Australian Car Spotters Guide - 1960

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1960 Australian Car Spotters Guide


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1960 Ford Falcon XK
Australia

XK Falcon

  Also see: Ford Falcon XK to XC Car Reviews and XK Falcon Specifications
 
When Robert MacNamara became President of Ford in 1960, he immediately set the Company on the course of producing a new mass market family car (MacNamara went on to become Secretary of Defence under President Kennedy and, then, head of the World Bank). MacNamara's crowning achievement during his tenure at Ford was unquestionably the Ford Falcon. Ford's publicity department worked overtime prior to the arrival of the all new model in Australia, claiming it to be "Australian - but with a world of difference". But the truth was not quite so jingoistic, as the first Falcon's were really only a right-hand-drive clone of their American cousins. The similarities were all too obvious, but the sleek American lines of the Falcon were actually very much what the Australian public wanted.
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1961 Holden FB Ute
Australia

FB Holen

  Also see: Holden 48/215 to HR Car Reviews and FB Holden Specifications
 
Released in January 1960, just two weeks before the arrival of Ford's XK Falcon, the FB Holden directly reflected the changing taste and style of the 60's. Immediately evident was the incorporation of real "fins" to the design rather than simple chrome additions to the rear guards as seen on the FJ and FC. The design was 140mm longer than the previous model, and suffered a resultant power to weight ratio disadvantage with the outgoing FC.

To cope with the extra weight, Holden used heavier rated coils in the front suspension, widened the rear leaf springs and upgraded the brakes. The ever reliable 'grey' engine was bored out by 1/16th of an inch to take the capacity to 136cu in. Despite these changes to the engine capacity (increased from the original 132ci to 138ci), the resultant extra 3kw of power was not enough to compensate for the extra weight of the larger car and the FC remained the faster of the two.
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