Ford’s Sprint to the finish
Children of the 1970s and ‘80s will be familiar with the term ‘big banger’, the heavily flared, bigengined machines that dominated Bathurst’s Mount Panorama and enamoured generations of racing fans.
For those who aren’t, the Ford Falcon Sprint is a car deserving of the modern comparison. Like the Group C touring cars of the day, the two-pronged Falcon Sprint line-up today combines a modest sedan shell with a larger-than-life drivetrain, a pairing that, ironically, is about to lose out to a newer, more relevant breed.
With Ford shuttering its Australian manufacturing operations in October and moving to an import-only basis thereafter, the swansong Falcon marks the end to 91 years of building cars Down Under for the brand.
The XR6 (driven here) and XR8 Sprint editions of the Falcon will certainly strike a chord with dyed-inthe-wool enthusiasts. But a closer inspection reveals mixed feelings about Ford’s last Australianproduced model.
The Sprint features black-painted 19-inch wheels with sticky Pirelli tyres, gold-finished Brembo brake calipers, a low-profile rear spoiler, black headlight bezels and distinctive exterior graphics. The XR8 features a black-painted roof and mirrors that separate it from six-cylinder models.
The Sprint’s position at the top of the range is reflected by standard kit that includes dual-zone climate control, satellite navigation, Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, digital radio, a reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors.
Let’s get the bad bits out of the way first. The latest Falcon presents much like the BA derivative first launched in the early noughties.
This is because it remains largely untouched on the inside from that model, and it has not aged gracefully.
Cheap, uninspiring materials adorn the dashboard and door trims, making for a stale first impression. This is combined with a much-maligned driver’s seat that is perched too high and a steering wheel that is positioned too low.
One consolation is that the driver and passenger seats feature partial electric adjustment.
Another key omission from the Falcon is ambient lighting, or for that matter, switchgear lighting. The cabin is shrouded in darkness at night thanks to unlit steering wheel buttons and largely unlit front storage places, which are plentiful and well-sized for odds-and-ends as well as drink bottles.
Ford Australia has managed to modernise the Falcon’s SYNC2 infotainment system despite the wrath of the bean counter. Sitting atop the dashboard’s centre fascia is an eight-inch colour touchscreen which intuitively splits the entertainment, climate, phone and navigation functions into quadrants. The most important changes for many customers will be in the engine bay, where engineers have turned up the boost, installed a larger turbocharger, intercooler and fuel injectors and fitted a 40 per
The Falcon Sprint is larger than life but also out of time. We enjoy a final fang in the XR6 version. By Sam Charlwood.
cent larger air intake (made from carbon fibre) to create the fastestever Aussie six-cylinder.
The XR6 Sprint’s turbocharged 4.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine officially makes 325kW and 576Nm, a 55kW increase over the donor model. Those figures can then rise by 45kW and 74Nm to 370kW and 650Nm courtesy of a transient overboost function that enables extra power for up to 10 seconds when the conditions are right.
Engineers say the XR6 Sprint is faster in 0-100kmh testing than its 345kW/575Nm XR8 counterpart, with a 4.5 second time rather than a 4.6 second time.
The engine certainly feels strong though not earth-shattering off the bottom of the tacho, but it is middling revs (specifically
3000rpm) where it really stands out from other XR6 turbos. Stand on the accelerator and the engine is almost maniacal in its forward surge, pulling hard until its cut out.
There is no escaping this is a big car, one that will still push wide in the front end through corners. Outright agility has never been a strong suit of the Falcon, and with an 1818kg kerb weight, this one is no different.
The latest upgrades to the Falcon are centred around performance, and it shows. The approach lays claim to the fact that the Sprint models are the best-driving Falcons ever made. Unfortunately, the rest of the car misses out, but all of that is really a moot point.