Every once in a while we like to look around the world to see what kinds of deals are out there for the casual car shopper. Blame TopGear’s cheap car challenges and YouTube if you must, but we’re fascinated not only by the market itself, but by the cars that we did not get that would be plainly desirable had they appeared. Australian market cars in particular fascinate us, because other than the whole right-hand-drive deal, it appears that automotive tastes are pretty similar between the two countries. With that in mind and $5,000 of United States cash in hand, we decided to punt around Gumtree (the Aussie version of Craigslist) to see what we could come up with. Same rules apply: private seller, must have pictures, must come in at or under budget.
Within a few minutes we settled upon this 1995 Ford Falcon XR6 Tickford. It’s not the V8 powered XR8 model, and it’s an automatic, but both of those facts don’t bother us. This is an EF Falcon for those playing the model designation game, which denotes a 1995-96 Falcon. The engine is a 3.9L inline six cylinder engine. For those familiar with Australian motorsports and modification culture, this is not the wicked little Barra 4.0L inline six cylinder, and unfortunately, that’s where our knowledge ends. We ask our Aussie readers to chime in and bring us up to speed on the powertrain from here.
The entertaining part of the deal, however, isn’t so much the engine as is the “Tickford” badge. What that means is that the vehicle as a whole was reviewed. Think of the difference between a standard Ford Contour and a Contour SVT: one was spectacular at nothing, while the other was impressive off the showroom floor and with a tweak here and there, could really be something. These were whole-package cars, not just monster motor in regular everyday cars. Tickford Vehicle Engineering and Ford Australia partnered up for the XR-range, and the easiest way to spot them is the front end, which uses an Escort Cosworth-inspired four-headlight system instead of the standard headlights. For a price that converts to roughly $2100 in U.S. cash, we could get behind that deal. That would leave you with plenty of money left over to hunt down a local shop that specializes in turbocharging…Aussies love turbochargers on their six-cylinders, and from everything we’ve seen, it’s a tasty recipe worth trying.
Gumtree Link: 1995 Ford Falcon XR6 Tickford
Wikipedia has a good bit of data on the Aussie 6 history, it’s halfway down the page of all of the Ford straight 6 history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Straight-6_engine
There are plenty of manuals around too. pretty sure these where quicker than the 5.0 XR8 of the same era. and they go forever.
Also, check out the aussie-only AWD Mitsubishi Magnas( Diamante)
My dad had one of these as a work ute (think small pick up based on a car frame – like an El Camino) for a while. The clutch was like a brick, the steering was terrible and the thing had literally no brakes, but man it was fast. (well, as a 16yo I thought it was fast anyway)
I have the model after this ( EL ) 1998 model, but same shape – not the pig ugly AU that followed it) Mine is a genuine option 20 police pursuit car – so it has a warm 302, different computer, lots of GT bits, big exhaust and extractors, full Tickford suspension, etc etc. Oh, and its on LPG and petrol too so it has a huge cruising range, goes hard, handles brilliantly etc. Best though was the cost – guy wanted 3 grand for it, I grabbed it for $1,400 – had it for a year now as a family daily