This is a page with photos of the Australian Ford Fairlane.

ZA

The ZA Fairlane brochure cover.

As mentioned before near the start of this website, the ZA Fairlane was a clever extension of the XR Falcon, featuring a longer wheelbase - most obviously seen in the greater distance of bodywork between the trailing edge of the rear doors and the rear wheel well - and an extanded and heightened boot area. The four headlights immediately added an upmarket feel to the whole car.

Another photo from the ZA brochure shows the added area between the rear door and the rear wheel well. This became a distinguishing feature of the ZA to ZH Fairlanes.

The ZA featured unique tail-lights with the indicators centred and surrounded in the rectangular lenses.

This feature is one of the easier ways of differentiating the ZA from the ZB.

The interior of the ZA was quite plush and the dash had comprehensive instrumentation with auxilliary gauges.

The V8 engine fitted was the 289ci engine, similar to the XR Falcon.

ZB

The ZB Fairlane brochure featured a rather plain white cover.

But the car had some rather wild styled wheel covers.

Victor sent us some great photos of his 167.000 mile ZB Fairlane.

The dash

The instruments

Radio, heater and under-dash air conditioning

For the ZB, the V8 engine was increased to 302ci.

Note that, similar to Falcons, the data plate was installed on the radiator support.

And still present on the support panel is a Quality Assurance mark.

Here are the ZB tail lights. Compare with the ZA above.

ZC

The ZC Fairlane brochure.

The redesign for the ZC model involved the adoption of the very American styling motif of vertically stacked headlights. This was quite familiar to Australian motorists as version of the US Ford Galaxie were sold there. For the Fairlane it had the benefit of raising the front wings of the car, and giving a bulk to match its raised boot and rear wings, and made it reasonably more difficult to actually see the XW Falcon that lurked underneath.

As with all the three styling ‘pairs’ of Fairlanes, the ZA-ZB, the ZC-ZD and the ZF-ZG, the easiest way to tell them apart is by the grille, and the tail-lights.

The ZC had a prominent horizontally split ‘twin’ grille, as seen above and in the brochure photo, and the tail-lights are of a three lens pattern - red over amber over red - as seen below, also from the brochure.

However, in a somewhat retrograde step, the dash became much more plain, and the extra gauges vanished.

An intriguing decision considering that the ZC Fairlane could be fitted with a four-barrel carb equipped, 290hp version of the 351ci Windsor V8, similar to that fitted to the XW GT Falcon.

ZD

The ZD Fairlane brochure cover.

Again, being a white brochure it does not transfer too well to a white page. Apologies.

The ZD Fairlane featured a new grille which was plastic, and therefore was quite radical for cars of that time. The style is noticably different from that of the ZC.

The tail-lights have now become two sections - red over amber - with a chrome divider.

Inside the rather spartan dash was unchanged.

And, while the six cylinder and 302ci V8 engines were also unchanged, the big 351ci V8 was now of the more modern Cleveland type, but fitted with a two barrel carb and rated at 250hp.

ZF

The ZF Fairlane brochure

The four series of earlier Fairlanes - ZA to -ZD - were Australian styling off-shoots of their respective Falcons, which were in turn all off-shoots of the 1966 U.S. Ford Falcon. The ZF Fairlane on the other hand was an off-shoot of the wholly Australian designed XA Falcon, and as such is quite significant. Unfortunately, buyers did not think it was sufficiently removed in looks from the Falcon on which it was based, and sales suffered accordingly.

You can see in the above that Ford continued with the policy of stretching the ZF by adding length to the wheelbase between the rear door and the wheelwell.

ZG

The ZG Fairlane brochure cover

Continuing the two series cycle trend, Ford tweaked the front and rear of the ZG Fairlane. They were also well aware of the negative comments that they were receiving regarding the lack of distinction of the Fairlane from the Falcon, and solved this by subtely giving the front of the ZG more presence with the use of the new grille, but also as a benefit of the handsome and different restyle they gave the front of the XB Falcon. The XB and the ZG now looked quite dis-similar.

Notice the redesign of the tail-lights with a noticable cross hatch pattern to echo the new front grille.

ZH

As the XC model Falcon was another facelift of the preceeding XB, Ford decided to do something more radical with the corresponding ZH Fairlane, and in doing so, somewhat returned it to its ‘big car’ American roots by giving a restyle that seemed to bulk it out to something unrecognisable as a Falcon. It remains a handsome and rugged looking car to this day.

The South African ZC

Ford South Africa sold the Australian ZC Fairlane in their own country, and had their own catalogue.

While much of the text and all of the photographs are similar to the Australian brochure, what is interesting is that in South Africa, the six cylinder engine was not offered at all, the 302ci engine ‘lost’ 10hp and the big 351 was not, as in the Australian ZC, the four barrel, 290hp GT version, but the tow barrel 250hp version.

Thanks to Jason for these scans.

Jason also sent us this scan of the South African XW Fairmont brochure. It is worth comparison with the Australian brochure because there only ever was a Fairmont model in South Africa, but they use dressed up photos of the standard models in the Australian brochure to represent Fairmonts. The art of the airbrush.

South African XW Fairmont

And, just in case you were wondering, yes, it was available in Afrikans as well.

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