Where has the time gone? Here we are marking the 50th birthday of the Ford XB Falcon. Half a century already? For many of us reading this issue of AMC (including this writer) it seems like yesterday, when those of us of a certain age were young and life was much simpler.
When the XB appeared in late 1973, Gough Whitlam was Australian Prime Minister (although not for long); Richard Nixon was US President (and also heading for trouble); Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Elton John and Led Zeppelin had topped the album charts during the year (on vinyl records, of course); The Godfather won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
CDs, DVDs, the internet, emails, texting, the curse of social media, mobile phones, digital cameras, digital everything else and even fax machines only existed in someone’s imagination, or science fiction. Colour TV in this country was still nearly two years away.
In our cars, most of us still changed our own gears, and all of us had to physically switch our headlights on and off and lock the doors ourselves manually. ‘Navigation’ was done by referring to a book called a ‘street directory’, printed map, or by relying on instinct or pure luck!
Growing market share
The XB hit the market on October 31, 1973, as the second of the XA-XB-XC triumvirate of Falcons built between 1972 and 1978 – and including what in the eyes of many Ford fans was the last ‘proper’ GT.
The new model Falcon was immediately well received. It needed to be, following the success of the XA, and faced with serious opposition from Holden’s HQ and the impending HJ upgrade, as well as Chrysler – not to mention the Japanese manufacturers. The likes of Toyota, Mazda and Datsun by the early ‘70s were selling up a storm with some very attractive and keenly priced small and medium sized offerings, even if sales success against the ‘Big Three’ in the large car sector was proving elusive.
At first glance the XB appeared to be a mere facelift of the previous model with a similar line-up: basic ‘fleet’ Falcon (which didn’t rate a mention in the brochures), 500, Futura and Fairmont sedans and Hardtops, panel van, utility and station wagon. The Falcon GT was available in both sedan and Hardtop forms as before.
Engine and powertrain options were also carried over: 200 and 250cid sixes, 240hp 302 V8, 260hp two-barrel 351 V8 and 300hp four-barrel 351 in the GT. Three-on-the-tree and four-on-the-floor manual and three-speed Cruiseomatic automatic gearboxes continued to be offered, the latter either through a column change or centre console T-Bar.
Of significance is that the XB introduced fully Australian-built 302 and 351 V8s to the range for the first time. This was largely a necessary move not only because US production of the Cleveland engine had been wound down but also due to the need to comply with the new Australian Design Rules (ADR) 27 and 27A anti-pollution regulations which had come into force, the latter and
