2008 Orion Falcon - First Pictures

[adrenaline]

LHD Falcon.

Unofficially, LHD is still a few years off. It would be nice to see LHD Falcons in the states so early. I'd say 90% chance it's RHD.

[SlickHolden]

Well similar glasshouse is inevitable. Think about it, its going to have a new front bulkhead courtesy of the new front suspension, but the rear is carryover from BA (i must stress however its nothing in common anymore to AU). The higher beltline put on the current chassis wouldnt have much structural support, damaging both the stiffness of the chassis and the side impact rating - the very thing that a higher beltine is supposed to improve.

Maybe in 2012 if they raise the rear or something they'll give it the higher beltine, but i personally hope it remains as is

I still can see some BA. Only because i can look at the pic and run outside and look at my brothers, We spoke about the high waste line and front guard, We then looked at his car and seen the line in the door that goes down to the front guard can be removed to give it a larger waste line, But from looking rear to front you can see a similar bulge in the guard, Minus the groove down the side it's similar.. But the 3rd window is way to small to be BA. and you can't see where the door meets the C pillar when it opens. And one other huge change i can see is the front and rear arches above the wheels are lower at rear and higher at the front, Like many commodores over the years when you lower the car the rear wheel goes way up in there, The front stays slightly above, Unlike BA with my brothers even though it's lower in the rear it sits perfect height front and back in the arches.

I agree they look like they're 19s, hopefully they are but I doubt it. And is it me or are the rear lamps sporting chrome surrounds?

Anyhow, it's good to see the Falcon at a US engineering facility. If only there were more shots to see if it's LHD or RHD.

Maybe not 19's for XR but hopefully 18's standard for XR6 and 19's for XR8 it needs some extra ID for itself, And 19" FPV with 20" option.

I was trying to play with the Pic to shape the taillight and all i got was this.

[adrenaline]

I was trying to play with the Pic to shape the taillight and all i got was this.

I filtered it, brightened it and tried to follow the shadows to get a rough idea. The most I could get was this:



There's just too much padding there to get anything remotely accurate.

[SlickHolden]

I was hopeing for a Vy style change, I'm trying to get my brother to change to one of them new tailights.
Like that it looks slightly audi rear??.

[Blitz_]

A bit uninspirational, especially the side glasshouse and profile. Nevertheless I'll make my final judgment when we see the whole thing.

[adrenaline]

http://www.caradvice.com.au/2946/200...rear-spyshots/

Those were taken a couple of days ago - it only shows some of the rear and the quality is not great.

[fpv_gtho]

Ford will be reluctant to change the BA/F's style formula whilst theyre also under pressure to accomodate both the Euro and American design features. AFAIK, it'll be more Euro than US and you'll see more Iosis than something like the 427 concept from a few years ago, which influenced basically all the new US Fords bar the Mustang. Those tailights look like they could just have the outer corner lopped from the basic BA design, and i'd agree the design is very Audi-esque. I believe it was an ex Audi guy who was responsible for the rear end of BA, and IIRC theyre still part of the design team.

[adrenaline]

Ford will be reluctant to change the BA/F's style formula whilst theyre also under pressure to accomodate both the Euro and American design features. AFAIK, it'll be more Euro than US and you'll see more Iosis than something like the 427 concept from a few years ago, which influenced basically all the new US Fords bar the Mustang. Those tailights look like they could just have the outer corner lopped from the basic BA design, and i'd agree the design is very Audi-esque. I believe it was an ex Audi guy who was responsible for the rear end of BA, and IIRC theyre still part of the design team.

Since we've seen the headlights, and they're definitely not Ford NA style, the only other thing that could resemble the US design language would be the three bar grille - which wouldn't work in our hot climate anyway. So for now, I'm predicting zero US design influence.

An insider on FAF said that the rear lights kink down on the outsides, or something along those lines. Not quite sure what he means by that.

[fpv_gtho]

Well it hasnt been a clear shot of the headlights, only the side has now been shown without any camo although thats usually harder to gauge the design from under camo.

[adrenaline]

With one photo in particular, the general shape of the headlight is quite visible:



If you look closely at the rims, they appear to be the same style deep dish types that the proto in the US is wearing. Except this proto has a spoiler and the US one doesn't.

[SlickHolden]

That front light is very MKII BF style, So maybe it will stay but be changed inside similar to VE?.

[fpv_gtho]

Thats just an outline for now though. Hopefully the internals are more Fairmont Ghia style than the rest

[adrenaline]

I decided to look into the rear shots a bit further and after some filtering, got something a little more defined. It's looking as if Wheels weren't far off with the rear:

[SlickHolden]

Still expect a BA type boot but surrounding's will change it seems.

Are they fake side skirts? They look to be oversized to give it that massive wasteline look?.

[adrenaline]

Still expect a BA type boot but surrounding's will change it seems.

Are they fake side skirts? They look to be oversized to give it that massive wasteline look?.

In the shots I butchered up they look a little off, but the original looks okay to me...Remember they have that padding on the side to hide the lower door sculptings.