It may seem easy to dismiss Australian Fords as merely right hand drive versions of their American cousins. While this was true of the early models in the sixties, it did not take long for these cars to be adapted to the unique local driving conditions, and for later models to be wholly designed, with pride, in Australia.

When you occupy such a vast and sparsely occupied country with many miles of rough and tough roads, the virtues of simplicity of operation and maintenance, the benefits of crude but dependable and over-engineered components, and the luxury of large but understressed engines count for much more than the supposed sophistication of European products. Many options were offered to satisfy the needs of owners stretching across the continent, from protection packs that included sump guards and extra dust seals, to long range tanks offering capacities of up to 36 gallons of fuel, albeit with detrimental affect on boot space.

In adapting to the demands of the local market, Ford also managed to produce some uniquely Australian variants of their cars, most famously the ute and the van.

And, of course, Ford created the market for Australian muscle cars with their infamous and celebrated, GT.

One unique aspect of Australian car production used by all the indigenous manufacturers, and still prevalent today, is a two letter code to differentiate the various model types, rather than splitting them off by year of manufacture, which is the US style, or by Mark number, which we tend to do here in Europe (think of the various Marks of Cortina, or VW Golf, for example).

Let’s take a look at the Australian Fords.

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