Retro Rides Presents Ford Falcon: How Fudging the Numbers Made the XA Hardtop a Reality

The North American model upon which Australia’s early Falcons were based was discontinued after 1970, and this provided Ford Australia the opportunity to have more input into the design and engineering of the third-generation Falcon.

Obviously, much had changed technically and stylistically between the XK of 1960 and the XY of 1970, but the arrival of the XA in 1972 gave an opportunity to add an even more Australian flavour to the third-generation.

Engineers determined that the old Falcon’s size was about right for Aussie conditions, and with the chassis and mechanicals now well proven, the decision was made to retain the 1966-71 floor/foundation and overlay it with a contemporary new Aussie-designed body.

Although a two-door had been a later addition to the first-generation Falcon range in the XM-XP series, Ford Australia didn’t adopt a coupe for the 1966 XR series, even though one was available in the States.

The two-door Falcon's proportions were reportedly sketched out on a restaurant napkin by chief stylist Jack Telnack

However, early in the planning stages of the Aussie XA Falcon, Ford Australia got the inside mail that arch-rival Holden was planning a sporty coupe, later revealed to be the HK Monaro.

In a bold move, Ford Australia decided to also include a two-door coupe/hardtop in its XA Falcon range, with legendary chief stylist Jack Telnack reportedly sketching the new model’s basic proportions on a restaurant napkin.

Interviewed for Bill Tuckey’s True Blue – 75 years of Ford in Australia, XA development team product planner David Ford recalled of the Telnack-styled hardtop: “The hardtop was partly driven by a sporty image… we wanted a hardtop to go racing… we could make it more differentiated at the rear. We could get bigger wheels and tyres which Al Turner (then motorsport manager) was pumping for – that’s why it had such enormous wheel arches, which looked pretty terrible with standard wheels and tyres on them…”

Kevin Bartlett and John Goss ended up taking the title at the rain-drenched 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 in an XA Hardtop

Despite its brutish good looks winning instant acclaim with many Ford insiders, David Ford explained to Tuckey that his analysis suggested the hardtop would be a financial dud, meaning this iconic Aussie muscle car nearly didn’t happen.

“When I’d done the analysis, I said: ‘This program [the hardtop] doesn’t make sense. You’ll never sell the volumes [to justify development costs] of this type of vehicle in the Australian market.’ But people [at Ford] wanted the hardtop, so numbers were fudged and the program [the request for the hardtop] went to the US and it got approved. But really, the hardtop was never a profit-making program… It didn’t make [business] sense but it made everybody happy and it gave us a better machine to go racing.”

In the next instalment: How the demise of the XA Ford Falcon GT HO Phase IV opened the door for the XA Falcon Hardtop to spearhead the Blue Oval assault at Bathurst in 1973.