Ford of Australia

I've been checking out a couple of Australian search engines and sites about Ford down under.
The Australians have some very interesting Ford Models. I'm sure a lot of people now know about the Ford Falcon.

Ford of Australia, built the Falcon from the early 60's when it was basically the same as the American version. But in the late 60's and early 70' they did some cool things with this car.
The Falcon was available in a GT version with a 351 V-8 and was poplular in different racing venues down under including rallys. Then when the Falcon disapeared from the American market, the Ausies made the decision to redesign it locally and the name stayed to the present day on a localy designed and built car. In the early 70's their Falcon was like a homegrown Mustang. Just look at the movie Mad Max and you can see the black Interceptor, that's a Falcon.

Today the Falcon is the top of the Performance ladder in Ford's Australian market. They have a 5.4 DOHC V-8 version making major horsepower, but they also have a very cool inline 6 cylinder that is turbocharged and makes over 350 hp. They also have a Fairmont model and an LTD model built off similar chassis. But one of the most interesting cars they make is the Falcon Ute, their version of the Ranchero. Ford came out with the Ranchero in the US in 1957 and sold differing versions until 1979. The Ausies started building these half car half truck "Utes" in the 30's and still do.

One other interesting new model from Ford of Australia is the Ford Territory, their homegrown SUV Crossover. Based on Falcon mechanicals, rear wheel drive with optionlal all wheel drive, it looks very simialr to the US Ford Freestyle. Too bad we didn't get this vehichle, maybe as a Lincoln to compete with Cadilac's sport crossover. Could you see it, 5.4l DOHC V-8 with 390 hp and rear or all wheel drive.

I wish we could get some of these cool Ford models from around the globe.