The TV ads showed a sedan rising into view; floating to the surface of a lake. The crooning TV voice-over spoke of “a bubble rising and bursting to reality”… as two more cars joined the first, driving arcs across the surface of the lake; walking on water under the tagline of ‘Simply Stunning’. Yeah, it was cool TV advertising from the rad days of 1988 announcing Ford Australia’s all-new EA Falcon.
This, the fifth generation Falcon, was a big step forward. Ford boasted of it being ‘a triumph of design and styling’ and there’s little argument. The almost all-new body – only a few out-of-sight underbody bits were retained from the previous Falcon – lost the hard edges and chintzy clip-on metal window trims of the XD-XF cars, adopting the smooth and rounded forms, wrap-over door frames, flush glass and steeply raked windscreen that had arrived in international car design during the 1980s.
Under that style, there was plenty of fresh tech. The front suspension was redesigned, including rack and pinion steering. The six-cylinder engines were now exclusively fuel-injected mills with new overhead cam (OHC) layouts in two capacities and with three power levels.
They’re not cluttering our roads as tatty taxis any more so these EA, EB and
