Ford Falcon BA XR6 Mark 11 Road Test

[Falcon500]

europeans cant take abuse from aussie convicts and colonists... i thought we all knew that

Case in point whens the last time you saw sweedan in the rugby world cup?

[Blue Supra]

errr...

never?

[muso]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and an Aussie, I must admit our local cars can seem a bit rough in some areas of quality control but they are usually ironed out and are sometimes (like nearly all cars) re-called to fix problems, however I like both Holden and Ford and I look at the BA XR series and the VY SS as the best looking hairy chested family cars available, the BA falcon is as far as I know entirely Australian built in Geelong. I am also proud when I see that our holden Gen 3 V8 Monaros are being exported to the USA as GTO's and the VY SS to Saudi Arabia as Lumina SS's.

The large car with big powerful engines with rear wheel drive culture is sacred here in this great country and will probably never die.....thank God

Your average BA Falcon XT or Commodore executive is built on a tight budget by these two companies as they have to keep the prices around the 32K mark and for the money I think Holden and Ford do a sterling job by building a car at these retail prices and yet giving the perception both inside and outside of being a far more expensive car.......Good on ya Ford and Holden

Hey Falcon 500 congrats on the lean muscle weight gain 21 kg is excellent for the time frame, I've gained about 10 or so kg since March with bench press workouts with chicken and hard boiled eggs after.

[adrenaline]

The large car with big powerful engines with rear wheel drive culture is sacred here in this great country and will probably never die.....thank God

Your average BA Falcon XT or Commodore executive is built on a tight budget by these two companies as they have to keep the prices around the 32K mark

Some would say the large car is on death row. Also, these days you'd be referring to a BF XT Falcon or a VE Omega - around the 34k mark.

Welcome to the forums

[Clivey]

One of the things that bugs me is that european cars have tendancy of expiring where our cars just keep going.....so you have options sitting there with a radio knob in your hand or sitting their waiting for a tow truck...i dont know about you but i can live with out a radio

Ah yes, but there is a VERY good reason for that...

...you see, you Australians can afford to run large displacement engines, which aren't tuned very highly (low stress), so whilst you still get good performance because of the sheer size of the engine, it still lasts longer.

Us Europeans demand lower short term running costs, so we adopt a different strategy. Smaller capacity engines in a higher state of tune. So whereas you use a 4.0-litre 6-cylinder to produce 250-ish BHP, we'd be using just a 3.0-litre.

And as we know from racing, engines in a higher state of tune don't last as long and also need more maintenence. Fortunately, our recent emphasis on diesel power provides us with both performance and longevity. My Astra for example, can go upto 30,000 miles without needing a service...!

[SlickHolden]

But also we demand more from our cars and we also might have more open roads to travel,, But we tow with our cars family in them shop in them drag in them it's the full Monty.

[Clivey]

But also we demand more from our cars and we also might have more open roads to travel,, But we tow with our cars family in them shop in them drag in them it's the full Monty.

We do the whole family / shopping thing but in the UK, if you drag you're more-or less guaranteed a fistful of speeding tickets and a lynching from a mob of misinformed, mealy-mouthed, easily offended, do-gooder sons-of-bitches.

And also, you'd find that you wouldn't even want to try towing if you had to pay our fuel prices...!

[clutch-monkey]

Ah yes, but there is a VERY good reason for that...

...you see, you Australians can afford to run large displacement engines, which aren't tuned very highly (low stress), so whilst you still get good performance because of the sheer size of the engine, it still lasts longer.

Us Europeans demand lower short term running costs, so we adopt a different strategy. Smaller capacity engines in a higher state of tune. So whereas you use a 4.0-litre 6-cylinder to produce 250-ish BHP, we'd be using just a 3.0-litre.

And as we know from racing, engines in a higher state of tune don't last as long and also need more maintenence. Fortunately, our recent emphasis on diesel power provides us with both performance and longevity. My Astra for example, can go upto 30,000 miles without needing a service...!

it's probably incidental rather than deliberate but running larger, less stressed engines means tuners can have their way with it and get easy gains with simple mods, not to mention huge horsepower if you really want it i think the XR6 turbo for example gets 400hp with under a grand in mods, and can get up to 500-600 reasonably easy?

[fpv_gtho]

300kw for about $1K as you say, and about 400kw for $6K. Anything more you need to start paying alot more as you need to upgrade the rods, turbo, intake etc. Even for 300kw you need new valve springs, injectors and intercooler because the stock units are underengineered to deter people doing this sort of stuff with a simple hack of the ECU.

[SlickHolden]

We do the whole family / shopping thing but in the UK, if you drag you're more-or less guaranteed a fistful of speeding tickets and a lynching from a mob of misinformed, mealy-mouthed, easily offended, do-gooder sons-of-bitches.

And also, you'd find that you wouldn't even want to try towing if you had to pay our fuel prices...!

LOL drag racing but legal track racing

[muso]

I was just pulling the Ford XT and Holden Executive out of a hat as an example since the competition in the large car steaks got really fierce in 2002 with the release of the BA Falcon range, but really since it is 2007 the XT and Omega is more appropriate.

I think that possibly the LPG rebate may save the large car culture here, I feel that there would be a large number of people who would rather convert to gas than go front wheel drive smaller car as the family car, LPG installations and reliability is improving especially with the direct injection LPG kits available now.
Cheers for the welcome Adrenaline.

[SlickHolden]

These LPG installers need to really lift there game fast as many seem backyard like and it's amazing how many people have complaints.
It's fine the government wants to give rebates for LPG conversions, But now every man and his dog wants to install them, Like the GST accountants is the in thing .

[Clivey]

LPG: FAIL.

Reasons? Less boot space, more weight, less performance, more re-fuelling and an ugly second fuel cap on the bodywork.

Bio-ethanol: FTW.

Reasons? Same fuel tank, same weight, better performance and better for the planet AND you can tell those enviro-c*nts to **** off!

[clutch-monkey]

i want ethanol in full force in QLD, i mean what the hell else are the sugar cane growers doing apart from going broke. make use of your damn crops, they're perfect for making ethanol damnit

[IBrake4Rainbows]

they're sugar cane farmers - they do nothing but whinge. and get drunk.

like Pom's who live in warm weather