Ford Falcon Celebrates 50Th Birthday In Australia

[f-wolf]

Ford Falcon celebrates 50th birthday in Australia

June 28, 2010 2:19PM

BEFORE the Opera House, before the jumbo jet, before maternity leave, before decimal currency and before colour television - before all of that in Australia, there was the Ford Falcon.

Fifty years old today, the Falcon celebrated its birthday with friends and family at Ford's Broadmeadows plant in Melbourne's north.

Cheered on by hundreds of workers, a series of Falcons rolled out across the factory floor, from the first, the XK Falcon, to the latest, the 2010 50th anniversary limited edition Falcon.

Beaming Ford Australia chief executive Marin Burela cut the cake with Victorian Premier John Brumby and Innovation Minister Kim Carr, as workers applauded and sang Happy Birthday on the factory floor.

"Falcon has been part of Australia's long life and part of society for a long time," Mr Burela said.

Mr Burela later said it was "a proud and personal day for everyone in the Ford family".

"Certainly I've been with the company for 26 years, I started in Geelong and I can remember my father driving his very first XA Falcon back in 1972."

The Ford Falcon is Australia's longest running car model, with almost 3.5 million produced since the first XK rolled off the Broadmeadows plant production line on June 28, 1960.

At today's celebrations, 50 years of Falcon models were showcased, starting with a gleaming grey XK Falcon, produced from 1960 to 1962, followed by a hulking canary yellow and black striped XY, produced between 1970 and 1972 and then an XA, which came out in 1972.

A red Falcon , popular in the early 1980s, was followed by a Falcon EA and then the AU, produced at the turn of the century as an "end of the softer shapes of the early 1990s, blending bold, sharp edges with the strong robust features of previous Falcons".

The final model, released today, was the new 50th anniversary model, with former Ford president Sir Brian Inglis at the wheel beside former Ford racing driver Allan Moffat.

Mr Moffat said the 50th birthday was a "marvellous milestone", alongside Ford Australia also celebrating its 85th year of business, a milestone "no other manufacturer" could match.

"If Henry Ford was reincarnated and brought down on to earth and was to hop into our 50th anniversary Falcon here today, he'd think he was on the wrong planet," Mr Moffat told reporters.

"Because (he would have thought) no one possibly could have achieved from a Model T to what we've got today in less than 100 years, he'd think he was in Pluto or something like that."

Ford workers Chris Tzotzis and Delmer Achilles said they were "very proud" to be celebrating the day.

"It's fantastic, fantastic, we're very proud, very excited," the pair said.

From : Ford Falcon celebrates 50th birthday in Australia | News.com.au

[bunna]

Chris works for me

awesome day, I got a bunch of great photos of my car and others, and it was magic seeing all the old cars alongside current production!

[Dillz]

Yellow phase 3

When are Ford going to produce another REAL GT that can live up to that?

But yeah congrats on 50 years, still the best decision they've made in recent times (in my lifetime anyway) was back in 2002

[f-wolf]

Falcon production by the numbers:

MODEL YEARS PRODUCTION

First generation

XK 1960-62 68,413

XL 1962-64 75,705

XM 1964-65 47,132

XP 1965-66 70,954

Second generation

XR 1966-68 90,810

XT 1968-69 79,290

XW 1969-70 105,785

XY 1970-72 118,666

Third generation

XA 1972-73 152,609

XB 1973-76 220,765

XC 1976-79 150,707

Fourth generation

1979-82 206,974

XE 1982-84 193,890

XF 1984-88 278,101

Fifth generation

EA 1988-91 223,612

EB 1991-93 121,221

ED 1993-94 72,571

EF 1994-96 192,100

EL 1996-98 133,461

Sixth generation

AU/BA/BF 1998-2008 322,000

Seventh generation

FG 2008-

From : Ford Falcon - Ford’s Falcon takes the cake | GoAuto

[bunna]

We had a good day...

[Ralph Wiggum]

Bunna,

Is it possible to go for a tour through the plant?

[EvilDaifu]

yep we could organise it as a forum event maybe?

[Murph-51]

will be seeking to see what mine is worth as a trade on the 50th Ann Turbs, bit I wanna see it in the flesh first!

Edited 08/07/10 11:26 PM by Murph-51