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Full Test: 2007 FPV Ford Falcon GT

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We Aussies find it amusing that our most American-inspired cars turn out to be so inspiring to Americans. As you've heard, General Motors is plugging a gap in its performance credibility with the Australian-built Holden Commodore SS, which will become the 2008 Pontiac G8.

It seems to us that the 2007 Ford Falcon GT would be a good choice for you Yanks as well. Ford's Interceptor Concept from the 2007 Detroit Auto Show and its 427 concept from the 2003 Detroit show suggest Dearborn also has a hankering for a full-size, rear-wheel-drive, high-performance sedan, and the Ford Falcon here in Australia is the most obvious candidate.

The large, rear-drive V8-powered sedan took root here in the Antipodes exactly 40 years ago, when Ford Australia introduced its Mustang-bred Falcon XR GT 289. Since then, an environment of sunshine, beer and barbecues has made the Falcon the kind of car that should be sold in America.

And You Thought NASCAR Came From the Deep South
Ford might squander the credibility of its nameplates in other countries, but the "Falcon GT" moniker has never been used lightly at Ford Australia. The seminal 1967 Falcon XR GT went right into competition once it was launched and finished 1st and 2nd in the annual Bathurst 500-mile touring car race. The victory prompted Holden to fight back with its first Monaro, using an imported Chevrolet 327-cid V8 in its Bathurst racer.

Epic battles between the Falcon and Monaro ensued through the 1970s, until Ford Australia unwisely dropped its V8 option from the Falcon range in November 1982. It was 10 years before the Ford V8 (known as the "blue bent-eight" by the locals) came back into production, losing a whole generation of Ford buyers to performance-minded Holden.

So influential and fondly remembered is the original Falcon GT that a low-mileage yet historically unremarkable example of the 1971 XY Falcon GTHO Phase 3 — in its day, the world's fastest four-door — sold at auction for a record U.S. $567,293. Makes you wonder what the Falcon driven by Max Rockatansky (you know, Mad Max) would fetch.

The Flight of the Falcon
As with the Holden Commodore, these days the Ford Falcon does most of its business as a six-cylinder fleet-and-family car. In fact, V8 variants constitute roughly 15 percent of each car's sales. Holden uses the 6.0-liter pushrod LS2 imported for this purpose, while Ford has a locally assembled 5.4-liter SOHC unit.

Your Falcon enthusiast can choose among a 310-horsepower 24-valve SOHC V8, 350-hp 32-valve DOHC performance Falcon XR8 or a turbocharged 330-hp inline-6 XR6 Turbo.

And then there are the image-making, limited-edition Falcons from factory-owned hot-rod shops like Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV). Back in 2003, FPV partnered with ProDrive (the English motorsports engineering specialist) and finally got Ford's performance-brand image together. Today the collaboration supplies FPV with a range of sedans powered by either a 362-hp version of the turbocharged inline-6 or a 389-hp DOHC V8.

Emotional Engineering
Named for its output in kilowatts, the "Boss 290" engine in our bright-orange FPV Ford Falcon GT test car is a transpacific freak. The 5.4-liter V8 uses a Mustang Cobra R block and 32-valve DOHC cylinder heads from America, while the pistons, bearings, inlet manifold and exhaust headers are sourced in Australia.

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