THE COMPANY SAVIOUR

AUSTRALIA NEARLY MISSED OUT ON THE FORD FALCON.

- MARK HIGGINS

As Dr John Wright and Dave Morley wrote in Unique Cars back in October 2016, the first locally manufactured (as opposed to assembled) Ford was to have been a revised version of the Mark 2 Zephyr, given extra chrome in the Zodiac mode and dubbed Mark 2a.

When Ford Oz boss Charlie Smith and his small team of visiting executives were given a peek at the XK in late 1958 in the US, Smith famously cabled back to Australia: ‘Cancel Zephyr’.

Because the Falcon was lighter, it would be cheaper to build and its project name XK Thunderbird in itself implied more excitement and a sleeker streamline than the Mark 2 Zephyr, which would have been four years old when the first Falcon made its local debut in September 1960.

Fast forward to early 1965 and following the XK, XL and XM models came the Falcon XP, which went on to become one of the most significant Falcons of all time, as I’ll explain soon.

XP models included the entry-model Falcon sedan and wagon, DeLuxe sedan and wagon, Futura sedan and hardtop (coupe), ute, DeLuxe ute and Falcon sedan delivery (van). A new addition was the Fairmont to take on the Holden Premier.

Visually different from its predecessor the XP wore a squarer front, raised front guards, horizontal bar grille, flatter bonnet and wrap-around front bumpers. Fairmont and Futura models scored bucket seats and in September 1965, the Futura Sedan and Squire Wagon were replaced with the Fairmont sedan and wagon.

Underneath saw a key change with the introduction of the 'torque box subframe' boosting the rigidity of the XP, to counteract the perceived flimsiness of earlier models.