Mulally took a test drive of a prototype Falcon late last year and immediately fell in love with the car. After driving the 362hp (270kW) turbocharged G6E, Mulally told engineers the car was as good as the Lexus he had previously owned, reports GoAuto. “It must be very easy to get tickets in this car,” he told onlookers, adding that there was “nothing like this in our company.”
Unfortunately, Ford’s future RWD program won’t be based on the Aussie engineered Falcon platform. Ford wants to revive its RWD heritage but it plans to engineer and design its new models in the U.S. “The vehicles that we’re looking at will be designed where they’re engineered, and those global RWD platform vehicles will be engineered here in the U.S, as far as I know,” Ford group vice president of design J Mays revealed last month.
Ford is developing new RWD models for both the Ford and Lincoln brands but the new platforms will be developed by a new global engineering team with a focus on the U.S. market. New CAFE regulations will also have a major impact on the new designs and this is said to be one of the key factors for ruling out the Aussie built car.
Pictured above is the high-performance FPV prepped Falcon GT, a muscle sedan powered by a BOSS V8 engine and tipped to develop more than 400hp (298kW).