15k: All Show No Go: 1970.5 Ford Falcon
The 1970 US market Ford Falcon is a bit of an oddball – it was only sold for 8 months and is often called the 1970 1/2 Falcon due to its limited production. By April 1969 it was obvious that the Falcon was being replaced by the Maverick, but sales of the compact Falcon continued into late 1969 as a 1970 Falcon model, however the Falcon name was transferred to a low spec version of the Fairlane and built starting in early 1970 and ending a few months later. The resulting anomaly looks a lot like an Australian market XY Falcon and was powered by anything from an anemic inline-6 to Fords fire-spitting 429 Cobra Jet. Find this 1970 1/2 Ford Falcon
for sale in Cabot, AR currently bidding for $11,100 reserve-not-met with $15,500 buy-it-now and 2 days to go.
It takes some getting used to the concept of a mid-sized Ford Falcon because the Falcon we all knew and loved was based on the compact chassis shared with the Mustang, Cougar, Comet and Ranchero. However as anyone who has seen Eric Bana’s documentary Love the Beast should be familiar with the Australian market Falcon, a bigger badder classic that you won’t find often in the northern hemisphere. The 1970 1/2 Falcon isn’t technically related to the Australian Falcon, but it is as close as we can get.
Pop the hood on this Muscle car and see the awesome…what? A 250 cubic inch inline-6 good for 155 horsepower and mated to a 3 speed automatic transmission…yikes. This may look like a tire burning muscle car but you will be annihilated in the 1/4 mile by a brand new Honda Fit. The only thing you are guaranteed to beat at the strip is a fat mall cop on a Segway.
This Ford Falcon is equipped with an automatic transmission and bench seats for cruising because it won’t be burning up the quarter mile or carving apexes anytime soon. However, even the most die hard traffic ticket collector must admit that the percentage of time he uses the 300+ horsepower under his hood is limited and most of the time spend in this thing would be cruising down the road pretending you have 300+ horsepower under the hood.
Could you live with the all-show no-go or would you buy it and swap in a Coyote V8? See a better 1/2 model year classic? You know the drill. tips@dailyturismo.com
Coyote V8, 6 speed, and some suspension work to make sure it goes around corners as well as it can.
But leave the wheels, tyres, paint and ride height exactly how they are.
Or how about a ego boost six and a six speed. With a little tuning maybe a coupla bigger snails you could easily out power a 428 and maybe even get acceptable(ok lower acceptable) mileage.
Cool idea. The 3.5L ecoboost V6 can easily make stupid power. ATP Turbo got 500 hp at the wheels with upgraded turbos and intercooler at 20psi.
atpturbo.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=tp&Product_Code=Dyno-Data-F150&Category_Code=35V6LONG
This one has me scratching my head. What was the restorer thinking? He adds non-original boy-racer bits, but leaves the 250 CI straight six. Weird. Either you are restoring a Falcon as a low-spec oddity, or you are building a Torino. But not both.
Bobinott
Nothing screams ….I'm confused!……like this does. And more to the point.who's paying 11.5 for a parallel world Seinfeld Torino with a lawnmower engine?Unbelievable.
Confuse, the 1970.5 falcon is number matching car. When originally built it was bare-bone car that didn't strain the piggy bank. Its falcon you can drive few hours away home. And you don't have 42,000 to 62,000 in one of the big blocks and may increase in value because the 1970 1/2 falcon low production falcon and scarce. Fca9122
Notta' torino want to be, its lite custom 1970 1/2 falcon and nice one at that. Fca9122
Notta' torino, its lite custom 1970 1/2 falcon and nice one at that. Fca9122