This is a page of general information, snippets of interest, and folklore to do with Australian Fords here in the U.K.

   Some more unusual and interesting information can be found

here

My old XB GT

This a picture of an impossibly young me, taken over twenty years ago, with the XB GT351 Falcon I bought with my first pay packet and a loan from the bank. Bought back in 1982 after my graduation and first month of work for British Steel in Wales. It was my two and a half year ownership of this car that started me on a lifelong admiration of Australian Fords.

Passing from the 1600cc Cortina in the background, to the 5700cc, 300hp, Falcon was a bit of a shock, but it was a great car. It never broke down, or gave me any trouble - except for the failure of a seal in one of the rear disk calipers - and the only maintenance work I carried out was the replacement of the lower front balljoints.

Sadly, in comparison to most U.K. cars it was very heavy on fuel and it lay parked for many weeks at a time and I eventually sold it in the late summer of 1984. I then never saw it again, until the last day I worked in Wales before returning to Scotland, when it passed me going in the opposite direction and it had been painted all black.This is a shame as this car is the one that was consecutively registered to Malky’s Landau, and the Burnt Orange paint with Walnut Glow paintouts is a relatively rare colour scheme, especially with a black vinyl roof.

I wonder where the car is now.

Some Falcons in the U.K. that have suffered

Yes, they are both genuine XB GTs. Yes, they have been in the U.K. a long time. And yes, the owner wants to ‘restore them’.

More rust here, unfortunately.

Interesting UK delivered Falcon tidbit. Click here.

Brand new Falcons and Fairmonts in the U.K.

How would you like to own a brand new Falcon or ute ?

Well, it appears that it can be done as this company

www.ecocars.ltd.uk

can supply you with one, and being solely LPG powered, bring you great benefits if you want to use it as a company vehicle, never mind getting into the centre of London without paying a fee.

Six Feet (down) Under

It would also appear that Coleman Milne, one of the prestigious coachbuilding companies in the U.K, can also supply Australian Fords for ones last journey on earth.

They are offering conversions on current model Ford Fairlanes, plus sell Fairlane wagons as ‘estate removal’ vehicles.

Chris from Canberra was visiting the U.K. in 2006 and was amazed to come upon this Coleman Milne Fairlane wagon, and sent us his photos.

U.K. tailights

One interesting piece of information that I have found is that some of the U.K. delivered XB Falcon coupes had their rear indicators changed.

Both the Falcon that I owned, and one of the rusting Falcons from the near the top of this page, were fitted with these tail-lights. It appears that a blanking panel was fitted to fill the normal Australian tail-light hole in the panel and these assemblies fitted over the top. Enquiries have found that these are probably Triumph tail-lights, possibly from the Dolomite range. The assumption is made that these were fitted to provide a white reversing light rather than the standard XB Australian practice of having the two indicators come on when reverse is selected. Interestingly, the other rusty XB has XA coupe tail-lights.

What they look like on a car, in this case a November, 1972 XA GT exported to the U.K. new.

And how they looked on the Dolomite.

Landau front sidelights and indicators

Another interesting U.K. lighting change was featured on the Landaus. Australian Landaus had the front side lights and indicators built in to bumper in recessed slots.

Presumably due to this recessed nature, they did not comply with U.K. lighting regulations, so U.K. Landaus had extra sidelight and indicator fittings attached below the bumper.

Where did these lights come from ? The Hillman Imp.

You will notice that the U.K. Landau does not have any holes in bumper for the Australian lights. This is because the cars were fitted with the front bumper from the equivalent ZF Fairlane.

Which had its sidelights and indicators at the front edges of the wings.

The reason for the change seems odd, as Australian Landaus suffered from the same light visibility problem, and Ford resolved it by fitting large sidelight and indicator repeaters on the Landau’s front wings. This obviously did not satisfy the U.K. authorities.

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