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A European from America - Ford Falcon in the (historical) test

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Created on September 1, 1960

Reading time 9min

Written by:

Günther Gebbardt

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Archiv

16

Archiv

16

Ford Falcon (1960) - die kompakte Limousine für die ganze Familie

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Ford Falcon (1960) - am Genfer Automobilsalon 1960

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Ford Falcon (1960) - am Genfer Autosalon 1960

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Ford Falcon (1960) - kompakt und hübsch

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Ford Falcon (1960) - mit brandneuem Sechszylinder mit 90 PS

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Ford Falcon (1960) - Platz für viel Gepäck

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Ford Falcon (1960) - viertürige Limousine mit schlichter Eleganz - Genfer Autosalon 1960

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Ford Falcon (1960) - als Kombi "Station Wagon"

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Ford Falcon (1960) - noch mehr Platz als die Limousine bietet der geräumige Kombi

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Ford Falcon (1960) - als Kombi mit der längsten Ladefläche bei den kompakten Amerikanern

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Ford Falcon (1960) - in den Stauraum des Station Wagon passt richtig viel rein

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Ford Falcon (1960) - der Kombi mit der tiefsten Ladekante der Industrie

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Ford Falcon (1960) - der Reihensechszylindermotor

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Ford Falcon (1960) - Vergleich mit einem normalgrossen Amerikaner

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Ford Taunus 17M (1961) - in der Mitte der Neue, links der Ford Falcon, rechts der Vorgänger

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Ford Taunus 17M (1961) - zusammen mit dem Ford Falcon aus den USA

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Summary

With the Falcon, Ford finally wanted to drive up export figures after the Second World War and counter the increasingly successful imported cars. Although the Falcon was almost spartan by American standards, it was a large and generally more luxurious vehicle for Europe. This historical test report, supplemented by illustrations and sales literature from the time, shows how the car was able to meet European demands.

This article contains the following chapters

When battleships become commonplace
Clear origin
Spartan or normal - a matter of opinion
A (relatively) economical Ami
Safety not the top priority
Conventional engine
Beautiful and less beautiful...
You get what you want
Could be the turning point

Estimated reading time: 9min

Preview (beginning of the article)

It is often small things that make us realize in a flash how our time and our thinking have changed - something we only notice in passing in the course of everyday life. This occurred to me when I recently got my hands on the smallest child of the great American car production, the Ford Falcon. The moment I sat behind the wheel of this modest road cruiser, I realized how much we have changed in the last ten years, even in old Europe. Not so long ago, American "battleships" on wheels were spoken of as unattainable super luxuries. Back then, most of us were still driving around in makeshift, patched-up veteran cars or in the modest vehicles of the first post-war production, whose ownership already reached the upper limits of our desires. The example of this one car drastically demonstrated to me how sophisticated we have become again when we perceive a car like the Ford Falcon, which may be the smallest but is still a real road cruiser, as a thoroughly European car, and when we can now describe a car like this, which not so long ago would have seemed like a real dream car, as modest, undemanding, even Spartan.

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