1 Oct 2005

By CHRIS HARRIS

With the BF Falcon facelift Ford extended the appeal of its BA Falcon with a range of under-the-skin improvements, but wrought very little in the way of visual appearance upgrades.

The big news came in the form of a six-speed automatic gearbox option – the German-made ZF 6HP26 unit – in lower-grade Falcons, while it was made standard in more expensive versions like the Ghia and XR8.

Ford also improved the existing 4.0-litre Barra in-line six-cylinder engine powertrain.

Power increased from 182kW to 190kW at 5250rpm while torque now topped out from 380Nm to 383Nm at 2500. Detailed changes decreased the engine’s noise, vibration and harshness properties while increasing fuel economy.

There were also modifications to the existing Ion four-speed automatic gearbox in the rear-wheel drive models, for extra smoothness and refinement.

Other changes included an increase in output for the 4.0-litre Barra 245T – now with an extra 5kW and 30Nm (245kW at 5250rpm and 480Nm at 2000rpm) – while the 5.4-litre Barra 230 V8 now offered another 10kW and 30Nm to achieve a maximum 230kW at 5350rpm and 500Nm at 3500rpm.

The 156kW Barra E-Gas engine also went up slightly in torque – from to 374Nm from 372Nm.

There was also greater availability of the Tremec six-speed manual gearbox, along with minor trim and equipment alterations.