Ford Falcon father dies

By Derek Fung on 08 July 2009

Robert Strange McNamara passed away yesterday, and will be remembered and reviled for many things, primarily the Vietnam War. For car enthusiasts, as well as taxi riders all over Australia, he's the forgotten man who ushered into the world the Falcon and its sexier two-door cousin the Mustang.

During his time as US secretary of defence, McNamara helped John F. Kennedy defuse the Cuban missile crisis and oversaw the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War until he was booted from cabinet in 1967. He then served as World Bank president until 1981, growing the bank from US$1 billion of annual lending to US$12 billion at his departure.

Prior to all this though, he was an integral part of the team that reshaped Ford in post World War II period. He eventually rose to become head of the Ford division, overseeing the development of cars like the Galaxie and four-seat Thunderbird, as well as the Falcon.

Below you'll find a gallery of the original Falcon and all the cars that it has spawned. For a more complete picture of his life, please check out The New York Times' or The Guardian's obituaries.

1960 XK Falcon

Up until this point Ford was selling a mix of Zephyrs and V8s, but they were proving to be ineffective against "Australia's Own" Holden. When Ford Australia executives toured the US, they saw an early mock up of Ford US' upcoming Falcon "small" sedan and in that instant the Australian motoring landscape changed. It was produced locally from 1960 with very few changes, right-hand drive being the most noticeable.

The Falcon was one of the last Fords brought to market by McNamara before he took up his post as secretary of defence under JFK.

(Credit: Ford)

Topics: robert mcnamara, vietnam war, ford, falcon, mustang

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Comments (4)

  • jake commented on 01/11/2009 15:56

    i agree with fourl6 what a bad review

  • Dave commented on 17/07/2009 22:18

    I think you're ignoring the fact that that the story is actually about McNamara. McNamara's involvement with the Falcon was pretty much 'early' on until the Falcon discontinued in the States and Australia continued with the nameplate. If anything, read about McNamara and his involvement (however brief) within Ford before being asked by President Kennedy to become S. of Defence in the New Administration.

  • fourl6 commented on 14/07/2009 22:08

    what a crap review of falcons in general, no mention at all of the XW or XY, calling the EB GT a attempt at a sex car, choosing the AU1 Forte as a representative of AU falcons being the only one produced with that grill and the ignorance to any of the AU actual advantages like extremely reliable engine and great interior build quality, nothing mentioned about the BA DOHC Turbo "Modern Cult Car" sorry cnet but fair on this one

  • allan commented on 09/07/2009 13:35

    Where's the XC cobra???

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