Classic TV: Ford Falcon XR8

Must be stuck in third!

A blue streak rockets across the barren landscape, its two fully ignited jet engines spewing flame as it accelerates to warp speed. Onboard, the pilot struggles to read the gauges as his body is buffeted by extreme g-forces.

You can imagine his surprise, then, when a couple of cool, calm and collected Aussie blokes arrive alongside in a black Ford AU Falcon XR8 ute. 

Ford Falcon XR8

The rocket-car and ute run in parallel for a few seconds before the passenger in the Falcon quips dryly: “Must be stuck in third,” and they accelerate off, leaving the bewildered land speed record attempter contemplating the meaning of life. 

It was a brilliant and iconic Australian advertisement at a time when Ford’s main product needed all the positive publicity it could get. 

Given the subject matter, it would be reasonable to assume that Australian speed addict Rosco McGlashan had some involvement, but the opposite is in fact true.

McGlashan demanded Ford stop showing the ad, telling Fairfax’s Drive newspaper supplement that the depiction of a rocket car like his being passed by a humble ute was detrimental to his ambition of achieving the world land speed record.

Furthermore, the fact that the depicted rocket car featured prominent Shell branding did his negotiations with Ampol/Caltex no favours, according to McGlashan.

Whether or not Ford intended to imitate McGlashan is unclear, but somebody in the creative team clearly had an intimate knowledge of land speed record history.

The name “ThunderBolt II” can be read on the side of the car. While having no Australian connection, it is clearly a nod to Thunderbolt, a mighty seven-ton monster powered by a pair of 1750kW 36.5-litre supercharged Rolls-Royce V12 aero engines, that Captain George Eyston piloted to 575.34km/h in September 1938, which remained the world land speed record for almost a year.