When it comes to cars, Argentina has a pretty cool party trick that puts it in a select category of car-building nations: they’re really fond of updating some very old designs long, long past their expected expiration dates. The end results of these somewhat half-assed modernizations are cars that really look like nothing else. Cars that were clearly designed in one long-ago era, but have been dragged, shrieking and flailing, into another era, usually with the help of black plastic and new lighting equipment. The example I want to talk about today is the seventh-generation Argentine Ford Falcon.
There are other examples of this phenomenon, of course, and I’ve even written about them here before.
Remember the Citroën 2CV-sorta-clone called the IES Super America? I once saw one when I was in Argentina, and was positively delighted.
As you can see, the big changes are to lighting equipment, black plastic in the form of a grille and more modern-looking dashboard and instrument cluster. This is really something of a formula, and you can see what I mean when you look at the Argentine Falcon’s 1982 redesign for its seventh generation:
(brochure images from @addict_car and/or Ford of Argentina)
See that? Modern interior fittings, big black plastic grille and black rubber moldings and bumper inserts, along with modern lighting equipment! Slap that stuff on and boom, your 1960s car is now a car of the 1980s!
Just to compare, here’s a 1963 Argentine Falcon:
…and, again, here are the 1982-facelifted ones:
It’s very much the same body, just modified a bit at the ends to allow for the Late Cold War-Era Default Car Face which is this, in case you forgot:
…and the rear was modified to accommodate more modern lights, these coming from a Ford Taunus:
Wheels, as you can see there, were updated as well. Pretty much anything that didn’t require actual sheet metal stamping changes!
The resulting updated Falcon looks, charitably, ridiculous, which I think is why I love it so much. It definitely does feel more modern, but at the same time feels archaic, too, because it’s so clearly something old clumsily trying to masquerade as something new.
The interior I think may be the most successful at the subterfuge, as when you’re inside it, it does mostly feel like a car of the 1980s:
I mean, there’s even a digital clock shoved in there! Just looking at this dash doesn’t necessarily scream 1960s car to me at all. But then, when you get out of the car…
Well, that’s a different story. I love that Ford of Argentina did this, though; there’s a certain amount of hubris and perhaps unearned confidence that it takes to pass off something with such a clearly dated design as something modern. And, even better, the way that was done means that from the perspective of eyes well into the 21st century, we now have a car that looks dated in two separate decades, spaced 20 years apart. It looks dated like and ’80s car and a ’60s car!
That’s a hell of an achievement, if you ask me.
It’s definitely mutton dressed as lamb with late Cortina front and rear fascias on an unmistakably early Falcon body. The effect is very similar to Volga 3102 which attempted to drag the equally dated M-24 into the 80s.
On the other hand the Rover P5B managed to pull Rostyle wheels in a sort of dowager in running shoes.
I recall my first visit to Argentina in the late 90s when I saw these things for the first time – and being completely blown away! An an Aussie Falcon guy, it was easy to see what they had done, but like being in a parallel universe!
If you want another rabbit-hole, check out the Aussie XK, XL, XM & XP Falcons. Hardtops, Utes and Vans included!
These Falcons leave somewhat of a bad taste in many Argentinian mouths due to their association with the notorious, government-backed, “Argentinian Death Squads” of a particular era.
My first car was a 1969 Ford Falcon in that butter yellow color. I absolutely loved it and can see it in this car at least in the windshield, A pillar and roofline.
It looks like a Skoda Estelle and a Euro spec Ford Granada had a baby. I love it.
Argentina is awesome. IKA took the Willys Jeep 230 OHC Tornado six and turned it into the Torino!
Brazil did this with the Chevy Opala, too.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the IKA Torino, which unquestionably (in my opinion) looks better than the American car it was based on.
Barra. Keep it a six.
I love the red wagon! One of those with a 289 would be awesome.
I love “facelift” in its use here. This reminds me of an older person who gets cosmetic surgery to look younger. Still old in most places, but those hotdog lips sure do look like they belong on a 20-something person.
I am pushing 50, and have seen several peers start down this road, and while I do find it to be hideous in a way that touches on the fundamentally flawed ways in which humans have built a society… to each their own.
I know it’s all Ford, but there’s a lot of Peugeot DNA floating around in that design somehow. I think most of it’s the wheels.
True. It looks a bit like a cross between a late model Ford Cortina (or Granada) and an oversized Peugeot 304, particularly in the top shot. In fact, it really does look like something going to a fancy dress party as a Cortina Mk5 and almost getting away with it.
What about the drivetrain in these ‘ancient’ based cars? Are they also very old tech, or sort modern?
You gotta realize alot of great engines came from that 60s era. The Legendary 4.9/300ci Ford Inline 6 started 1964 and was in production until 1996.
Its less when the drivetrain started, more if it was updated at all.
These are ok, but my favorite Argentinian I-6 RWD sedan based on a 1960’s American car is the IKA Torino. Love those, and a far better and transformative series of facelifts through the years.
The Renault Torino is one of my favourite Renault unicorns. Also a personal favourite of mine is the delightful Renault 12 Alpine. Love Argentinian cars!
Oh goodness yes. Exporting from Argentina seems to be a PITA. Second best South American car I want is an Opala.
Too bad I cannot add pictures to a comment (can I?), but I’d like to present the Brazilian contender for “facelifting through the ages” trophy: the Chevrolet Opala. Originally based on the german Opel Rekord C from the sixties and launched in Brazil in 1968, it went through a few face lifts – in the major one, it got exactly the “late cold war era car face” mentioned in the post (search for “chevrolet opala 1981” if you don’t believe me). Later it even got a sort-of “aero” design on the headlights, which I doubt had any aerodynamic impact whatsoever. Production was stopped only in 1992.
An ominous coincidence with the Falcon is that the Opala was also a favorite of the military regime, being used to arrest protestors and opponents at the time, alongside another GM car, the “Veraneio”, which was a van somewhat based on the first generation C/K trucks – a sort of Brazilian Suburban.
But the point is that this concept of stretching a platform for decades was a common pattern in both countries, since both followed similar (and similarly failed, I’d argue) industrialization policies. Now, one point in which both countries are different today is the huge amount of cars from the seventies and eighties still being used as daily drivers in Argentina. I’ve been to the Mendoza region recently and it’s a joy for car lovers, specially if you like French cars, since there are so many Renaults and Peugeots still around (some in awful condition, I admit). Not as many Falcons on the street as I had seen in previous visits, though I did see a Ranchero (an “El Camino” like pick-up truck based on the Falcon) still on duty on the countryside.
Pics can be added as a link. If you link a picture file, it should open as a pop up. More complex URLs sometimes load as a new page.