√Ford Falcon with last Australian-made V8 heads to auction again

The last Ford Falcon to be built with an Australian-built V8 is set to be auctioned for the second time in less than two years – but will it overtake its previous result of $355,000?

The final Ford Falcon powered by an Australian-made V8 has come up for auction less than two years after it sold for $355,000.

In May 2021, this Ford Falcon XE ESP V8 was sold for $354,759 in a Grays Online auction – not including a 7.5 per cent auction fee.

The historic Ford Falcon – a Ford Fairmont Ghia ESP by its formal name – was the last to be built with an Australian-made ‘Cleveland’ V8 engine, and was fitted with a gold plaque on its dashboard documenting its significance.

When it sold last year, its odometer had recorded just 60km since it rolled off the Broadmeadows production line on 25 November 1982.

Listed by online auction house Collecting Cars, the Ford Falcon appears to have clocked up an additional 7km on its odometer since it was last sold, now reading 67km.

Under the bonnet is a 4.9-litre V8 engine – not the larger 5.8-litre – paired to a four-speed manual transmission, sending power to the rear wheels.

After importing its initial batch of ‘Cleveland’ engines from the US town of the same name in 1970, Ford Australia started to make its own V8s in Geelong from 15 November 1971.

While Ford continued to produce Falcons beyond 1982, it was built exclusively with six-cylinder engines through the ‘XF’ and ‘EA’ generations until 1991 when the ‘EB’ was launched – with the US-made ‘Windsor’ V8 engine becoming an option on certain grades.

US-built V8 engines remained in the Ford Falcon line-up until the Broadmeadows assembly line was closed in October 2016.

However, the last Ford Falcon of all time was powered by an Australian-made 4.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine – and has been kept by Ford.

The 4.9-litre ‘Cleveland’ V8 which was the last to be built in Australia

As with all Fairmont Ghia ESPs (for European Sports Pack), this car for sale has two-tone paint – Silver Grey on top and Charcoal below.

The 15-inch gold-painted ‘snowflake’ wheels are still equipped with the original Uniroyal WildCat tyres driven off the production line more than 40 years ago.

Inside, the ‘Scheel’ sports seats and a Pioneer cassette player (with an FM radio) represent two of the sought-after features of the time.

According to the listing, the Falcon was not kept by Ford Australia when it left Broadmeadows in November 1982 – it was instead delivered to Denis McEniery’s Denmac Ford dealership in Brisbane and owned by the family until it was sold last year.

This is the second high-profile Fairmont Ghia ESP to head to auction this year.

In April, Grays Online listed a former Ford Australia press car, fitted with the more powerful 5.8-litre Cleveland V8. It sold for $170,100.

The Collecting Cars auction is scheduled for 4:30pm AEDT on 15 December 2022, with bidding already up to $80,000 when we last checked.

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