Road-testing the 1980 Ford XD Falcon | RetroFocus
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2019
- In this episode of 'Torque' from July 1980, Peter Wherrett road-tests the classic Australian family car, the Ford XD Falcon.
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I had an XD Fairmont Ghia 351 when I was a young fella. Loved it. Spent a tonne on it with go fast bits and suspension. Spent more on door handles too!
Peter knew cars and how to drive. I watched all his shows as a child growing up. He is greatly missed
Broken door handles, and that unique squeak when you open the boot, if you owned one you will know what I mean.
And the back bumper that always ended up drooping. Even this new model in the vid had a little droop.
Haha true
Interior rear view mirrors that would drop without warning. Handbrake handles that would shatter without warning, resulting in the driver punching themselves in the face...
the door handles were a top secret ford anti theft device designed to snap as soon as the xd s xfs xes left the showroom.
@Leonard Carr Wow.
Im 50 now, this was one of my favourite shows when I was a boy
The host, Peter Wherrett is exceptionally well spoken. He is much easier to listen to than the modern day buffones offering vehicle advice.
Very true.
Yeah he reminds me of Mike willesee
Most of the people telling us about cars these days know more about skin and hair care products than cars.
As a styling exercise, I think there's still a lot to be said for the XD. So clean and minimalist
What? It had the shape of a brick! No style at all.
No surprise Wherret favoured this over the Commodore, it was a communist design.
tissue box
It wasn't a complete clean sheet design though. It was a knock off of the Granada sold in Europe. Only nastier.
@@carsella11 MUCH nastier!
This is the first I've heard of this program and I feel a binge coming on. This presenter presents in a way that I very much agree with.
Driving taxi's in Brisbane at the time, I remember these cars well. Once the last of the Valiants and Kingswoods were pensioned off the XD was the only choice. They drove well even after 400,000 kilomoteres plus......if you could open the shit door handles to get in LOL. Thanks ABC, keep them coming please. See if you can dig out the test he did on the Leyland P76.
Now it's all Camrys ... and man, are they UGLY!
i had a XD back in 1990 what a great car took it to Sydney from Melbourne twice never missed a beat had it for 3 years then gave it to my brother
Finally the XD, absolutely love them! They go so good with a 351 clevo, a high stall, bigger tires on the rear, tramp rods and a beefy exhaust.
XA and XB were better. I had a XD with the Cleveland and it was slower than my old XB! And the dash was crap and the whole car was just rubbish. The start of Fords downfall!
What is this bourgeois waste and extravagance? Peter told you 3.3 is perfectly adequate; you don't even need the 250 or the 302...
@@rogermouton2273 It's obvious you are not a car person, so why bother commenting? Owing a V8 is an experience, not just daily commuting transport.
@@BatMan-oe2gh don't understand irony very well you do you
@@rogermouton2273 That is not Irony because it is not clear and just sounds like you are being sarcastic. Irony is the authors keeping the reader intrigued. Irony creates suspense that helps the reader become more interested in the story. The author uses irony to make the reader more interested in the work. Irony benefits the reader by catching their attention. Your comment does not meet that standard.
Thank you Auntie for these retro episodes of Australian television. Loved Torque, watched it as a kid. Keep them coming!
An interesting blast from the past, thanks ABC!
Used to watch it with my older brothers and Dad back in the day.
Rest In Peace ✌️ Australian Manufacturing 👨🏭 lest we forget!!!
The door handles were made out of alloy. And the way you opened the door was to lift up the door with force breaking the crappy alloy. I kept a few spare door handles in the boot for emergency replacement on side of road if needed. And the rust was terrible. Mines was under the cowling in 1 XD so water would pour into my boots when it rained. Another had rust on rear guards on a wagon. Had original wagon with 3.3 x-flow with aftermarket LPG, the kind that had a hat over the air filter to inject into it. On hills it ran like a bag of worms so always used petrol in the hills and lpg on flats. But man it was cheap to run. And LPG (1998) was only $0.12 cpl. They cut 1/2 the petrol tank off and put lpg tank behind the rear axle that hung below the diff. So If I drove over a supermarket barrier in carpark, I could get hung up on the lpg tank. Had XE Fairmont 4.1 (LPG), XD wagon 3.3 (LPG), XD Sedan 4.1 (no LPG), XF, EA (LPG), AU2 4.0 (LPG) I missed the AU2, traded it in last year with 460,000 km on the clock. Now have BA wagon 4.0 (LPG) and Territory 4.0 (LPG). 1 thing I missed about the XD and XE sedans was the fill point was behind number plate, was so handy.
Why can't we have intelligent people like Mr Wherrett back on the telly? This show had time to explain things in reasonable detail.
yeah
Virtue signalling to marginalised groups is far more important now.
Probably something to do with the fact he’s dead.
Because boomers didn't like what he did in his private life. He never got a gig again, poor guy.
@@nathanpie29 I said “like”
Had one of these behind me today; was a shock to see one still running! Looked clean though, so good on the owner for looking after such an old car.
It's great how he was never obsessed with huge power, he was reviewing what the majority of car buyers really need. Great!
He was a very intelligent bloke.
All from a man that wore a dress
It's a great review. The one regret is that Peter was testing the XD with the iron-head 3.3 engine (as evidenced by the lack of badges on the front guards), given that the alloy head version had just debuted at the time this episode was broadcast. Some of Peter's criticisms of the engine were addressed, at least in part, with the new engine.
Who cares what this bloke did in his personal life. He said it how it was when it came to car reviews, and assessed them for the every man, ie. Wasn't just talking about how well they slid around corners etc but was talking about comfort, fuel economy, safety. He wasn't scared to say something didn't meet the mark, unlike half the clowns these days that essentially run paid promotions of a vehicle
julian neave who cares about the presenters personal life? Jesus its about the bloody cars
I agree he wasn't a shill like the vast majority of car reviews.
What did he do in his personal life?
@TruBluHeeler oh is that it lol
@@TheTazzietiger Ahhh, crikey, so it wasn't even anything bad then. People can do whatever the f they like in their personal lives.
Love this old series, Tuesday nights or was it Thursday? on the ABC, Torque then Auntie Jack. Them were the days.
There are few episodes on here I have been watching. It would be great to see a no bullshit approach in a car show again like Torque. Wherrett told it as he saw it and gave equal positives to the negatives.
what about the naked vicar show?Funny stuff at the time.
Just wondering which year or years did this air?
@@benjaminbutler5844 for the XD?At s guess,sometime in 1979 (?).Don't quote me on that.
@@benjaminbutler5844 1980.
Interesting that he mentions the rear axle problems. The next model - the XE - had a Watts linkage added to the rear axle. There was a school of thought at the time, that Ford and Holden paid more attention to what Peter Wherrett said, than they cared to admit.
They still had leaf springs on the ute right up till the end on the Fgx.
Watching Peter Wherrets car revues makes me feel 12 again
His reviews are good also...
Makes you spell like you were 12 again too! lol
Thank you for keeping the original aspect ratio instead of cropping to widescreen. I was too young to see this show when it aired but these are the cars that were around in my youth. It's been fascinating to see them presented as they were when they were new, and I've enjoyed the less hyperactive style of TV from this period.
The problem spoken about at 4:38 was somewhat rectified from late '82 when the XE was released. As was the boot depth, with the spare wheel off to the side rather than under the floor. Also the rubber boot around the manual gearbox lever from the XE onwards looked much better.
& yet despite the XE revision you still couldn't fit a standard size esky upright in the boot.
The 351 was the best motor for touring in those days. Hardly any overtaking lanes on busy highways like the pacific between Sydney and the Gold Coast meant that overtaking ability outweighed any economical concerns. The 351 just needed a squirt and you were past a slower driver with almost no effort. Maybe on less busy outback highways this wasn't so much the case, but on busy highways, the 351 was the donk to have.
I think that people have forgotten/never needed to know how to overtake when you really needed to.
Bringing back the memories of being a kid and sitting in the back seat of the XD Ford Fairmont Ghia with its scheel interior and foldout armrest I found amazing Lol. I always wanted the Fairlane or the LTD.
The xds always looked great with 12 slots rims too.
I don't know if it was the times but speech had a certain tone to it that is nostalgic.
Omg this rego plate is still registered on vic road with a different car😂👌👌
Would probably be those new slimline black/white plates on European cars.
Bobman84 You guessed it! 2017 White Audi
Notice the interim rego label on the windscreen, so the test car would of been registered very soon before the test.
Proceeds to say how good the windows are while he pulls out on a car driving up the road n almost hits
Beautiful looking car for its era. Morons don't realise that literally as little as just 5 years earlier, cars were being built with those massive chrome-plated steel bolt-on bumpers, fully chrome bolt-on mirrors (which you have to OPEN THE WINDOW to adjust), and the old school, bolted-in massive round headlights (Kingswoods, Premiers, XA-XC Falcons).
This thing's fully integrated colour-coded bars, more modern integrated black plastic mirrors (which can be adjusted from *inside* ), & big integrated square headlights looked a *decade* ahead. It was *absolutely* one of the most modern looking cars on the road in 1980; it even made latest model Euro cars look dated.
The XA-XC Falcons lasted and looked better : These were the first shit falcons made and they haven't changed since💩
JohnoEAL it was an impressive effort. I remember being gobsmacked when I heard one for the first time. It sounded the same as the previous much older fashioned model.
Yeah those lights were great. 10 years later the plastic internal brackets broke from uv rot and you'd be driving at night spotting possums in trees with one headlight. 7" round sealed beam cost ten bucks then, gave no problems til a rock hits it. I'm not a ford guy but still think the last decent looking falcon was the xc, which by the way had plastic mirrors and you could get the remote option.
And all 1966 under the skin.
My father bought a new xd in red. Still my favourite car of the many he owned.
5.40....corner of francis street and perth street Belmont VIC 3216
Rip ford and Holden
I was hoping years ago in the early 90s when my father was working in Australia for a year and a half, and regularly brought Australian hot rod magazines back with him on trips to see us, that we would get Australian cars. Then, in 1998 or so, I saw an article in one of the US car magazines discussing the Australian Falcon. I believe the article was trying to hint to Ford to bring the car here, even in 4.0 V6 guise, so I know I was not alone in my thinking. We later received the '04 Monaro and up to last year the Caprice (after a gap from 2010 to 2015 when GM killed off the Pontiac brand that the Holdens were badged as), and brought us the Chevy Caprice as either a police car only model or a high performance Chevy SS. There was an article in the later 2000s in Motor Trend about cars we did not get in the US, and if there might be a chance it could come. The Falcon was mentioned, but it stated that the chassis could not be federalized, and Ford pretty much shot down any chance of getting a Falcon here. At least we can get some nice used Pontiacs and Chevys that came from down under!
Arh, the Great Ocean Road, without chinese tourists driving on the wrong side of the road!
Did you say wong side of the road?
haha I Wong thinking the same thing 😂
But Chinese drive on the same side of the road as us lol so do Japanese... on the left.
Japanese drive on the same side as Australia; Chinese drive on the opposite side.
Hmmmmm.....
I just inherited a 1981 Burgundy XD. My car 30 years ago, gave to my uncle, who passed away and its back. But needs major rust work as its been sitting around for decades. Will move it to a friends farm for now, maybe one day get interested enough to fix the rust and put it back on the road.
Best thing you can do for it is to install a modern Falcon six.
+1 ABC for releasing to youtube, I'm sure there are plenty like me reminiscing.
Do you guys have an xe one in your archives? Would be great to see!
Fascinating. As an American I’m not overly familiar with Aussie cars so I find these reviews quite interesting. Did they ever do any sort of performance testing like our equivalent show Motorweek? I would’ve liked power figures as well. Can’t wait to see more.
Can't wait till mines done! Couple more months till the resto is finished!!!
I had a 4 speed 4.1 lt XD wagon as my second car, taught me how to drift and do awesome burnouts.
anyone know if they ever did tests on the LWB versions like FD and ZK etc
Ah, I had a 3.3 litre wagon version. Missed it but don't miss the rust it had. It fitted more in it than my current falcon wagon can, loved those slab sides, curves take up too much internal space.
Lots of fond memories in the old XD waggon. Driving one is a bit like sailing on the tarmac.
Today I prefer Peter Wherett giving reviews of cars,rather than the floosies and tarts and knuckleheads doing it today. Very rare was there a motoring journalist well schooled and informative in his reviews.
I can agree with him on unloading most of a station wagons contents onto the side of a dirt road on a road trip to get to the spare lol.
Had a mustard coloured one, great car. Rust in the wheel arches starting chewing it away.
If Jeremy Clarkson did the witches hat test, I can assure you the windows would be tinted and a lookalike would be behind the wheel
Leaf springs and recirculating ball steering......
The equivalent Cortina had Rack and pinion steering rear coil springs and on the 4 version it had OHC and dual throat carbie.
The equivalent Granada had V6, Multi point fuel injection and independent rear suspension and rear coils plus Rack and pinion steering.....
Yes, the XD looked very modern and smart in its styling .....
But it's mechanicals were very 1960s
Even in the US the Fox platform under many comparable cars enjoyed rack and pinion a decent link rear end.
Very XC Falcon.
XD was the same floorpan as XR onwards.
Spot on. Funny how so many people were critical of the Commodore's "primitive" technology in the comments of that car's road test, when the XD's design wasn't even as modern as a 1971 HQ Holden!
@@blammy15 Exactly!
Regarding the spare wheel location, this way it's safer from prying hands.
And a puncture is a rare occurrence anyway.
Never owned a XD, I did own an XF, that was a wonderful car.
I had an XF aswell 😊 1987 with 4.1 xflow and 4 speed manual, GREAT CAR!
XE and XF were MUCH better cars - the XD was just plain nasty. As for Falcons, I wouldn't touch one after the XF
What a total bucket holy we were willing to fork out for any piece of garbage back then
mine went through 3 driver door handles in ten years, and two hand brake handles! first time the hand brake handle broke I thought this might be a bit of a wait for my local dealer to get one in, but he had a dozen in stock!
Dad had an XD for work but only had it for about 3 weeks before it was replaced by an XE in early 1984
Had an XD ute on LPG with a worn front end, no power at all but the best car on dirt roads ever. It seemed to drive itself.
That looks exactly like my old XD Falcon
Gee, the Great Ocean Road was empty in them days.
Was just wondering, how do these cars (on Torque) compare to those of 2021 in terms of handling?
Poorly
Love the XD falcons
Is there one on the XE falcon?
He would of liked the XE upgrades, coil rear end making smother, & spare wheel on the RHS.
I have driven 3.3 & 4.1 falcons, & the 4.1 is a heap better to drive, 3.3 is rather slugish & 4.1 still gets similar economy.
I think the show wrapped up by that stage.
I'm impressed they could get back into the car after the door handles snapped off.
KourniKovac : The crome handles off a Cortina or Granada were the same, but hard crome coated. Any time my Falcon door handles broke, I grabbed my English assembeled Cortina 2.3 Ghia handles, redrilled them for a self tapper screw to fit the XD linkage on the British or German plant door handle. The Aussie handles on my Cortina TE and XE Falcon were downgraded light weight muck metal. Asside from that, Granada headlights interchanged, and the car was great to park because you could see the corners and with out the power steering, lock and steerkng lightness was still good. Compared to my GH Sigma, the Falcon pointed really well and stoped well too. The later 82 model year alloy head and 5 speed used 16% less gas than the 79 iron headed 1 barrel on average and 27 imperial miles to the gallon at 100 kmh. It was also able to do 17.9 seonds quarter miles instead of 18.8 and 18.0 for the iron headed 4 speeds. Ford really put a huge amoint of effort under Edsel B Ford II on the.XD and XE's. Of course, while everyones driving Rangers and HiLuxes with leaf spring rear axles, Wheels and Modern Motor were bagging its leaf.spring rear anachoristic. Edsel faced the Lemon ruse after Wheels failed to give it the 1980 Car of the Year. Damn shame.
If only the ABC still produced shows worth watching. This is cool.
6:20 notice the XB behind the XD, but where is the XC?
4:33 "Wherever you go touring in Australia you're going to meet up with rough bitumen and dirt"
I wish the ABC had kept the original Torque theme music. That modern stock royalty-free rock music is quite jarring; the original Torque theme was great. Other that than, thanks for the upload, Aunty.
When the connection between man and machine wasn't separated by an abyss of electronics
Maybe, but modern cars are still more reliable, economical and safer, and I say this as a bloke who has three oldies that I love driving.
@@shebbs1 Generally yes. Many also have annoying little foibles introduced into the computer wall by morons. You can't keep adding layers of complexity and expect everything to play nice.
There's a happy medium somewhere
The 3.3 and 4.1 Falcon alloy head II and certainly the later 4 and 5 speed 4.1 litre EFi version was the equal of the BMW 528i that Peter Wherrett got 23 mpg in. The alloy head used 13 % less fuel, while the manual trans versions of the 4.1 EFi was almost as quick as the old 188 hp 4.9 4bbl V8 with a massive reduction in fuel consumption. Peters challange to Ford in particular responded to by Fred Bloom, Clive Humphries, and all the manual equiped versions were 16.9 to 16.3 second quarter mile cars with 180 to 190 km/h top speeds in XE and XF Fuel injected versions. Sadly, everyone started buying Borg Warner 3 speed auto equipped Falcons and Fairmonts, which took away all the fuel economy savings Ford Australia fought hard to win by using a Honda cylinder gard casting and BMW 323i fuel injection system.
memories my first car
FAB I had an xd Fairmont v8 I want it back
Same here. Rust free warm 302 Fairmont Ghia with LTD interior.
The Commodore MIGHT have better handling than the Falcon? Talk about an understatement!
Awesome! We had the station wagon. I learnt to drive in that car until the gearbox blewup!
Yup I had one . Remember the door handles I had to fix continually and the rear view mirror that I had to re glue to the windscreen.
Though must be honest and say that if petrol was cheaper I would get another.
That is a british ford granada?
Like the Commodore it is a German Opel or british Vauxhall?
Warts and all One take stuff. Very pleasant to listen to him.
XD Falcons were used in the TV cop show Bellamy made in Sydney and they used to thrash the crap out of them!!
5:16 "and it breaks just as well as the Commodore"... brakes lock haha!
Ah, yes! But notice that the front brakes locked, briefly, until Peter modulated the pedal pressure. In 1980, when most cars had discs on the front and drums on the back and no ABS, it was very important for the fronts to lock before the rears; it was a sign of good brakes, and not all cars had good brakes! A driver had to be good at braking back then; nowadays he must only push the pedal as far down as he can and hold on till the car stops moving...
Perpetually modern looking and have aged best in looks department.
More car reviews,please!!
I've only ever been in one XD. Was pretty damn roomy in there.
Cortina ?
Fantastic, the sister model in europe had a base model engine of 1,7 l and about 70hp. That was a dragster.
there was nothing like this in Europe.
At about 2.40, rabbit about the 3.3L engine, the reason they weren't popular was that they a "boat anchor", I know I use to have a 3.3 in mine (2021) now it has a tidy 289 in it
Reminds me of the mk2 Granada. I miss when cars were designed with rulers but still managed to look different, everything looks the same now.
stephen robson totally agree with you
The Granafa was far more sophisticated, though not sure how well they would have handled Australian riads back then, or now.
Why are you using this music instead of the one from the series?
It's funny the way he criticizes the spare wheel location. These days you're lucky to even get a full size spare. My last car didn't even have a spare, only came with a can of sealant!
Back when honest reviews existed!
Why people wax lyrical about these old Aussie cars is beyond me. Can’t fault Peter for talking up the quality- it probably was the best we had then. Still, they were poorly built and under performed. My parents always drove Falcons and as a kid I remember trips along the old Hume Hwy in the late 80s. Can’t say I feel nostalgic about any of those cars.
My 1st car, miss that 250 crossflow, you could actually do shit to it!
Seeing the interior brought back some fond memories of quiet spot in marribyrnong down near the the river with a young lady too haha
Love the ol xd but handled like a 3 bdrm house
Alexandertheaverage lol & 20 years later Holden still had commodore’s driving like boats “vt”
Joe Shabidu now in 2019 we drive plastic containers with safety features unfortunately
@@jh-a7167 your kidding right?? The VT was praised at the time for its decent ride and handling
@@sutherlandA1 Yeah, but that article was in the magazine "Rollerskating Weekly".
Curious to know where he wants the spare tire to go.
The roof. 😆
Maybe under the floorpan? Def the space for it
My FD and FE LTD has the spare tyre standing up on the right side of the boot.
Maybe up his ass? Who knows honestly where else could Ford have put it without losing boot space.
Tyre
There was just something special about the XD
The way it rusted?
Crossflow 200?
I can almost see the silhouette of my first car here in the US, a 1979 Ford Fairmont. It was my father's company car that he bought in 1984, and I was given it in 1988. It had a very weak 302 engine and automatic, but it was quick as compared to the 80s Japanese 'sports' and sporty cars of the time. I wonder if the US so-called 'Fox Body' cars (1979 on up Mustang, Fairmont, Granada) are related to your Australian cars?
No, the Aussie Falcon was based on the original Falcon platform right through till the day production ended, albeit in heavily, locally, refined form (you know, two heads and five handles!) Eg The XD was the last sedan to have horse and cart back suspension, although the wagons kept it till the end, and the 3 on the tree manual was available into the 90’s in the ute. Even the engine was the old Falcon engine refined and refined (eventually becoming the Barra; yes, the Barra is a descendant of the 144cu inch log-head Falcon engine!!)
@@cameronbrown7925 I was not aware of that! Thanks for the information!!
I used to carry spare door handles in the glove box.
Thats because GM used Opel/Vauxhall as their go to car researcher, which was well before they switched to SAAB as their research & Development cars. The XD falcon was based upon or used the Ford EU Granada as its base.
Nothing Grenada other than some styling cues. Headlights might interchange. Much as I hate Pommy Fords, the Granada had much more sophisticated suspension and steering. Not difficult when you look and see just how crude the XD was. And SAAB as R&D? No way.
Owned an ex NSW Highway patrol 302 with single rail; later turned it into a 383 with Jericho 4 speed, and got my grubby hands on info from Dick Johnson on setting the body & suspension up.
Miss that damn thing; now you can pay 10k for a rusty shell, or 30k+ for something tidy
Geez cars have come a long way. 82kw and 228nm from a 3.3l six cylinder engine!
I had a 1979 Ford Fairmont in the 1980s in the US. It had a 302, but only 130 hp, lol. Funny how I bought a 1986 Mustang with the 302 in 1989, with 200hp, and that was a rocket in comparison. Now, the Mustang's 4 cylinder engine has 320hp, and the V8 460hp.
@@culcune My previous partner has a 77kw Ford fiesta that probably weighs barely over a TON, Wouldn't pull shit off a shovel, i would hate to imagine 82kw hauling a tank that the XD was. mind you the XD 3.3 would have a lot more torque you would hope
I still prefer the 1970s cars (Falcon, Kingswood, and Valiant) over the new Commodore, Ford at least introduced a 1980s Falcon that still continue to keep most of what I loved about 70s motoring.
When life was free and easy .
Love the glimpses of corio bay!! Go cats!!
And the former nice wide dual carriageway that the Esplanade had, along with many of Geelong's streets before the fetish for bike lanes and stuff that have congested the city needlessly over the last 25 years or so. Even the number plate AQD...was a familiar sight from my memories in Geelong, it must have been one of the batches sent down for us in 1980.
youchop brings back memories when I was studying at GGS..:)
Hi I'm American so Ford didnt use the cologne V6 engines in Australia? I'm surprised the used the old 200 6 over there. We got that engine in alot.of Ford products in the late 1970's early 1980's in all our fox bodied Fords. It made 85 to 88 hp in America. What did it make over there?
jas4925 power wasn't a strong point but low accessible torque was!