Features
Gallery 1
We could try to sugar-coat this, but the fact remains that the AU Falcon of 1998 was a bit of a stinker.
In volume-selling form, it was an ungainly thing with a whale-eating-krill grille, skinny little wheels and tyres, too-high suspension and a melted-at-each-end appearance. When Ford pulled the wraps off it for the motoring press, we all looked at our feet and toed the ground. Awkward.
But out of that disaster came the AU Series 3 and the Tickford derivatives. And within that mix was the rather special home-brewed 5.6-litre version. Designed to give Holden’s 5.7-litre Chevy-sourced V8 a run for its coin, Ford rolled up its sleeves and locally developed a stroker crank for the 5.0-litre Windsor, taking the capacity out to 5.6 litres, power to 250kW and torque to 500Nm.
With the 5.6 on board, the Tickford sedans were suddenly proper HSV competitors. That said, the bigger Tickford mill was never as smooth as it was in 5.0-litre form and it drank like a supertanker. Twenty litres per 100km around town? Not a problem.
While the TE50 and TS50 Tickfords were available with the 5.0-litre Windsor, either of them could be ordered with the 5.6, the TS getting alloy heads. Same with the long wheelbase Fairlane Ghia-based TL50, but only three were ever built.
In any case, those stroker-engined cars deserve their spot here because they showed at the time that factories didn’t need to borrow engines from parent companies; mumbo could be designed and built right here – and be extra proud of it.
To prove the Tickford engine was special, Ford took a leaf out of Aston Martin’s book and made up a little plaque with the engine-builder’s name on it and applied it to the driver’s side rocker cover. Nice.
What’s our fave Falcon? Check out MOTOR’s take on the top 10 Fast Ford Falcons ever made here.
