@emerygt350 - the ford man.

went for a big walk to stretch the legs.
sunshine = glorious, UV levels officially moderate according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
still got sunburnt.

#1
up a back alley area in inner city fitzroy (melbourne).
last of the aussie iron. 1984-88 ZL Fairlane. ford australia.
hubcaps = briliant. rare to see. most got upmarket awful alloys.
car was unrestored. probably a grand-dad's garage it came out of.

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#2
almost back home and at the garage down the block.
they rolled this out of the workshop just as i was walking past.
XY Fairmont GT. 1970.
rally car recreation.
not bad. bathurst globe alloys and shaker on the hood.

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Looks like a longer version of the late model Ford Taunus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taunus

Those wheels on #2 look just like my ATS alloys!

But definitely the crown jewel is the period correct club on the steering wheel of #1 HA!

and you would be spot on there @SirAndy .

the ford australia studio were in close communication and agreement with the german studio. both lots ganged up against ford detroit to try and do the "local".

the nick name for this series of ford falcons was the "for-cedes".
phonetically "fah-seedeeze".

we ran into an old ex ford engineer a year ago who told us the major obsession with the ford australia designers at that time was citroen. in terms of the interior design.
you can see it in the dashboard switchgear pods. same engineer was admiring my 914 at the time and saying how much he liked them and could remember them from stints he did with ford germany.

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they're called Globe Bathurst alloys.
those ones are aussie.
were developed in circa 68 or 69 for the falcon GTHOs at bathurst. (mt. panoroma).
the ATS would be copies - inspired by the globes, almost certainly.
or the two companies were related. but the vintage is absolutely around the same time.

they are very famous wheels. (in aussie circles).

the club lock is pretty funny.
someone would nick it because it is an auto.
you are dead safe these days if you have three pedals and a stick shift.
you can leave your car unlocked.

@Van B

figured out the inspiration for the globes and the ATS with a quick google.
both are "rip offs" of the alloys on ferrari daytonas.


unrelated products stealing the same design.
nice wheels. both ATS and the old aussie globes.

the ford guys will sell the grandmother and all her sisters to score a genuine set of them these days. they were all homologated by ford and it was a limited run back in the day.
lots of repros but like the 914 guys they are looking for the special marks etc on the back of them.

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Oh for sure this style is trying to replicate the Ferrari five spoke that pretty much defined the era. Crazy how some designs become icons...

That 80s beast aged well. It is interesting to see how many different styling ques you guys had down there. The ltd and Fairmont up here was not as interesting to look at.

the key move in the styling will be something you can relate to with your gen 3 mustang.
they lowered the belt line for the side windows using the rear view mirror to do it.
the move came from jack telnack who was a key person behind the mustang gen 3 and had been involved with ford australia before returning to the US.

so while Sir Andy is right, that there is a lot of ford europe (germany) influence in it, the euro sedans are smaller and they don't have the lowered belt line.

i think that is why i like this series of falcons and why i fixed up the ute.

its all here in link. tells the story of how the aussie design studio headed off the american proposal. these XD falcons on were really the first series that were not primarily designed in the USA. the joke about the mad max hard top falcons from the generation before is that they really aren't aussie fords, they were styled in detroit.
apparently henry ford II was a big backer of this aussie XD falcon series and gave it the go ahead.

https://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/class...as-ford-robbed/

these 80s falcons are now of interest.
i had a guy harass me the other day trying to buy the ute.
he offered 15K on the spot. i thought he was insane.
(its not for sale).
i'd probably get more for the falcon ute than the 914 in another 5 years.

Wow, I have never seen that model of a Fairlane. Thanks for sharing.

That's one of the coolest looking 80's Fords. Reminds me a bit of an Audi 4000 or something.