First Drive Review
Break down in the Australian Outback, and it might be weeks before they find your carcass serving as afternoon biscuits for something a lot less cuddly than Vic the koala. Just driving to the pub on the dirt tracks crisscrossing the endless landscape can mean snapping an axle, creaming a wallaby, or rolling off into the bullwaddy bushes before you grasp your first stubby of Emu Bitter.
Australian country folk are the most amiable people you'll ever meet -- except when they've been denied their "6 o'clock swill." Then they turn into New Yorkers. So cars built like locomotives with plenty of iron reinforcement, an open cargo box to carry the mates in, and a thumping vee-bloody-eight under the bonnet are the hottest numbers out back o' Bourke.
They could be popular again in the United States if we only take Shakespeare's advice about lawyers. Although this 2000-model Ford Falcon XR8 caused heart palpitations among Michigan ruralites, it will likely never go on sale here. Even with driver and passenger front airbags, it still crashes into barriers too hard, or something.
Well, the Aussies prefer to crash through things, especially when driving in regions where the largest obstacles have fur. Ford learned this soon after the first right-hand-drive Falcon utility -- or simply "ute" to the Australians, for whom truncating words is a national pastime -- hit the continent in 1961. Engineered for Eisenhower's freeways, Falcons quickly rattled themselves to pieces trying to serve the remote cattle stations of the Never-Never. Wary of their growing reputation for frailty, Ford relaunched the Australian Falcon in 1964 with a heartier suspension and larger engine. The 289 V-8 hit the options list in 1966, igniting a muscle-car war with GM's Australian subsidiary, Holden.
Higher fuel prices, protectionist tariffs, and a healthy "Buy Australian" sentiment have preserved the ute for decades while in North America, small, cheap pickups decimated the popularity of Rancheros and El Caminos. Today's Falcon ute is the platypus of Ford's global lineup, an evolutionary throwback dependent on isolation and a lack of predators for survival.
The lineup starts with models powered by Ford's Australia-only 4.0-liter SOHC in-line six. The ancient unit actually shares bore centers with the original 1961 Falcon six and makes up to 220 hp in the sporty XR6 model. The range tops out with the charmer pictured above: a sort-of Mustang with a back porch.
It's called the XR8, a real working man's trucklet dandied up with 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels sporting Z-rated Dunlops, four-hole shrouded headlights, and chrome-tipped tailpipes venting the effluents of the 248-hp, 4.9-liter V-8. This is the same engine that powered four generations of Mustangs and is now making its last stand stateside in the outgoing Ford Explorer.
The chassis feels as primordial as Ayers Rock and just about as stable in cruising mode. It corners with less tip and more slash than any of Ford's Yankee cargo haulers except the SVT F-150 Lightning, even though its 121.9-inch wheelbase is almost two inches longer than a regular-cab F-150's. Note to truck owners: This is what comes from a lower center of gravity.
