Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo
 

Anyone here drive an Australian Ford BA (new model) XR6 Turbo?

I love my baby... :)

Mr Mephisto

What is it and do you have a pic?

^ exactly

Here you are.

Replaced a pair of rear tyres on one last week, but that is as close as I got. (13,000ks out of rears) Car was six months old.

How come we don't have that in the states?

OK, I'll see if I can get a pic.

The car is a large, powerful rear-whell drive beast.

240kW engine. That's about 330 Horse Power for you Americans out there, who don't understand the metric system!

4.0 litre, inline six, turbo-charged engine.

Sports breaks and suspension.

Non-factory full leather interior.

Sports "tiptronic style" gearbox.

18" alloys (don't ask me why wheels are still measured in inches!! haha)

Mr Mephisto

Now why don't we even get the cool American cars in the States?

Fantastic car bro! I've got a mate who just picked one up last week and another guy who's got the gold ute! Its awesome!

All you guys in the States miss out...both Ford and GM (Holden down here) make "family" cars that would blow the doors off most of your sports cars!

I almost got one..... but I got a MY03 WRX instead...... but the falcon is a killa car....

I gotta say, the Australian Ford cars are so much nicer than the American cars. Import them to us, damn it!

A) fuel economy
B) emission controls
C) octane requirements
D) crash protection

(regulation, regulation, regulation, regulation)

You guys ARE getting the Holden Monaro, to be rebadge as the Pontiac (I think) GTO.

Nice car.

Not as nice as mine, but still pretty cool.

Mr Mephisto

*sigh* Why do you Aussies tease us so? Evil!

From the article rogerd posted:
"This not only reflects on Ford Australia and its ability to build a world class inline six-cylinder mill, "

Where has the inline 6 gone in America? I honestly think it is, overall, my favorite engine design. Great torque can be had easily, simple design, and an awful lot of great performance cars and trucks have had inline 6's. The ones Ford used to make (the great 300ci straight 6) was a beast, as well as bulletproof. If maintained properly, 300k + miles was not unusual.

0-100kph (62mph) in 6 seconds?

That's quick, but it's not going to beat many sports cars, especially any other supercharged ones.

I must be in the minority opinion here, but that car looks like a riced out Honda Accord or Ford Contour (but isn't really "riced" since it actually has performance enhancements and not just cosmetic ones). It just doesn't have true "sports car" lines to it. It just looks like a sedan that's had a bunch of spoilers and trim added.

Looks like a really nice ride -- but I've had nothing but bad experiences with Ford vehicles... :(

yeah, i have had nothing but bad news with all the fords i've had.... will never buy another one. or so i thought, kinda ironic that i just bought a mazda..

Anyway, What platform is that based off of? Looks like they took their mustang, gave it a different body kit. or is it a completely different platform we dont get in the states?


hmm....just saw this. Suddenly im not too interested in it anymore
Good lord....id be lookin at a Z06 for that price basically. And i can garauntee you that your XR6 wont perform as good as that in any catagory except for seating (and maybe gas mileage :D)

The ones Ford used to make (the great 300ci straight 6) was a beast, as well as bulletproof

damn straight!

It's not meant to.

It's a large, powerful, rear-wheel drive car meant to nice long drives along Australian roads.

If I wanted a nice sports-car, I would have bought the Z60.

Haha... Well, it's not meant to look like a "riced" car either.

As above, it's a powerful full-sized sedan.

I think people who "rice" their car are laughable.

Stupid, OTT, spoilers, cringe-making trim, shiny (eewww) alloyed wheels, and even (God forbid), lights and neons everywhere.

How pathetic.

Mr Mephisto

So what are the side skirts supposed to do, anyway?

Different car. Designed in Australia and not based on any American chassis. At least, so I'm led to believe.

Completely different platform.

You can import Mustangs here, but they're WAY over priced and just don't stack up...

What makes you think I would want to "race" you anyway?

What I want is a powerful, SAFE, solid, rear-wheel drive car that has the comfort and performance to smoothly overtake at 100 on a freeway, doesn't feel like it's going to flip over on a turn etc.

Why is everyone now assuming all I like is childish ricey cars?

:)

Mr Mephisto

They

a) Improve aero-dynamics
b) Look nice
c) Give you somewhere to put the litle XR6 logo

(in that order)

:)

Mr Mephisto

Those sound a little "ricey" to me.

A) it was tongue in cheek

and

B) Ricey implies custom changes, does it not?

Mr Mephisto

:)

Looks pretty sweet, wish they had some in the states. I don't think I'd buy at the price. But it would be nice to see some out in the streets.

RWD... *sigh* God, how I miss RWD. Though I hear that Chrysler is planning on a RWD blitz in their full and mid-sized platforms soon. Hoody hoo!

Oh...narrow minded Americans...

how can you compare this purely factory built "performance saloon" to your "rexed" up Japanese jukeboxes that are really designed for the rigours of shopping mall carparks? Where do FWD Civics and Accords compare to this vehicle?

Big in line 6 cylinder turbo, RWD - and its $46K Australian, about $30K US...what can you get for that money up there? How much is a new WRX?

And the Falcon also comes in a 260KW v8 and an even more powerful GT model...

and we have regulations too...its just that we like our family cars with some balls down here...these things are our police cars too!

have you seen our v8 supercars...?

The XR6-Turbo is, anecdotally at least, faster than the 5.6litre V8.

So Motor Magazine says..

:)

V8 Supercars....

MMMMmmmm...


Mr Mephisto

Australian regulations are non-trivial in all those areas.

Also, you do get some Aussie cars; the Monaro Coupe is being rebadged into other GM lines for the US.

Personally, I'm not much on the big Aussie cars, since they're too Yank Tank for my taste. And I harbour a grudge against the manufacturers for killing the multi-class racing Aussie and NZ used to have...

Sucks to be in the States, then. Here in NZ we get the Aussie straight sixes from Ford, and plenty of the Japanese ones (Nissan and Toyota, primarily).

Would that be the (snigger) "Supercars" that got shat all over by Nissan until Ford and Holden pressured the governing body to change the rules?

nice car. would love to have a lhd of it. :)

Mr Mephisto, are you a Ford phreak ?? as you would know (more for the readers) most in OZ are either Ford or Holden and never the twain shall meet . . . for me, as long as they go fast, look good and sound good it doesn't matter . .

Having said this, no I haven't yet hadthe pleasure of getting behind the wheel of one of the new XR6 turbos . . although I am open to offers

I guess that could be true. I've always pictured it as cosmetic changes to a car that look like they're supposed to improve performance but accomplish nothing, i.e., "all show, no go".

Yeah yeah, but we are not talking about Godzilla are we? We are talking about performance saloons designed for domestic use and the fact that in the US, the best they can muster is FWD Tauruses as opposed to RWD XR6 Turbos!

You are opening a whole new can of worms...Godzilla's and the like are no comparison, both technologically and in terms of who drives them and their purpose.

Re v8 supercars...FYI

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/photog...id=5922&pnum=4

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/photog...pnum=4&pset=CS

Not a Ford freak at all.

I bought it because it won car of the year, has excellent power, a great interior and is a nice shiny red colour.

After deciding to spend ~$47,000 on it, I went the whole hog and opted for premium sound, non-factory leather interior and 5 full 18" alloys.

It's overkill.
It's expensive.
It passes everything on the road except a petrol station.
But...

It's mine!

haha

Mr Mephisto

Ok, here are those supercar pics:

[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SAANA4AVZQLOqwFEPU*SAkQ6L2hjj8D!IliMRwEGBE1EesmBvjCJRrx1THXU06rsVSePjjE!aiUAUuvQ2Olq7ZolEBrlGKP3A8YC68874LczAAAApHJuAg/PHITP_5922.jpg?dc=4675433365780574593[/IMG]

And one more for good measure.

[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SADoAoMVHgPOqwFEPU*SAsjNoz2FBL*cEb*iJ9Ka3TVn7TDdbZw1075K66!qqBgivsoemMlCpog2DX58*ghdnJ3BZ2lmh3t4Sz9EB6f!Js49AAAApHJtAg/PHITP_5943.jpg?dc=4675433366138493307[/IMG]

How can you compare anything produced in the US to these!

I suspect the best performance saloons in the US are the foreign ones - Nissan, BMW, etc.

But I'm open to reducation...

Well, heck, you shouldn't have mentioned them, then!

Besides, Nissan will give you many of the GT-R technologies in regular Skylines, depending on model; similarly, the higher performance Diamantes.

I know this. I drive an S15 200sx (Silvia) - it has a lot of the technology out of the GT-R but it is not a compable car to the XR6 - a two door, 2litre turbo coupe is not matched up against a 4 dour family car - different people drive them for different reasons.

As far as four door performance saloons go, the XR6 or XR8 would be my pick - hands down.