Ford Falcon XR8 and XR6 Sprint Review | Drive.com.au

[@rodneymcgiveron]

G'day...Just want to make a couple more comments..Driving position..I have owned a few Falcons so I can speak from experience. I have a 2009 FG XR6 and a 2001 AU Series ll Futura now...These testers only drive the car for shortish periods.. I am a Ford Forum member and on a recent thread the topic was best cars on long journeys..Guess what...A vast percentage of comments featured various models of the Ford Falcon because that's where it's strength is..Once you own one and drive it a few times the slightly higher driving position isn't any issue at all..NOT AT ALL...Second point on car gizmo's etc..Ford Australia was ham strung for development money over the last few years of the Falcon , not least the FGX ....so the money was used to get the engines awesome (if not already) and make it handle and stop even better...This is a drivers car , not a toy..As for the Turbo 6...This engine is so durable , so reliable and so Australian it's not funny and for me I'll miss it even more than the V8 , and that's saying something because the 5.0 litre Aussie hand built is a FANTASTIC engine...Cheers Rod..

[@dc6191]

Cheers rod

[@jimclarke1108]

I have an FGX and i'm not in any hurry to part with it

[@NoOne56488]

The V8 is thirsty ? wtf are you guys talking about? I own a XR8 Sprint i get 500kms per tank. i get around 12lts per 100kms around town and on country / highway is goes down a lot more. It's how you drive these cars that matters. Mine is manual and if you use the torque of the V8 and change at 2k rpm they are really decent on the fuel.

[@oghawk]

Actually the v8 is hand built in Australia if you take a look at the engine build number on top of the supercharger. Yes a lot of the engine parts are from the 5.0 coyote but the motor is assembled from the ground up here in Australia. Unlike Holdens imported crate motors

[@oghawk]

+david stanic no idea what your comment is about in relation to mine.

[@oghawk]

+david stanic what part of mine wasn't?

[@oghawk]

+david stanic I own a 2010 HSV maloo GXP build #055 with a walkinshaw power pack. The difference between me and you is I don't have sex with it.

[@oghawk]

+david stanic waist of money? Says the clown with a worked 6L as his avatar hahahaha

[@awesomusmaximus3766]

With only 345 Kw perhaps someone else should build them as they are clearly not very good at it

[@gureno19]

the miami 5.0 arrives in australia as a block only. crank,pistons,cams,supercharger etc all all assembled in Aus, also they are forged pistons and crank as standard, then it becomes a coyote.

[@Cykoid]

+gureno19 wrong way around it comes as the coyote and the miami is the australian spec

[@314Pluto]

I am a Holden Man. I just purchased my first new Ford. $20.000K less for a super car! This one, i is raw. Everything that they say is wrong with it is true. I love it!

[@dc6191]

How are you liking it?

[@elizabethden-bakker597]

Hopefully we'll see the Falcon, and the Commodore return one day. Perhaps with a different name, who knows what the future holds for Australian performance cars, but personally I don't think this is the end of the road for these cars.

[@JoeKovacs81]

Great review. Shame the XR6T isn't available in manual.

[@coopsnz1]

Xr6 t can't handle more power than 350 kW . They will break . Overboost is 375 kW ford a smart with this dession . Ford have to engineer a car that will last its warranty

[@coopsnz1]

Meaning manual gearbox 6 speed will break

[@captainkaos754]

Just another outdated pile of ugly crap from ford following such lovely cars as xd xe xfs snapping door handles and drooping bumpers or the hideously ugly AU voted as the ugliest Australian car ever. Good job ford went out with a wheezing fg six cylinder ute as the last car down the line. A fitting end to decades of rubbish.

[@lukesm5747]

@@captainkaos754 🤡🤡

[@blumie006]

@@captainkaos754 your a clown mate

[@madrx2]

It would have been a fitting fairwell if they updated the interior. After owning 2xfg turbo's over the years then getting a holden colorado, I couldn't justify going back to ford with basically the same interior I was driving around with in 2008!

[@johnsbackwithcommonsense7628]

I bet you miss those turbos today year's later.

[@madrx2]

@@johnsbackwithcommonsense7628 Not in the slightest to be honest. Very primitive, and very costly to keep on the road when modified. :) Each to their own though

[@johnsbackwithcommonsense7628]

@@madrx2 I can live without Apple car play😂

[@madrx2]

@@johnsbackwithcommonsense7628 Once I got into a car that handles and brakes I could never go back 😂

[@geesehoward7261]

XR8 engines are made in Australia.

[@TheRguru1]

Yes, but it's still an American design. The 4.0 on the other hand is a fully Australian unit.

[@AutoDireto]

like, top de mais os falcons, queria gravar com um desses e com um taurus sho!

[@314Pluto]

I just got one because it is better value than the GTS. I phucking love it!

[@captainkaos754]

😂good luck with the pile of shit ya clown. Ford NEVER lead hsv on ANYTHING and even a vt gts was running 300 kw, keep your wheezing shitheap.

[@chabobox1]

​@@captainkaos754 Lets be honest now, who buys an XR8 or GTS or whatever because they want to get the best lap times or the fastest quarter mile time or most power. If you wanted a 4 door Australian sedan with tonnes of power just buy a F6 and throw the cash that you saved from not buying a HSV into it.

[@haydz1174]

guys gut is touching the wheel lol

[@kenmexted7229]

Happy to see the intellectuals are on the case.

[@jaegiarmoses3671]

They still have the 2008 interior 🙄

[@rodneymcgiveron9563]

G'day..YET ANOTHER DRIVING POSITION GIT...GEEZ.....These journo's are just all the same..Here's the REAL TRUTH.. The driving position is fine , always has been .. These blokes mostly would only spend a short time behind the wheel.. Ford Falcon's driving position comes into it's own on long journeys and long periods behind the wheel..Ask any Falcon owner that , and ask them if it's an issue after a day or two of buying the car.. NO IT ISN'T...You don't even notice it by then.. Get out of a Falcon after a few hours driving and you'll agree..Cheers Rod..

[@broke123]

Front end looks great the rear looks like a worse Mondeo

[@devilsadvocate2548]

Looks like Baskerville raceway.

[@tiger101757]

Wish this was in the U.S. with manual.

[@bigpole6715]

Crazy how cheap they where brand new

[@readie10145]

What's this guy talking about. The fuel economy is great on them. Only thing that needs to be changed is the air filter to a k&n. I could make 1000km from a tank easy. I was using around 5.5 to 6.2 litre per 100km. And they are the best cars on the road for families and a street guy. Two in one you can't beat that.

[@BH-rr8kq]

If dan andrews was a car journalist

[@secretninja-ri1us]

Ford hasnt given the autos paddle shifters because no other falcon has had them so its not a 'ford' thing to do. And to make them just for this car they probably wouldnt work very well because it wouldve been ford first try at it and everyone would end up complaining how bad they would be any way.

[@rileyyorke2217]

ummm. ford has produced more powerful cars than an xr8. just saying

[@mrjingles77]

Wtf, why no manual in the xr6?

[@xr6tgtx737]

mrjingles77 The 6 has boost by gear, way to hard and expensive to do on the manual in the time they had before the release.

[@Deano084]

Paddle shifters are for f1 cars.

[@rod1575]

This is the best ever falcon for 70k, this is why ford is gone. Just like Holden.

[@liamandrewartha4803]

it's the only car offering 4.7 sec 0-100 times in it's price range

[@liamandrewartha4803]

+david stanic but it doesn't seat 5 adults well, tow as well or respond to tunes as well, how much does it cost to get an extra 50% power at the wheels in a wrx? I can do that in my xr8 for less than 5 grand fitted.

[@liamandrewartha4803]

+david stanic mate not 50Kw, 50%, that'd be 140kw gain at the rear wheels. Done with a new snout, injectors and a tune.

[@liamandrewartha4803]

+david stanic also some owners don't care about resale, I'm not a bean counter. I also think your argument about loose ends in the wet is a bit silly; jest become a better driver.

[@liamandrewartha4803]

+Liam Andrewartha I correct myself, not 140, 119 with the tested car at autotech engineering

[@The401209]

Id never pay $60,000 for a shit box falcon I have an FG GT and I bought that used and glad I did not dump full price on it .

[@kenmexted7229]

Great review. What a wacky driving position. Makes it almost unusable in my opinion. If one was totally cold hearted and practical and was dead-set on a manual why would you go for the V8?

[@caradvice]

+Ken Mexted Thanks Ken!

[@liamandrewartha4803]

have you driven one Ken? it's not as bad as it's made out to be I assure you.

[@kenmexted7229]

+Liam Andrewartha Yeah. I know. I'm a dreamer. I would welcome an offer to drive one. Of course I would have one if I had the money. It's just in my opinion the Holden's interior looks better to me. Additionally, if it was better value than the equivalent Commodore I would go for it. Probably to a novice driver like me it would be the best thing ever!

[@liamandrewartha4803]

Well if you're looking at 0-100 times the hsv gts is the closest Holden to the sprint, so it's great value. I don't have the sprint but my xr8 really hammers along

[@coopsnz1]

This xr8 will. Blow away lsa clubsport . It's worth the money . Xr8 already destroys the ls3 ss

[@zdrougas]

Why not show us over boost?? Disappointed

[@SKEPCUNT]

it has to be 'Perfect conditions' for overboost function to work or something.

[@madrx2]

+DAMEDOLLA Apparently the overboost function is horseshit, at it always makes what it claims on overboost. It was for ford to get around the extra tax's and engineering requirements to meet if the car actually made the overboost power.

[@madrx2]

***** once again smoking the crackpipe. Why would ford sell a car that can't be insured.

[@lukesm5747]

@David Stanic The Holdens never make their advertised power though. It was proven that the 351kw GTF was more powerful on the dyno than the GTS with 80kw more...

[@SkiRacingOz]

@David Stanic remember when they tested a gts on the dyno and it made 330 kw when hsv claimed 430, me too

[@WillGoosestepOnYou]

Really love the aggressive front however that rear is just sooo ugly, what was Ford even thinking?

[@rajaindo]

they make a big deal over a carbon fibre intake 😂😁

[@coopsnz1]

That's because unions drove up factory wages , making our cars cost more than imports . Complain about the interior .... But understand our wages a 3 times more than USA . Meaning to put European interior I a xr8 or xr6 it would costs 80 k drive away

[@zbdot73]

+Ben Chesterman The carbon tax killed our car industry.

[@randomsrvapps]

That's what the government want you to think so we can continue the trend of record low wage growth. But I tell you the real reason is all the competition in the market and import taxes in other countries. For me to import a Falcon to a country like Finland or Sweden I am looking at paying 50% import tax on the value of the car here, which is based on the market here! So I could be paying more than $42,000 in tax for an XR8 Sprint. Seems pretty unfair as cars made in Germany are part of the Tax-Free Eurozone agreement as we don't even have high import taxes in Australia!

[@coopsnz1]

Yes ! But labor intruduce it . So the labor government are to blame for fuck up of the econimy . Them or unions . One of them is to blame

[@coopsnz1]

Min wage went up $15 weeks ago

[@randomsrvapps]

The import tax is government policy of other countries, not ours. Our economy is in good shape.

[@mrtonysantos]

the best falcon but also the ugliest...

[@dc6191]

Fg master race

[@readie10145]

I really hope that the falcon and the straight six comes back one day. It will be really sad if it doesn't. I don't want no 10 speed piece of shit mustang. How dumb to put 10 speed in them. If they don't know by now if you use more then 7 gears you must have a high rev engine. Otherwise it's a waste of time and any racer will tell you.... It's harder to get the gears to flow through and use all of them the right way. Look at f1 the idiots just change gears and when they get into the corner they are like.. Oh better go down two more to get the right gear. It's stupid. All about money and America. Fuck America

[@sourwords1808]

finally the end of a dinosaur. Bring on them stangs I say.

[@liamandrewartha4803]

sadly, even though it's lighter the stangs still slower, and not that much lighter that it would corner better. imagine the turbo 6 in the mustang though, then it'd fly.

[@marty.8225]

+No Way Granted Mustang looks better how ever it has only 306kw an XR8/XR6 Sprint would smoke a new Mustang.

[@captainkaos754]

Both piles of overrated ford shit

[@SkiRacingOz]

Mustangs are kind of slow unfortunately

[@SkiRacingOz]

Mustangs are kind of slow unfortunately

[@rajaindo]

just get a 300 srt8 for for 69 k better build quality, better tech and more power and grunt..

[@BrushTurkey]

Lol suppose you think jeeps are good quality to?

[@rajaindo]

+lord christ they are better than oz junk..

[@rajaindo]

+david stanic you did yourself a good favour by buying Japanese especially a subbie wrx sti, it will last forever got a liberty with 300000 k's on the clock still running like a baby..

[@BrushTurkey]

+rajaindo kru jeeps are the worst car on the road horrible to work on and build Quilty and design is cheep and nasty would rather own a Hyundai excell

[@rajaindo]

+lord christ nah bro your joking there sexy beasts, it's funny how I've seen some clock up 200000 k's no problems whatsoever..

[@XBOXDEMONKILLER145]

shitttt