Ford FG X Falcon XR8
If, however, you want a fast Falcon that isn’t fuelled by field mice and lizards and hasn’t been touch-parked by a cranky Wookiee or shot at by Imperial Stormtroopers, then the new XR8 is your baby. See, it’s faster than any previous V8 Falcon, it’s faster than any pre Miami GT Falcon; it’s even faster than the legend that is the Falcon GT-HO. The 2015 XR8 is the fastest. Oh, and it’s also the lastest. Actually, that fact is probably more significant than the sheer speed of the thing, because, as a bloke who grew up with V8 Falcons, the demise of the XR8 and its ilk changes everything.
That said, being a card-carrying sceptic, I’m inclined to view the XR8 as a bit of a parts-binner; a method of getting shot of all the spare engines and stuff that will be lying around now that FPV has built the last 500 GT Fs. But if that’s even remotely true, you can’t go past the facts here: this is a serious piece of hardware at some kind of bargain price.
How serious? Well, for starters, you get every single one of the 335 kiloWatts that twist off the end of the crankshaft of the Miami V8. You know the one: five litres, DOHC, a dirty great supercharger slung into the engine bay for good measure and a meaty 570 Nm anywhere from 2200 to 5500 rpm. Yes, it’s precisely the same engine that powered the FPV GT and it will go down as one of the primo engines ever developed in Australia (for it was, right here in Melbourne).
Now, giving the Falcon-badged XR8 the same welly as the FPV stuff might seem strange, but here’s where that last of the line thing stats to bite again: there ain’t gonna be any more FPVs either. So why not give the last V8 Falcon a monumental send-off? And this could just be the car that puts the ‘mental’ into monumental.
Given that Ford was emptying the parts bin into the XR8, it also gets the full FPV R-Spec suspension set-up, including the stiff bushes, stiffer spring mounts, thicker sway-bars and revised spring and damper rates. It also gets the 275-section rear tyre a 30-series, 19-inch Dunlop SP Sport Maxx with a 245/35 19 on the front. And the good news continues with the adoption of Brembo four-pot monobloc calipers up front while the rear stays with a single-piston slider.
There’s a new front end treatment that includes LED running lights and a bigger grille with what snapper Duff reckons is filled with ‘little coathangers’. The power-goitre on the bonnet now runs all the way back to the windscreen. The rear styling is a bit sharper, too, with new lights and a bit of full-length brightwork to cheer up what is an ageing design when you think about it. You also get a reversing camera and a thing called Sync 2 which, as well as a bunch of communication stuff a chap like me will never use, also thoughtfully includes a digital radio. Which is nice.
A large part of the XR8’s story, however, is what it doesn’t carry over from other models, specifically the FPV versions it otherwise draws from. There’s no teensy-weensy little dashboard gauges for stuff like blower-boost and oil-temp any more. Boo-hoo, you say.
But the reality is that these gauges were so tiny in the FPV stuff that you needed peregrine-falcon vision to actually make any sense of them. No loss there, then.
The other thing the XR8 thankfully doesn’t get is FPV’s stupid-beyond-words two-handed starting procedure thanks to the folly of insisting on both an ignition key and a starter-button. Oh, and they were located on opposing sides of the steering column. The XR8 gets one key that, like any other good ignition key of the past 120 years, does everything.
Hallelujah! There’s a freshen-up of the actual dials, too, but I’m not sure they’re any easier to read.
The V8 now does that cool thing whereby you only have to flick the key to the start position and release it and the computer will crank the car long enough to light the fire. Okay, it’s not new and other brands have been doing it for years, but it’s still a nice touch. And hey, when that bent-eight does catch, it sends a delicious little shiver through the car that tells you good things will soon happen.
And they do. Pull the lever down to Drive and across to Sport mode and you’re all set for big launch fun. Well, you would be if the thing actually had launch control worth talking about, but as it is, you either leave the traction control on and let the sensors nanny the Miami five-oh into submission, or you do what we did: switch the traction off and try to modulate the throttle for a decent take-off.
This is not as easy as it sounds, partly because the throttle-by-wire doesn’t give you much info on your current input, but also because the engine soon builds boost at even low revs and then the rear Dunlops make like a Department of Sustainability burn-off, but with even less control. Get it wrong, and the XR8 will march off to a high-13-second quarter-mile as the ’box shifts out of first at about 4000 rpm in a failed attempt to salvage a decent run.
Hold it in first manually, and you can’t react quickly enough (no paddle shifters) as it unloads the tyres properly and the V8 bashes the limiter. And all the while, the terminal velocity is screaming at you that there’s better to be had. A quick burnout to sticky up the rears doesn’t seem to help much, either, but if you’re patient and walk the Falc off the line, being careful not to cook the hides in first and force that short-shift, you’ll come up with a 13.4 or even a 13.3. And that’s as fast as she’s gonna go until you bolt on slicks. Which I’m yet to find on a factory options list. But hey, a low-13 ain’t bad (especially combined with a 5.17sec 0-100km/h time and 2.98sec from 80 to 120) and, like we said at the outset, that makes this the fastest thing with a Falcon badge ever to roll out of a Blue Oval showroom.
Handling? Well, familiar is probably the word. Let’s face it, the control-blade rear end has been around since the BA and the front end even longer than that. Ultimately, it’ll understeer but only at track speeds and only if you stay out of the gas mid-apex, because with the traction off, any prod of the noise midcorner will have it stepping sideways. If that sounds like it isn’t the best tieddown chassis in the world, then take it as read. It ain’t a widowmaker, but it is feeling its age a bit.
Despite the big front calipers and highend rotors all-’round, we couldn’t get the XR8 to pull up in less than 39 metres, but it was consistent and showed no signs of fading. The ride isn’t perfect, either, and those stiffer springs and bushes make their presence felt on stuttery stuff.
Even when you’re loping along, you can always feel that there’s plenty of poundsper-inch in evidence.But, in reality, the new XR8 does best what pretty much every Falcon V8 of the last 47 years has done best… making distances disappear. Point the XR8 at an interstate destination and you’ll roll out of her a few hours later feeling as though you’ve only just driven to the shops. The exhaust is nicely muted at cruising speeds and the blower whine is non-existent when you’re cruising but chimes in magically when you load the mill.
The steering and ride come together at speed, too, to help make light work of those biggest distances. The tranny seems a tad eager to kick out of top and back to fifth for mine, but that’s splitting hairs and ignoring the fact that with just 1600rpm or so on the tach at 100km/h, maybe that’s not such a bad thing when a hill comes along.
The other thing the new XR8 represents is probably the best value in bent-eight Henrys I can remember. Even forgetting that it’s destined to be a collectible model, the $54,690 (in automatic form) required for a handshake from a Ford dealer is peanuts given the amount of hardware you’re buying. The manual is even cheaper at $52,490 and is probably the version to buy if you’re keen on tucking it away as an investment.
But that’d be a shame, because, as a supremely competent form of longdistance travel that’s also enjoyable, it makes flying to any holiday destination within Australia look like a mug’s game.
In fact, the simpler interior and startup procedure and vastly cheaper price makes it more desirable than the recently released FPV GT F. And that car sold out before dealers had even peeled the plastic off the seats. Get in quick, would be our advice.
- BODY 4-door, 5-seat sedan
- DRIVE rear-wheel
- ENGINE 4951cc V8, DOHC, 32v, supercharger
- BORE/STROKE 92.2 x 92.7mm
- COMPRESSION 9.25:1
- POWER 335kW @ 5750-6000rpm
- TORQUE 570Nm @ 2200-5500rpm
- POWER/WEIGHT 180kW/tonne
- CONSUMPTION 13.7L/100km
- CO2 EMISSIONS 326g/km
- TRANSMISSION 6-speed auto
- WEIGHT 1862kg
- SUSPENSION double A-arms, coil springs, anti-roll bar
- (f); multi-links, coil springs, anti-roll bar (r)
- L/W/H 4949/1868/1458mm
- WHEELBASE 2838mm
- TRACKS 1583/1598mm
- STEERING hydraulically-assisted rack-and-pinion
- BRAKES 355mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers
- (f); 330mm ventilated discs, single-piston
- calipers (r)
- WHEELS 19 x 8.0-inch (f); 19 x 9.5-inch (r)
- TYRES 245/35 ZR19 (f); 275/30 ZR19 (r)
- Dunlop SP Sport Maxx
- PRICE $54,690 (auto)
Ford FG X Falcon XR8
Reviewed by Unknown
on
6:42 AM
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
6:42 AM
Rating:
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