Despite the disappointing results, the Falcons had certainly made an impression on the rallying world, so much so that the American head office started to sit up and take notice of the car’s potential.Within six months of the Safari Rally, Ford’s Detroit factory announced that they would be entering three Falcons in a full works assault on the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally. The trio of cars were to be driven by such notable drivers of the period as Anne Hall, Peter Jopp and Bo Ljungfeldt, however the cars were the American-spec Falcon 2-door Futura Sprints, not the four door version used in the Safari and familiar to Aussies.

All though Ford America officially weren’t into motorsport, they could see that the big Falcons possessed plenty of potential as rally cars, so in 1964 the company decided to bring in some heavy equipment for the Monte.However, instead of running basically-standard cars, Detroit prepared no less than eight Falcon Rallye Sprints, the V8 version of the 2-door coupe. But purely production line vehicles they were not. They were fitted with fibreglass boots, bonnets, doors and mudguards, saving 250kg. In addition, there were alloy bumper bars and, apart from the windscreens, all glass was replaced with Lexan. In the meantime, Ford had obviously spent some time poring over the homologation regulations in an effort to extract the maximum performance from the cars. Renowned American tuning specialists, Holman and Moody, massaged the 289 cu.in V8s, taking them up from 4.2 to 4.7 litres. As well, they added 4-barrel carburetors for maximum power, while a T10 four-speed gearbox replaced the old three-speeder which was mated to a 9 inch rear axle with a Detroit locker differential. There were big disc brakes fitted at the front and larger drums at the rear.

Such was the performance of the car that Bjungfeldt gained 40 seconds on rally star Erik Carlsson over three laps of the track, elevating him from fifth to second behind Paddy Hopkirk’s 1071cc Mini Cooper S.The Falcon, particularly in Rallye Sprint form, had certainly proved that the car was competitive but, having spent so much money in three years and not taken an outright win, Ford lost interest in the event, a decision no doubt as a result of the widely disliked handicap system that favoured smaller-engined cars. But then the French were famous for their interpretation of the rules, which usually favoured their cars. Of course that’s not the end of the Falcon-in-international rallying story. Australian-built Falcons played a major part in the 1968 London – Sydney Marathon when they entered three Harry Firth-built Falcon GTs with excellent result. But that’s a story for another time.
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