Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:44:10 +1300
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject: Re: NVC Re: Wait a minute, I drive a Ford Falcon!
In-Reply-To: <9e.306fdc7d.30903d76@aol.com>
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--></style><title>Re: NVC Re: Wait a minute, I drive a Ford
Falcon!</title></head><body>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font color="#000000">In a message dated
10/25/2005 1:57:08 PM Pacific Standard Time,
andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ writes:</font><br>
<font color="#000000"></font>
<blockquote><font color="#000000">>>The Falcon is still in
production. It has a 4.1-liter DOHC 24V<br>
>>straight-6 (with or without turbo) or a US-made V8... there's
even a<br>
>>4WD wagon based on the Falcon.</font><br>
<font color="#000000"></font></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font color="#000000">I remember from a
trip to Argentina, Buenos Aires was loaded with early 60s Ford
Falcons. They were still produced there in the early 90s and maybe
later. And when I say still produced I mean they were making 1963
Falcons in 1990. They updated the grill, bumpers, dash board and
tail lights a bit, but it was still the 63 body. No planned
obsolescence for the Argentineans.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
color="#000000"> </font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font color="#000000">Here are two links
from a cursory Google search. The first shows the New Zealand
Falcon--a modern sport coupe-- and the second shows the 1991
Argentinean Ford Falcon.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
color="#000000"> </font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
color="#000000"> </font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href=
"http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Ford/auction-36584486.htm"
><font
color="#000000"
>http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Ford/auction-36584486.<span
></span>htm</font></a></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
color="#000000"> </font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href="http://galerias.netfirms.com/galmodel.htm"><font
color="#000000">http://galerias.netfirms.com/galmodel.htm</font></a
></blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Australians began building US falcons in the early 60s. They
had to be reengineered because the body was flimsy... they would
actually break up on the corrugated dirt roads. I guess the
later-60s/earliest-70s XY & XW Falcons were heavily modified, but
looked like the US Falcons of the time; it had the usual lethargic
sixes and a 5.0 V8 option. In about 1973 the car was enlarged and as
far as I know changed completely, to a contemporary all-Aussie design
(XA) sedan/wagon/coupe, which went through (with facelifts XB, XC)
into the latest 70s, when the XD came out... an angular thing
very much styled after the Grenada (facelifts XE, XF), with no coupe
version; none of the XY-XF cars aged well. In about 1989 the EA Falcon
came out, which was a vast improvement on the XD series. The new
3.9/4.1 sixhad the same bore-spacings as the old but was all-new, with
SOHC & 12V. The car actually looked good. But build quality
remained poor, as it does to this day. The EA was facelifted a couple
of times (EB, EC), then replaced by a Taurus-wannabe, the hideous AU;
with its droopy nose & tail, it sold like bitter potatoes and
burned Ford badly... who on earth signed it off for production?? So a
crash facelift was done and introduces way ahead of schedule, the
good-looking BA... dunno why the letter change, because it's an AU
with new nose & tail grafted on. At present it's a better and
better-handling car than the modified Opel made & sold as Holden
Commodore (which includes the Monaro coupe version, sold in England as
Vauxhall Monaro, some places as a Chevrolet and the US as the current
"Pontiac GTO". To my knowledge the Aussie Falcons have not
been exported outside Down Under, though some may have gone to SE Asia
and perhaps South Africa & Saudi Arabia.</div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Andrew Grebneff<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
Dunedin<br>
New Zealand<br>
Fossil preparator<br>
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz><br>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut<br>
<br>
HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE<br>
<br>
DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR</div>
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