulletproof N/A 6, FPV were born, the GT was back, and a bloke named Ambrose was dominating the V8 scene and taking it up to the seemingly invincible Holden teams of that time.

It was a great time and a proud time to be a Ford fan in that era in my opinion.

[The Yeti]

for me the XK - XW were glory days (I was never a major fan of XY's I liked them but I think becasue they were everyones faveI sort of got turned off) I also wasn't overly keen on the XA, Loved XB's XC's

Then I wasn't much of a fan until AU but it was sort lived and my last great falcon (purely my opinon) was the BA

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by Glen 5150

Plenty of fond memories from and all era's, and each one for different reasons. But, its the B series for me though, it was an amazing comeback from Ford after the love/hate relationship and polarizing views from the Australian public after the AU. With the B series, came a brilliant advertising campaign, you had two great performance engines, a bulletproof N/A 6, FPV were born, the GT was back, and a bloke named Ambrose was dominating the V8 scene and taking it up to the seemingly invincible Holden teams of that time.

It was a great time and a proud time to be a Ford fan in that era in my opinion.

BA/Territory days. Ford really turned water into wine, and with the engineering and design advances the Falcon was brought out of the 90s into the 21st century.

[Davehoos]

Mum purchased an alloy head 2 XD GL wagon new when I was old enough for my learner permit. Bench seat 3 speed manual. loads of room and great seat.

It was scraped in 1986 for rust when we purchased a VL wagon. the holden dealer had standing order for engines to upgrade older falcons.

[Full_Monty]

For me early days obviously the XW-XY era...But more recently the BA was a big watershed moment.
The investment in engineering and proper advertising of this was a big step forward.
It made me really lust for a XR6Turbo with it's HSV slaying power and torque.

I Ended up with one, and had Nizpro perform some magic on it, along with improved suspension and AP brakes.
Amazing power and torque. I Kept it for 7 years, before selling it to make way for my current GT 335 Mk1. Which in my mind was the next big benchmark - step up (including the FG F6) IMO was the last big platform upgrade and was well ahead of it's local rivals with HSV having to go back to the drawing board to invest heavily to play catchup.
The following years saw FG Mk2 and GTF minor revisions on this platform with the same running gear, some software tweaks and revised ICC etc.

The FGX being just front / rear end treatments on limited budget with a couple of minor changes inside, but it introduced the Ford USA globalist styling, which I will always resent in a way - as the end of our true Aussie Falcon Icon.

[40RDT]

B series for me, the boosted 4L was a game changer...

[ebv8]

its got to be 1984 to 1990....no wait that was the worst years
who's idea was it to drop the V8 anyway...almost as bad as dropping RWD sedans....wait
they are doing that now dropping V8's and dropping RWD sedans

my favourite was my old AU XR8, loved the shape the trim and the way it drove and the noise of the little 302 with 2 hotdogs

[UKXR8]

My favourite has to be the XA/XB especially the coupes. I love the shape of the EF/EL XR series cars, especially with the full tickford bodykit. I remember getting pretty excited about the EF having a proper handbrake (oh how times have changed). Also a big fan of the blown FG/FGX 5.0 cars, great machines.

[AussieCJ7]

Style wise XM/XP coupe closely followed by XA to XC coupe

Sheer enthusiast interest and folk lore impact has to be the XY GTHO

Have a personal sweet spot for XF S PAC as my first falcon, the EB11 really marked a major styling change and the FGX cause its the last, the XR8 is truely something special with a soul built in

[superyob]

Fairlanes always did it for me but the XA/B hardtops really fired my imagination...

[snowcone]

XW and XY no doubt.
I owned both as a youngster
It was the era of the HO's when there wasn't anything faster

[chevypower]

I liked EBII, ED, EF in their day. Great memories. Great cars for their time. Of course not much by today's standards. But they were a little more special then than today's ones are now. Especially XR8, Fairmont Ghia, Fairlane Ghia, and LTD.

[Pis-ton broke]

all my falcons that i owned have served faithfully, however the ba was my favorite.

[Paull]

Watching Bathurst 1977 with the XC Hardtop 1/2 victory and then the Cobra's the following year. This was then followed up with the XD/XE finally winning the sales race over Holden (pity Ford dropped the V8 though).

[TUF_302]

I think every year Ford has made the Falcon is the best years of it, even the ones we Loved to hate

[FPV0002]

For me it was around 2003 and the BA and more specifically the XR6 turbo and B series FPV models. Around 03/04 my older brother purchased a BA XR6turbo in citric acid after they had just been released. Man, at the time that thing was a rocket and the citric acid turned heads everywhere it went! In the years following between both my brother and I had XR6 turbos/XR8s, a BF F6, FG F6 and currently I have a GT335. The birth of FPV was my favourite period and it was the insane power, world class engines tough looks and lary 'look at me' colours available at the time that I lusted for and still do today. I still love the look of the BF F6s and GTs and for me they were the best years.

[arronm]

68- 78. 82. 2002 -2010. 14. 16.

[Smoke Pursuit]

AU xr's for me... There was something special about those cars.

[FGX-351]

I always wanted an XF S pack as that was our family car from new in the late 80s-late 90s.

Ended up buying one that was identical as my first car back in 05, had it hidden in the garage as a future project for years but ended up selling it in 2013 and still regret it.

During that time I obsessed over getting a hot chilli red EL XR and I found mine after 8 months of searching with 117K, manual and options like dual airbags, cruise....etc

I miss that car every day, the commodore looks like the better car but the EL was much more comfortable and a better drive.

The other thing was being in high school during the Ambrose years, was a great time to be a teenager.

[xr8territory]

Every year we won Bathurst.

[290GTP]

The birth of the BA was a great time to be a ford fan after the dark ages of the AU. Marcos Ambose was kicking *** on the track and the BA looked as good as it went. Sales were good and Geoff Polites knew what the people wanted.

[asagaai]

For me is 2 periods.

1. The XA to XC coupes with 351 clevelands. I had come to Oz from Africa, 17, and in Africa the big monster was the Ford Cortina TD/TE with a 3 litre V6 Essex. I then came to Melbourne in 82, and all these worked XA, XB, XC coupes with monster rear wheels and monster exhausts, I was riding my pushy to uni and was foaming at the mouth looking and listening to these beasts rumbing past...

2. Present day, FGX XR8, feral power delivered in silken strokes, and sleeper looks. Raw package that I now spend time thinking about upgrading with carbon fibre tailshaft, shockworks coilovers, Truetrac diff, floating rotors, whether to go yella terra snout or not.....

[Qwerty321]

The BA/BF era for the Falcons was truly it's pinnacle. Interesting how it also tied in with the VE Generation of Commodores which'll also go down as the pinnacle of Holden's legacy. I guess ~2005 were really the golden years for the aussie car manufacturing industry

[Hardtopxb]

1967- 1973

[OLD BALDY]

I have owned the following Falcons most bought new:-
XW GT, XA 351 man P'van, XB 302 H'top,XD 351 man,
XF 6cyl S'pac wagon, EF Fair Ghia 5.0l, EL Fair Ghia 5.0l,
XH XR6 UTE, BF2 XR8 ute, FG2 G6ET, (current)
Best without doubt G6ET.
2nd BF2 XR8 ute.
3rd XW GT. (So long ago forgot what was good or bad!!!)
Loved them all in different ways.

[Crazy Dazz]

It's a difficult question to answer for me.
I loved the XD/E/F. They were simple cars, but kicked Holden's ****.
Unfortunately that's also the Bill Dix era when incompetence and complacency took root at Ford Australia.

Purely from a production standpoint, I'd have to say the B series.
The Barra DOHC was a game changer, the turbo, Modular V8's in three different configs, V8's available across the range, FPVS, Territory derivative, and you could still get Utes and LWBs.

[NX74205]

Originally Posted by Eaturbo

My age has more to do with my love of the E series and B series era. I am 40 and the E series was released when I was 12 and so my first car was a EA Fairmont Ghia. Tell us what were the greatest years for you with the Falcon.

I am also an E and B series fan, and was drawn in by the looks of the EA Fairmont Ghia.

I agree with the vast majority of your post except to say that Touring Cars died a long time ago. V8 Supercars of today have no relevance whatsoever to the road cars that they supposedly resemble, so I couldn't care less what happens to V8 Supercars now.

Start using actual road cars that are modified to race, rather than race cars with a common engine, tyre and chassis with a shell designed to resemble road cars, and I might start caring a bit more.

[Olbucko]

For me it was the midd 60's when 6 stock XPs racked up 70,000 miles between them in eight days averaging 120 kph, 24 hours a day, around a twisty hilly track, without any mechanical failures at the You Yangs proving ground, https://youtu.be/juTj5gS3xUI
When the next year the XR GT blew everything else , away at Bathurst, and the next year when 3 XT GTs came 3rd, 6th, and 8th, taking out the team prize in the 10500 mile London - Sydney Marathon