Category Archives: ford falcon

Rowan Atkinson crashes at Goodwood Revival

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Goodwood Revival 2012

To quote Harry Hogge (played by Robert Duvall) in Days of Thunder, "rubbin, son, is racin'." That can mean some unfortunate damage to high-end racing machinery, which may be repaired easily enough in stock car racing, but when it comes to vintage racing, the stakes can be that much higher. And yet incidents do occur, like at this weekend's Goodwood Revival.

Among the many competitors taking part in the retro racing event in England was none other than Rowan Atkinson, the actor perhaps best known for playing Mr. Bean. Driving a classic Ford Falcon Sprint in the Shelby Cup event, Atkinson (pictured above at the 2012 revival) reportedly crashed head-on into another car on track.

According to reports, the two cars up spun out. The driver in between managed to avoid a pile-up, but Atkinson couldn't steer clear and hit the obstructing vehicle. Fortunately Rowan walked away unscathed (and, we imagine, in a humorous manner), but while we don't know how extensive the damage was to the Falcon, it was enough to take it out of the race.

Atkinson, for those who don't know, is a certified automotive enthusiast. He regularly drives his McLaren F1 (which he's crashed a couple of times), sometimes writes for UK car magazines, once topped the Top Gear leaderboard and even convinced Rolls-Royce to lend him its V16 prototype for use on screen in Johnny English Reborn.

Rowan Atkinson crashes at Goodwood Revival originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Sep 2014 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aussie Ford Falcon GT shows its rear end to Lamborghini Gallardo

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Screencap from video of a drag race between a Ford Falcon GT and Lamborghini Gallardo in Australia.

When Ford Australia announces, as it did recently, that it wants to celebrate the end of its Ford Performance Vehicle division with a Falcon FPV GT-F that celebrates big-bore origins of the nameplate, it's talking about the kind of car in this video.

At some point the classic Falcon GT - said to be an XY series - was invited to a test of acceleration against a Lamborghini Gallardo. At the very least, the Falcon GT had a 351 cubic-inch motor and 300 horsepower, but whatever this guy's got under the hood of his yellow sedan makes has him so confident that he his passenger doesn't even move his elbow from its resting place on the door.

You'll find a reminder of Ford Australia's heyday, a raucous exhaust note and some NSFW language in the short video below.

Continue reading Aussie Ford Falcon GT shows its rear end to Lamborghini Gallardo

Aussie Ford Falcon GT shows its rear end to Lamborghini Gallardo originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 27 Apr 2014 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford celebrating 80 years of Aussie utes as it prepares to shutter Oz manufacturing

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Ford Ute 80th Anniversary

Ford is ending Australian production after 90 years in 2016, and with it may go perhaps the most iconic vehicles in its auto market - the ute. Car-based pickup trucks like the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino were always more of a curiosity than a true market force here, but in Australia, they have long proven hugely popular.

As the legend goes, Ford invented the niche after a farmer's wife had asked Ford Australia's managing director for a more utilitarian car. Her request was simple: "My husband and I can't afford a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?"

Ford's design team came up with a two-passenger, enclosed, steel coupe body with glass windows and a steel-paneled, wooden-frame load area in the rear. The sides of the bed were blended into the body to make it look more unified, and to keep costs down, the front end and interior were based on the Ford Model 40 five-window coupe. Power came from a V8 with shifting chores handled by a three-speed manual. Within a year, the new vehicle was ready, and production began in 1934. Lead designer Lewis Bandt christened it the coupe-utility.

It proved to be a success in Australia's rural areas, and in 1961, Ford added the ute bodystyle as an option on the Falcon. It has remained an important part of the Australian Falcon to this, and 455,000 of them have been sold since introduction.

Unfortunately, the history of the ute might be at an end. With Ford ending Australian production, it looks like the end of Australian-market exclusive vehicles, and in the near future, there might not even be a suitable rear-wheel-drive car-based chassis to build utes on. "Ranger will remain as our leading Ute / pick-up post the end of Falcon Ute production," said Sinead Phipps, Communications Director at Ford Australia, in an email to Autoblog. Scroll down to get the full scoop on ute history in the press release.

Continue reading Ford celebrating 80 years of Aussie utes as it prepares to shutter Oz manufacturing

Ford celebrating 80 years of Aussie utes as it prepares to shutter Oz manufacturing originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jay Leno shows off the BaT Falcon of his dreams

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Jay Leno with his new 1963.5 Ford Falcon Sprint

Jay Leno owns all kinds of cars: Steam powered, 100-year-old electric and modern-day supercars. His legendary garage is teeming with millions of dollars of iron.

But his dream car has always been the 1963 1/2 Ford Falcon Sprint. So when he saw exactly the car on BringATrailer.com, he plunked down the $26,000 for the mint condition, seriously modified Falcon and sent a trailer.

This Falcon Sprint is built out exactly the way Leno says he would have built it. It has a 1965 289-cubic-inch small block under the hood with 360 horsepower and the battery in the trunk. It has a stiffened suspension, aftermarket wheels and a five-speed manual transmission (the original came with a four-speed). Leno, who says he regularly reads BaT, released a video on his website, Jay Leno's Garage, of his Falcon find, taking the Mustang precursor for a ride around Southern California.

Check out Jay's video below. We particularly like how he shamelessly hugs his new Ford, which is likely going to live a very good life from here on out.

Continue reading Jay Leno shows off the BaT Falcon of his dreams

Jay Leno shows off the BaT Falcon of his dreams originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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