Ford AU2 Falcon XR6 - Rare Options. SAVED!!!! 

Here is my AU2 Ford Falcon XR6 with some rare options. I saved it from being turned into a Drift car!! We need to save our Aussie automotive history so that’s what I did - SAVED IT! Did I do the right thing Ford Fans? Please give the XR6 a 👍Like👍 and be sure to Subscribe to the channel for more old car videos. Thanks for watching. 👍

Awesome! Sad see so many half decent AUs being destroyed. Territory intake pipe aswell

Great job on saving the car Mark. It's such a shame that the AU became the darling of the drift/burnout crowd as we've now lost so many beautiful original cars simply because they were cheap to buy. From my observations though, the prices of the better examples are now starting to rise and that can only be a good thing.

This is a million percent better than the Mazda 6 4cyl!!! AND worth saving, just like years ago when we were young Mark and all the XA Falcons and Valiant Chargers were all just wasted, wrecked & ruined as were valueless and young guys just ran them into things. Sadly the Holdens & Falcons from the 1990's have received the same treatment.

Well worth saving enjoy driving .

Another worthwhile rescue.

I haven't seen a bug-eyed Falcon for yonks. Good you saved one from the drifters.

Yes, you did the right thing. It would make a lovely weekend cruiser, for someone who cant afford an old classic, yet wants a unique ford.

I like that one, thanks for your channel Mark, JB sent here.

Love the AU XR front I have one on my wagon. Extractors are Pacemakers, air Intake is B series and looks like a E series thermostat housing, unless they drilled it for a external temp gauge.

Great find Mark. I picked up a low km AU3 Ghia last year because I wanted that VCT and the best independent rear ever fitted to an Aussie car. Wish it was a manual though. Anyway, look after it because it's very special and pretty much the best car ever made here. I still love my ED XR6 wagon and EH Prem but I'm m starting to see the AU taking place in Ford's Aussie history being like the EH in Holden's history.

Good one Mark, AU will be very collectible I reckon, they are like how the XA GT was, less loved than the other GT Falcons, but they are super popular now. Keep it & enjoy the XR6 experience. Gotta love the AU!!

Yeah well done, keep her running she will give you many years of good driving.

Lovely car Mark, you should also snap up an AU series 3 XR8 they are very nice.

Well done!. I just did the same, rescued a lovely Galaxy series 1 XR6 from a 'Skidder'. It was a 'one owner' with books, they deserve far better than that!! Nice car!

That’s a great save. AU XR fronts were the best looking of the different options and the Series II rear wing looked more appropriate than the series I bi or single wing.

Ruining a car to go drifting is so puerile. Well done for saving this good old girl.

Great car hated changing head light globes in these when I worked at a ford dealer

Well done on the rescue!

Yes. Great save Mark. Doing the same with an S2 Fairmont ghia. No manual though. Great vids. Keep em' coming!

Would love to see a big Ford gathering with the addition of some FPV GT'S ,Typhoons, and TS50's!!👍🚘🇺🇸

Nice save, mate!

If the paint's faded, the paint's not going to fade! My mouth's watering - this car has real potential.

So many of the AU's and Falcons in general have be ruined in my opinion by the 'go fast look cool crowd'. I saw a FG G6E here on You Tube start as a decent car and then progressively ruined with each step. For me I can't understand this "love" of having 800+hp in a Falcon with me thinking so you're going to be first at every read traffic light is that the object of having 800+hp?. So glad to see Mark you saved this XR6 from a fate which would have seen it in the wreckers sooner rather than later because the people who ruin Falcons into drift cars usually don't have much idea about car control which is difficult when your right foot is made of lead.

I noticed a nice BA or BF silver XR6 today in good nick and was admiring it's frontal styling. I personally prefer the AU 4.0 single cam engine as they were the best smoothest development of the single cam sixes and that AU XR6 front clip really sets the car apart. Those headlights are generic items that go on different cars, much like American cars used to mandate until the late 80s, which is why they are glass and to your liking as a result. I'm convinced manual gearboxes are kinder on the engine, hence why it's showing very little if any wear despite quite high mileage. That and it may have a lot of open road kms in it's favour. That car should polish up well. VCT SOHC and manual gearbox is a fairly rare and very desirable combination as you can exploit the high revving power the VCT provides.

My AU2 Tickford Ghia is quietly sleeping in the garage these days...Tickford wheels vintage burgundy paint ..black leather with cloth inserts...very low ks from new...one lady owner before me who drove it to Tickford club meets...Fantastic engines ! and Ford motorsport I.R.S fitted 18 x 8 factory wheels and Tickford brakes too !!! Great project you got there mark...Cheers !🤩👍

Nice pick up. Definitely worth saving. I had a sliver AU3 Futura as a company car. Apart from the lack of lumbar support it was a great car for country runs. The 2/3 updates looked so much better than the AU1, especially with the raised bonnet & proper grille. The depressed bonnet and toast rack grille on the forte was terrible. But on the XR bug eyes, the depressed bonnet was perfect. I really liked the Laser TX3 inspired EB Tickford quad lights, and the EF were nice too. The EL was a backward step IMO. I didn’t know what to make of the AU quads when they first came out, but they grew on me, and have aged better than the standard headlights (design wise). My boss at the time in 99 got a blue AU1 S pack. It had the triangle brake light in the boot spoiler, and horrible elongated S decals on the rear quarter panels just below the droopy ends of that spoiler. Sharing the forte front end did the S no favours. When it was up for replacement, they no longer had the S in the lineup. He was supposed to get a futura like the rest of us, but the dealer offered him a better option for similar money - a black AU3 XR6 (auto, no options!) and it was a drastically better looking car than the AU1 S. I didn’t miss my AU at the time when it was replaced. The BA XR6 I got after it was a far nicer car to drive, and if you didn’t see the door frames, you’d be hard pressed to know it spawned from the AU. Nowadays I have a soft spot for a nice AU. They were the make or break for Ford, and it pretty much did both! It ensured the BA would follow (and without the BA there would be no Territory or FG). Sure, it bombed with the media, but people still bought them in decent numbers until the market shifted. It would be interesting to interview the design team who worked their magic on the updates - clever details like the extension and profiling of the lower parts of the rear bumper, the side skirt profile change etc - not a lot of cost, and hard to pick unless pointed out, but they made a world of difference. It’s definitely a piece of history worth saving. And a good example of the flexibility Tickford offered at the time too.

exterior is identical to my daily car but mines a HP engine, auto with a solid axle

Glad you grabbed it and saved it from being destroyed as a drift car which would have wrecked the panels and red line thrashed the motor.

sometimes autos can be a bit slow on the uptake when you need to get going or to overtake slower cars...my Fairmont has an electric lockout on the converter...no need to kick down... just push the button and you get the instant power with about an extra 400 r.p.m ...like having 2 speeds for each gear when you need it...works great !!

These where a good car , i drove one for 14 or 15 years , mine was an auto , I retired mine at around 270,000 clicks because the body and paint was getting a bit tired ,although it was straight as a die , and it had mild hail damage, the motor ran like a clock did not blow smoke , but did need a replacement timing chain which was getting a bit of noise to it , i still have the timing chain sitting up on shelf 80 bucks at the time , all the main mechanicals on mine where unopened , engine , gearbox,diff and it still drove like a beauty , thats not to say things dont wear out , it needs an alternator , the second one in its life , on my second steering rack and , the first one i pulled it down to replace an o ring on the rhs which they are prone to weep when they get some miles on them. Mine as well as doing family taxi duties in Melbourne burned also was a tow car , and really good at that too . The original radio in these had a timer feature , if you did not have the keys in it , you could activate the radio by hitting the power button twice and it would operate the radio for one hour then automatically turn it off to save the battery . The cd player 6 stacker iirc? carked it on mine , i wanted to buy an identical one from ford but sadly no longer available , mine would still chirp into second gear when i gave it the berries at 17 years old , i loved that car , and shed a tear when i parked it up for the last time. And the original seats where old school and mine had the real leather option , you sat in rather than on like the later models . I said to my young brother many times if ford made this identical car again i would buy one. One thing that is utterly terrible on the au sedans is the back seat access. The door open is without mincing words shit , but a small thing . I regret for the last two years of its life running it into the ground because i had made plans to get something newer. She still sits in the front yard in case my old human body gets motivated enough to bring her back to life. The manual is a good find , i drove one of them before i got mine , they are nice to drive too . All the best with your project . Mine after doing a lot of work including being a tow car , still had the original ball joints front and back , and they still had minimal movement in them , i look after my gear though , at service time when the grease bags got low i would inject grease into them . Its funny the AUs got absolutely reamed when they where first released , and the series one probably did deserve some of it , series on had small brakes , series 2 and 3 got bigger better brakes, they where a good car. I look forward to see how you go with the XR6.

Love the video thanks 🙏🏻 for sharing!

Hi Mark, that 6 cylinder engine sounds sweet, very similar car that Hub nut drives in Wales, Nice wheels shame the lacquer is lifted on the pain work, this will be a good project car it got every thing going for it , worth saving can't turn that to a drift car to good for that. Sorry about your wife's Peugeot , Peugeot are not a bad car,just never had one , Like to see how you get on with the XR6, catch you soon Take care

The IRS came standard on the VCT model. The non-VCT version, which was referred to as the XR6-HP, has the solid rear axle

In my opinion the best model AU ever made what a beautiful car too own being a manual is awesome from factory yummy 🤤RARE in today’s world 🌎same extractors as in my Ute tunes length 4480s best ones on the market

Excellent buy Mark their a rare find now, you are going to have trouble finding xr seats as they are diffrent to all other models. If your interested I have front and rear seats ( standard cloth ) in mint condition as I have only just finished reconditioning them I was going to change over the foam in my leather interior but repaired them instead and enjoyed the job so much I did the cloth ones as well. Parts for xr's are a real issue.

Beautiful cars. This model is on my wish list

Pretty sure they are nice extractors boost kw a little

I also saved a Au series 1 classic in winter white im doing it up for roady

Thank you Mark. It looks like our late 1990's Ford Taurus from some angles( the back, front and the side quarter view). I heard of Tickford. I saw a Australian LTD with Tickford wheels and Tickford badges. A lot of car makers used composite plastic headlamps to save weight as you said. That is so true with the number of yellow headlights on the cars in the United States. Dress it up and make it grand Mark. Ford Australia had XR6 we had Mercury Cougar XR7 for years. It is always interesting to see what changed and what stayed the same globally. It appears to be 192-195 inches in length. Thank you Mark for sharing.

Nice AU Mark👍, I also have an AU as a daily, series 3 forte in winter white which is in pretty good nick, i would just like to get an LSD diff in the future & probably convert it to a 5 speed. Ive owned mine 3 yrs nxt month & the only issues ive had was the alternator (original from factory) died so ive replaced that & the power steering switch started to leak so i fixed that with a 1/8 hex bolt & thread seal tape & also the rear servo unit was leaking i put a new gasket in & all good. Those are the only issues. Ive lowered it & it had pacemaker extractors & 2.5 " redback exhaust when i bought it, i just got the rear resonator deleted. It is a very nice car to drive as im sure your XR6 is especially with the 5 speed. Anyway good luck with it & hope to see more updates on it

Not sure if wreckers have parts for the AU's, dedicated Ford wreckers may be the best first option. Well done on saving it, the XR6 AU's were the best looking AU's.

Worth Saving 4Sure! Drift Car MyArse! It will be worth heaps down the track! I own a BA & FG I like the single OHC and Intech because you can get to the spark plugs etc Its just that little bit old school! You should do a inventory video of all your cars?

Nice save, Mark. That tree gave you a good excuse to buy this car. P.S. Did anyone see you chainsawing the tree😂? Cheers from NZ🇳🇿.

Definitely worth saving for the street and odd track day! Ironically the base model Forte makes a better drift car with its solid axle anyways! I bought a S1 XR6 VCT manual a few years back in similar condition. Was surprised to learn how far Tickford went to make it a complete package rather than a sticker and tune deal. Gear ratios are near perfect to enjoy the power on the street. Small touches like the badges and quad headlights, and the dash wings logo lighting up at night make it feel special as well. Would you keep this one when done?

I had a green top series 2 for 19 years. Much prefer the later sheet metal and a Fairmont grille. I would swap the front. Ford should have upgraded with the update i reckon.

⛄. I'm thinking...At the highest appointment level, the XR6 VCT with Premium brake and IRS, Limited Slip...it lacked for nothing. The arguments about the sufficiency of the AU were always over the optics of the S pack, Forte and other lower tier cars, and whether or not enough value existed at the lower levels. It took years for the Barra engined non turbo XR6's to fully eclipse the 172 VCT for performance. The IRS's 90 kilos of weight verses the extra 7 Kilowatts and the wisdom of adding a performance increase equal to the weight debit ..same issue. The 65 model year Ford Mustang had a planned and previewed IRS was the same kind of option. Probably, the IRS VCT is like the Elites making love... much too good for them! Have a great day 🥝✔️🙃

Definitely worth saving a way too good to be a drift pig & I'm sure you'll bring it back to mint original condition. ..Brian will be able to do a closed door quicky respray 🔥🤘

Always proffered the AU IRS- far better then the cheap Control Blade system, far less susceptible to tram lining

these are fantastic! with these making 172kw, it makes you wonder why the first Barra's only made 10 more than that with twin cams and VVT? Aside the later versions (BF onwards) the first Barra's should have been a 200kw or close to engine from the get go! And And even more disappointing was the XR6 models had the same power and torque specs as the base models XT's did.. Bit of a fail moment there by ford. The XR6 should have had 15-20 more kw than the bog models..

We wreck 2 or 3 of these every month. Had 5 manuals we stripped down in last month. My mate had the idea to only wreck tickford and fpv cars only to avoid parts build up of povo parts

That’s a BA wing. The AU wing was a double element design.

I have the xr6 tikford ute also five speed manual just took it on a 3k round trip to the gold cast it has become a bit of a head turner

I do my best to save my 05 Mitsubishi 380.

G'day Mark, Off to Brian's for a RWC ? Cheers Louis Kats 👍

You have the 4480 pacemakers extractors on your AU, i have 4499. Also looks like you have an airbox & intake pipe off a Territory i think

Did ford fix the peddle box on these,? or were they crap like the EB ones that use to break their clutch pedal pivot?.

172kw thats not the reason for keeping it but its australian when we were australian is gearbox quiet 5 sp cost more than car is worth for repair ? 🇦🇺🇦🇺

Mistake, they only had 12 valves not 24. Your thinking Barra 6

XR6 is that the official Barra block/engine?

Ford got rid of the ugly duckling tag with this the TE50 model 347 manual with plenty of goodies also got rid of the ugliest Ford boot spoiler from EF-FGX

Unpopular opinion. I’m sick of seeing our motoring heritage being butchered and used as skid pigs. Give it a few years and these will no longer be cheap and available. Just a shame.