2008 Ford Falcon Orion reader spy photos
November 26, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
Our friends over at FordForums have been lucky enough to snap the next-generation Falcon during testing.
As you can see, Ford has eased up a tad on public testing with this XR sedan doing the rounds in Victoria.
This Ute appears to be undergoing heat testing in some harsh terrain.
Our own photographer has gone deep undercover in his quest for a cover-free shot, expect more in the next week or two.
Print it: 
Blue blood,
yeah i ahve a feeling ford will finally run with the LPG angle i bit stronger now. someone must have thrown a bucket of water on them to wake em up cause i thought they were pretty damn slow in flogging it as it is quite a good product and one that no other manufacturer offers.
Trackdaze,
ah got ya.
they way people go on about the new suspension in the VE i was under the assumption that they finally ditched “Old Macpherson”.
Frugal one….
wrong car at wrong time???
well a lot of people seem to think that down grading to a smaller car will put another $100 bucks back in their pocket. as i said earlier when you down size you only gain back 2.5L or so. and not to mention what you lose in down sizing, a little of which blueblood just touched on.
why down size when you could jump onto gas and run for less than a small car. thats why i struggle to comprehend that people see small cars as a savior.
I take it your not talking NOS AndrewM when you mention gas….hahaha Although a NOS option could be good on the next Orion GT!
ha ha ha ha ha
yeah of course NOS!!!!! ha ha ha ha
gee wouldnt it be great to get that stuff for 50c per L
oh thanks for that link to the rent a cop. interesting shots and the last one was an absolute crack up!!!
Glad you liked them,nice physique ha! Sorry hope you don’t have beer gut!
So I guess no XMAS card for you then……thats ok I don’t want to get you in trouble! Everyone else is getting one though!
50c a litre ……..yep we really would be laughing…sorry for the pun!
Hey BM: What if car companies went the other way.. that is offered a relatively basic car and gave you an extensive list of options which you could add inorder to fully express your individuality. [do virtually anything]
The options would cover all areas:
Engines – 4-5-6-7-8 litreV6, V8, S/C, Turbo, Intercooled
Gearbox – 4-5-6-7 speed, Auto, Manual, SMG, Sequential
Brakes – Brembo, DBA, Slotted, Cross Drilled, 2-4 pot
Doors – Standard, Suicide, Gullwing, 2 or 4 door
ICE – Alpine, Bose, 10-12 inch Subs; 2-4 Amps 6-12 Speakers
Wheels 16-17-18-19-20 inch etc
Of course if you selected an “off-line option such as custom in car entertainment system using a premium brand name you might have to wait a bit longer.. as the manufacturer would have to send the car to a specialised retailler/installer
However; it would mean you would have a truly unique vehicle with all modifications covered under factory warranty
hey could you make the link for the rent a cop avalable please. would like to see
Where is Azza, Watto, NM & Woz?
No idea? I have sent NM and Watto emails yesterday and haven’t heard back still,I think Watto works late but NM ?
Me (Going Ford)! You talking about people who haven’t been here for a long time. Where is that twit “BENJIE”? We never seen that m0therf-ck-r ever since it had a break down on the World’s first islamic car post. “BENJIE”…YOU ARE A S**T HEAD!
Notice Jbot only comes around when a Holdenwoo fan comes and makes crap posts, then when we respond to those idiots, he comes around and sticks up for them by telling me I should go just for telling idiots to get lost. HE SHOULD GET LOST! We should not worry about a J”Jackarse”bot because it’s a total crappy robot!
Hi BM, Me. and others. Yeah I’ve hardly been near my PC for ages, it’ll take a while just to go through a few weeks of news and comments here ;-)
Thanks for the emails BM (I have a lot of replying to do), the security guard one was gold. He dead set looks like my cousin who is a nice bloke.
Also, did I see you go as “BFCOBRA” on Ford Australia Forum?
I guess you have been busy then ha……
You done ranting “Driving Fords”? You need help.
I feel so sorry for that Jbot, Only comes around just to stick-up for his most loved Holdenwoo fans. Notice he only comes around ranting when something like just before happens.
He said:”You done ranting “Driving Fords”? You need help” which totaly makes no sense what so ever. Geez, didn’t he make a fool of him self. LOL! :D MATE, YOU MADE ME CRACK UP LAUGHING….HAHAHAHA!
Did anyone on here or who ever runs the site notice that on that top photo of the XR8 that the headlights have that same scollop shape that they currently have. If so I would like to see a CGI image done with the scolloped shaped headlights
Driving-Fords, see that he’s gone? He’s never replied anything good to me, once I ended up with 4 posts in a row and it really pissed him off for some reason, which was nothing to do with him in the first place.
Hey me.he goes on about others making a fool of them selves, but he did in his post here at 29/11/07 @ 2:18 pm. God, that was such a crap comeback! “You need help” how many times have people used the comeback when it’s not specific.
DO I NEED HELP? …No,i’m fine thank you! :P
Ok word is that Ford have ditched the raccoon eye look………..they think they clash with the stripes!I didn’t like them anyway!
yeah and my word is they are pissing them selves laughing at the spy shots they are serving us.
i doubt the CGI impresions are any where near it
You think……..Ford are getting annoyed at all the undercover shots being taken though,mostly by this site! Didims!
yeah even though we have seen so much i doubt we have seen or imagine half.
all the early shots were fakes!!!!
i said that from the start too if you want to track it back.
the early ones look nothing like these.
hey whats your thoughts on the possibility of suicide doors on the ute? something has changed to the B pillar on the utes. its a lot narrower. perhaps its just to improve visibility? but when i had to tilt my seats forward just yesterday, i thought….wouldnt it be handy to have suicide doors like the Ranger and BT50.
but the falcon doesnt quite have as much space as the ranger and mazda variants that have them
ARH, the suicide doors like on the F-Series super cab on the Ute.
Look at the panel at the back windows on the early spy shots, then look at the new spy shots – No blind spots.
Congratulations BM.. the New BMW M3 has just been announced as Drive’s [Overall] Car of the Year for 2007
….and The VE Commodore won the People’s choice award for the second year in arrow. Just as it did Motor magazines Bang For Your Buck
yeah they have done something for the blind spot in the utes or they have left all the plastic trimmings off the window
WOW!!!!!!!!! did B Missile make the BMWM3?
well yeah congrats to you Missile
Suicide doors on a ute would be pretty easy particularly if they didn’t have a window surround [like the imprezas]. By not having a window surround there would be the A and B pillars wouln’t have to be as thick as they are.. Thereby reducing your blind spot.
And because both Utes now have a supercab design there would be enough metal to provide reinforcement and supprot for the more heavy duty hinges. However; the doors could possibly use pneumatic struts mounted along the doorsill.
Yet the reason the B pillar is so thick is to provide lateral strength incase of a rollover and the A pillar is for curtain airbags
curtain airbags in a ute?? yeah id like to see ute get the equipment levels of the sedan variants.
AS IF!!!
but even funnier that that is the utes still have far far better resale than the sedans
Yep I know Wheelnut……VE won people choice……congrats..I think !hehehehe
Very funny AndrewM……..NA IM JUST THE SUPPORTER LIKE DRIVE!
I really liked the “racoon eye” blackouts with certain colours. Oh well, I’m sure whatever FPV come up with will look awesome.
I really like Wheels mag’s CGI of one that’s yellow with black stripes and Racoon eyes.
If race control wont call that dirty racing on Holdens part I bloody will!!!!!!!!!! First Skaffies in front for how long…..then Tander just sits behind for a while then takes Skaffie ,Skaffie making it look like he was defending his position……..yeah right,tell me that wasn’t planned, giving Tander another 2 points the Toddles blocks Whincup for how long………slowing him and Lowndes down long enough for WRECK KELLY to catch up……then Reck tries to make it look like Lowndes was blocking him ………what a load of shit!!!!!!!!!Todd blocked Whincup and Lowndes and no bad sportsmanship flag!!!!!What is this Dejavo …!!!Come on Ford pull your head out of your rear and watch what is happening…..If Craig gets penalized for blocking WRECK and Todd doesn’t someone needs to put a bullitt in the officials!!!!! I am fuming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good on Craig for passing Todd I think….he was obviously slowing them down!!!!!! Shes all on tomorrow with Tander,Skaffie,Whincup behind Tander and Craig behind Skaffie…….GO FORD!!!!!!!!
I agree about the Skaife-Tander pass.. it would be fairly hard to prove that it was planned; all Skaife has to say is his foot slipped or he missed a gear etc.. and as their is no evidence to prove otherwise there will be no case
But in relation to the Todd-Lowndes thing that’s where the officials should take some action. [HRT have lodgesd an application with the IPO]
Because Lowndes went round the corner on the inside of Kelly bumped into him [which was fair enough] However after the initial contact..Lowndes made no effort to get back on the racing line but continued to steer to the right and push Kelly off for which a 40 second post race time penalty should be imposed on Lowndes.. But I’m not holding my breath.
Yet I can see this turning into a similar arguement as the Rick Kelly Lowndes thing from Last year
One thing I don’t get with the officials is that Steve Richards was given an MBF – Mechanical Black Flag for loose bodywork which he had to come in and fix [twice]
Whilst John Bowe was given an MBF for a non operative brake light.. Bowe was given drive through and could return to racing with the faulty brake light
Now if Richo had to stop to fix the loose bodywork why didn’t Bowe have to stop to fix the brakelight?
I understand that the loose bodywork could fly off and injure a [fellow] flaggie or sepctator. Yet if Bowe was to brake suddenly the driver behind wouldn’t know that he was braking have no time to react and plough straight into the back of him
Therefore; Bowe’s non operative brake light could cause an accident.incident which could cause even more damage and injure spectators or other drivers.
If a driver is given an MBF it means there is something wrong with the car and so should not be allowed to continue racing until it has been rectified.
Agreed and especially dumb considering the pit wall window was about to open!!!! Even more dumb they get a black flag for some one running into the back of them and causing the problem in the first place!!!!
Seems the only fair racer in Holden up the front was Jason Richards…….maybe he took pity on what was happening behind him and gave Whincup another 2 points…..hehehe thats what I want to believe anyway! I wish he would come over to FORD!!!!!!!
ah good to see a holden fan (wheelnut) seeing it how it prob was.
skaife has been around a long time and if he doesnt want to be passed he wont be. especially when he has half decent car speed which he did.
i dont agree with you on the lowndes thing though. lowndes was fully beside T Kelly when they brushed each other. it was the wheels that interlocked meaning on impact lowndes’s front kicked to the right. lowndes tried to steer out of it and if you watch the better replay it is easily seen that they were just ricocheting off each other. just unlucky for todd he was on the outside.
when initial contact was made lowndes was as close as he could be to the ripple strip on the inside line. lowndes never pushed him off it was the impact that put both cars into a pinball game.
yes but interesting to see how much todd must have been holding them up as once they got past they left rick kelly who was starting to give lowndes trouble for dead
How strange was that race the way the HRT cars suddenly became at the front after been at the back at recent rounds. And sepating Tander from Whincup letting Tander cruse at the top.
Soming sounds well rigged there…
yeah poor Richo has been hammered for loose body work lately. it must be pretty frustrating since it was someone elses poor driving that caused it.
he got hammered last round for that too and then got a black flag for not addressing it quick enough because he wanted to wait 2 more laps to do it under his pit stop
hey is anybody able to blow up a high res picture of the XR ute and see if it has leafs or coils? im just wondering if they might be testing an optional suspension pack for the pursuit ute etc
Yes, they need sports suspension on the perfomance range. There is a pic on this site of a base model which has leaf springs, but hopefully not with the XRs and FPVs.
Me they already have a sports leaf set up.
i wouldnt say they need a coil set up for the sports models, im just curious whether or not they will just to live up to the perception of having to have coils for handling
currently on the XR’s you get sports suspension with them and the one tonne springs are the option
Look at the back picture of the ute and you can see leaf springs underneath it. But if the XR ute is different or not, I supose they don’t need to be coils for sports ones.
BM.. are you online???
Just finished watching TG………got to put my car around the back…..see you Focus on TG????? Looks like Ill becoming to the XMAS do by myself….hubby off to China Friday…to kick arse and move tooling!
u can come with me then
Tomorow….
No planned Typical Holden Racing blocking & ramming tricks to win the championship like last year….
Well they have started the blocking……..
Cobra045…..U going alone too! You South or North of the River? Im East!
Im not off to the meeting today got to wash my car,its filthy! Hubbys going with my daughter cause Santas going too!
Time for Ingall and Winterbottom to do some panel damage…….come on Russ,go out on a good note for Ford! Bout time the Ford guys stopped looking after themselves and started looking after the Championship,Lowndes needs to get in front of Whincup and punt Skaffie off strait up,cause you know hes going to be trying to block the pair from getting to Tander!!!!!
Over the years Motor/Wheels have done comparisons between the Pursuit and the Maloo., and in the previous couple of tests; even though the contest has been very close.. the Maloo has been judged to be better than the Pursuit.
Usually; the main reason is because of the IRS in the Maloo – it handles the tight corners; undulations and change of direction better.
The Journos have often said that they can understand having leaf springs on a work ute but not so on a performance car.
So inorder to rectify this Ford could be considering an IRS system for the Performance models.