G'day everybody! I've been lurking around these forums for a while, but haven't posted! Not too sure if I'll be around too much either, life's pretty busy at the moment! My name's Chris, and I'm a wagon nutto from Busselton, Western Australia! Most people I know don't understand why I'd take a wagon over almost anything! For example... if I was offered a nice wagon, or a brand new Ferrari... I'd take the Ferrari just so I could sell it a but a big buncha wagons and other things! I've also got a strange obsession with mudflaps... Most cars I'd prefer with mudflaps, and that'd be my first modification to almost every wagon on these forums! C'mawn guys! You need mudflaps!! I'm 16, and drive on a Learner's permit. Got L's the day after I turned 16. In Australia you've gotta be 16 to drive, which is annoying when you're 15 (and love cars) and you've got friends online who're the same age and driving!! Anyway, I'm finally on the road! I had a big bonus since I was 3, visiting an Aunty and Uncle's wheat and sheep farm regularly and Dad letting me steer the car on the farm. Once I was tall enough, age 7, I could finally drive the whole car on my own! Over the years I've also driven semi's, hayloaders, headers (combine harvester... same thing), big tractors towing spray equipment... all that sort of thing. I was pretty well ready for driving on the public roads! My parents rarely get to drive anymore... both cars see more of me driving than anyone else. I'm a massive fan of the ol' American station wagons of the 60's and 70's. Most of them are about a metre longer than what we've ever had here! I love the size, the big engines, and that family vacation sort of scene. The sort of car you can use for almost everything! One day I'll buy meself on of 'em. One of the family cars is actually about the biggest wagon sold in Australia anyway... but at 5066mm long, it's not that big in American terms! These big wagons have all been replaced now with SUV's (ugh!!!) and what I like to call, SportHatches (DOUBLE UGGHHHHGHGHHH!!) Meet Skip, our wagon, a 2001 Ford AU mkII Falcon Futura station wagon, Winter White, fitted with a factory optioned silver metallic bullbar. Our family are Skip's second owners. The first being the Dept. of Tranport in WA, where he was used a as Transport Inspector vehicle, monitoring truck's loads and things like that... essentially a large vehicle police car. For this job a couple of modifcations were made to the car itself, which still exist on it now. There were UHF radio aerial mounts welded to the bullbar, the rear suspension was upgraded to handle the heavy equipment used for the job with HD springs, an extra leaf spring (5in total), and a swaybar. The rear suspension modifcations have proved useful to us as well, as the car is used to tow horse floats occasionally and to carry lots of equipment for portable exhibitions of my Dad's landscape photography. We've only once loaded it up so heavy that the car was sitting near standard height! Some of the photos are of the car loaded, or park on slopes etc. that make it look level... the rear is a good 2 or so inches higher than the front. A few more photos. I do a fair bit of photography as well, mostly car related though. Hope ya like the wagon! Cheers Chris
Chris and skip, Nice pics, thanks for those. There are a few members from you neck of the words on here, hopefully a few will be around to say hello.
BullBar= Brush guard? Horse Float = Horse trailer? Think I'm learning new names for stuff. I've never seen a brush guard like that on a passenger car or wagon. looks like an interesting and unusual factory option. Welcome aboard. Nice wagon and great job with the photography.
fannie: Thanks mate! The better of the shots were taken with my Nikon D300, and the rest my Nikon point and shoot cam... I've already seen some other cars from Oz on here, not many though! I'm a member of the Australian Ford Forums, and there's loads there so I don't expect to see too many here. Joined here because I'm more interested to see the older and bigger American wagons! Jim 68cuda: Yer could say that! I usually term our bullbar as more of a roobar (kangaroo bar, assuming some may not know the abreviation 'roo'). Bullbars are usually bigger and mostly found on 4WDs. When I search brush guards online, I mostly see these in this picture below. From what I can tell by the picture... their only realy purpose appears to be to protect the front of the vehicle from scratches and such??? They don't look particularly sturdy. I rarely ever see guards like that. What we usually have here are like this. and also things like 4 post and 5 post bullbars, which are pretty much the toughest bullbar you can get. Some passenger vehicles are offered with bullbars, but mostly it's 4wds that have that option, however the aftermarket options are usually the better option. Skip's roo bar was a factory option, and is bolted onto the chassis. The front bumper is cut to the bar's shape, so the bar just slides through, making it look more 'part of the car'. I really like the bar myself. And it's definitely a big safety bonus, especially when you're out driving on country roads at 'roo time', which is pretty much any time after sunset, and even before, until even about 10am. Depends on the area though. So really, a bullbar or roobar is a big more of a heavy duty thing than what I've seen to be a typical brush guard. Yep, a horse float is a horse trailer. If you ever visit Australia, don't expect to hear anyone call it a horse trailer! When someone says they're taking their horse somewhere on a float, they just say "I'm floating suchnsuch to wherever." I don't know why we say float, but we do! Glad the photos are alright! Thanks again guys, glad to be aboard!
to the wagon train, somebody. A GREAT intro! That's a nice wagon and thanks for the great pix and history of it. Sure looks like a beautiful area of Australia, too! Stick around and get to know our wagon family and we would be happy to have you be part of it.
Thanks Silverfox! Wasn't sure what the reaction would be. Some people on the Aussie Ford Forums reckon it's ugly... but then I'm not too keen on cars with dinner plate chrome wheels, lowered suspension, and bits of bodykit. I prefer more country style cars, more usuable and for me, more fun! This is the lush area of WA, most of it's pretty dry, really a desert. Apparently it's listed as one of the top 10 places to visit in the world. I look forward to stickin' 'round!
great to see another Aussie on board welcome Chris , AUs are great cars great fuel economy 1 of mine is a 2000 Fairmont which returns 6.8 liters per 100ks its unbelivable and comfort to boot . my BA, BF and FG dont go anywhere near the AU ,sad to hear Ford will not be producing Aussie Falcons after 2016 if only consumers realized who inexpensive they are to run service and insure then mabye we would not import overseas garbage and Aussie workers might keep their job
AU's are great! I prefer the AUII the best though. AUI had a few niggly styling things I don't like, and the AUIII has the fatter side skirting, which is REALLY uneven with the rear bumper, and just looks wrong. Any AU looks better with this roobar anyway Fuel economy is fantastic! That's around the figure ours is at. Depends on the driving. Even so, I did a 420km trip, just after the massive storm here in Southwest WA on 10th June, brimmed the car before we left, 4 people, luggage for a week (we aren't terribly light packers when we dont need to be), and LOTS of tree debris all over the roads for the whole drive, constantly slowing from 100kph to 10 sometimes, and windy, hilly roads... and we finished the trip with half a tank left! 62L tank. So we used 31L... Doesn't work out to any amazing figure, except when you think about the kind of drive it was, it was pretty impressive! Skip's ride is reasonably rough, with the heavy duty springs, and the other modifcations to the rear suspension, but he also handles very well! It's exceptional with heavy loads. I dont mind the rougher ride, you feel more connected to the car and so much more comfortable. This is compared to our BAII sedan anyway. Ford Australia's pretty much lost my faith now anyway. Killing wagon models was the first step... and now Ford buying FPV and apparently culling some FPV models.......................... I've haddit with them! AU Falcons IMO are the best Falcons. If the car is kept well, the styling hasn't aged much, the interior is reasonably nice, straight 6 engines are the sweetest around, comfortable, brilliant headlights......... blah blah blah!
Thanks mate! Hopefully next year I'll be able to get a project thread going... if I can buy Skip from parents. Plan is to create the ultimate Falcon wagon country cruiser. UHF radio and a couple of whip aerials on the roobar, two Great White 18 LED round spotties for the roobar, big proper steel roof rack, bigger mudflaps, and eventually full RTV Falcon ute suspension, as well as a few other things. I love to drive on country roads, especially dirt, probably because I learnt on dirt and love rally. Dirt's just more fun!
