There are plenty of cars that have become popular with age. The Toyota Cressida and Lexus LS400 are great examples of cars that took people a while to realise their potential. The Porsche 964, although was very much a sportscar, was considered for a long time to be the ugly duckling of the 911 family. The 996 too is now becoming favourable among enthusiasts who don’t want to sell an arm and a leg for a sports car from Stuttgart.
The AU Falcon however is no Porsche 911. But it is now joining that infamous group of cars that seemed to be created a generation too early.
When Marty McFly said, “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it’, he wasn’t talking about the song “Johnny B. Goode” or an EVH guitar playing style.
He was talking about the AU Falcon.
The more I ponder this, the more I realise that the AU Falcon is like Australia’s equivalent of the Porsche 964. It is no doubt the ugly duckling of the Falcon family. It looks like a cross between a bloated whale washed up on a beach, and a cockroach. But now we have a generation that can truly appreciate its looks and capabilities.
Particularly when it comes to drifting.
You may have already seen the 'AU Drift Society' boys of Jamie Stevkovski and Pat Meehan sliding around at one of our events in their respective AU Falcons. They’ve blazed the trail, and their performances are proof that the AU Falcon as a drift chassis, just works!
And now we have one of our own.
This is the AU Drift School Falcon. People wanting to learn how to drift but without a car to learn in can hire this beauty at any of our Drift School events.
Under the bonnet is 100rwkw of muscly straight-six Ford power! Only the headers and exhaust have been touched, replaced with Pacemaker extractors and 2.5" stainless exhaust.
The cabin has been transformed from paddock-basher to street drifter with a collection of tasteful modifications. The short-shifter and genuine Nardi steering wheel give the AU a racecar like feel on the road, whilst comfortable Sparco Grid-Q seats just add to that theme. And of course, no drift setup would be complete without a hydraulic handbrake.
At the moment, the AU Falcon sits on Weds Kranze Borphes wheels, although it looks just as good on rims from an R33 GTR. Simple ebay coilovers support the chassis at the front whilst shortened rear shocks and new leaf springs support the light rear of the car.
When you rent out this beast for one of our drift school days, you get a new set of rear tires, a full tank of fuel and a one-on-one with a drifting instructor. The idea is to make it easy for anyone to feel the grassroots drifting experience. An hour in our mighty AU is not just a great learning experience for those wanting to get into drifting, but also a great gift for family and friends.
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