[data_mine]

Hi all, this is my current car. For those not in Australia, you may be unfamiliar with it, it's based off of a Ford Falcon (a name plate long lost in the US, but us Aussies loved it so, it became our own). FPV - Ford Performance Vehicles (akin to SVT in the US), takes the Falcon shell, shoehorns in a bigger engine, upgraded drive line, and adds some luxury interior apointments.

The GT-P is (at the time I bought it) the top of the line from the FPV range. It includes a 5.4L (330ci) V8, producing 290kW (~400HP) and 520NM (390ftlb). I've since added more power, shortened the diff, upgraded suspension, some interior tweaks and of course a great sound system.

At the moment, the system consists of a aging Pioneer AVH-P7650DVD head unit, Hertz Hi-Energy 3-way front stage, passive crossovers, Response amps, and an ancient Cadence sub in a huge ported box (the only way I could get it to sound good).

Anyway, here's some pictures.

Interior showing the factory colour screen, and the pioneer unit hiding underneath, by shear luck (as it was a transplant from my previous car), it fits in aesthetically perfectly. It even lights up the same red/blue combination of colours as the dash.

The boot, showing off the 4x130 and 1x1000 Response amps.

The sub box - pre carpet. That's a 10" sub! Box is 86L ~3cuft.

The custom A-pillars holding the MD-500 mids and HT-25 tweeters.

Car is fully sound deadened, 2 layers in most places.

The HCX-570's fill the factory door position. They're playing only mid-bass so I've found absolution positional accuracy to not be so important.

Finally some pics of the car itself.

My other hobbies include photography, and a small carbon fibre fixation.

 

[gsr22]

Nice car and sweet install. Good work!

 

[reindeers]

Looks great mate. Awesome pics too!

 

[InjunV18]

I've never seen this car before but I like the old Falcons. The grill is reminiscent of the last generation of mustangs. As said before, it looks really good and the pics are awesome. I'd like to see the sub box in the vehicle and I hope it doesn't cover up the slick amp rack and floor piece you have. You guys have orange wood down there?

 

[fish]

I like your car & your install. Never heard of those amps before. How would you describe the sound coming from your A-pillars?

 

[mSaLL150]

Beautiful car. I wish Ford would offer a sedan or sporty car like that with the 5.4L in the US.

 

[data_mine]

I've never seen this car before but I like the old Falcons. The grill is reminiscent of the last generation of mustangs. As said before, it looks really good and the pics are awesome. I'd like to see the sub box in the vehicle and I hope it doesn't cover up the slick amp rack and floor piece you have. You guys have orange wood down there?

It's MDF sealed with fibreglass resin. It came out orange somehow.

If you're interested in how we took the American Falcon to what we've got today take a look here... Falcon Facts: Falcon (it isn't updated any more, and doesn't cover my model, or the new one).

I like your car & your install. Never heard of those amps before. How would you describe the sound coming from your A-pillars?

Great.

Seriously: I don't like metal dome tweeters (I find them bright/harsh). So these soft domes are very natural. As for the mids, I investigated the regular options (e.g. 4" cone mids), but couldn't find a suitable location to mount something that big. I'm trying to keep everything factory looking (stealthy). So I bought the MD-500s on a whim (unheard) and luckily I liked them - a lot. I originally had just the HT-25/HCX-570 two-way. Being almost coaxial with the tweeters, and taking care of freqs from about 800Hz there was no more dropping of the sound stage that I got previously when the door mounted 5x7's had to cope with up to ~5KHz. Being run passively this was important and was a huge improvement.

Last year, I got a Audison BitOne, and went fully active, but the BitOne has so far let me down with noise. I'm back to the passive crossovers at the moment.

The amps, are some taiwanese generic thing brought in and badge engineered by a local electronics chain. Nothing special, but then again. I'm a proponent of as long as an amp doesn't add or subtract anything from the signal it doesn't matter if you pay $500 or $5000 for it.

 

[Luke352]

Beautiful car. I wish Ford would offer a sedan or sporty car like that with the 5.4L in the US.

The aussie version of the 5.4L has adapted the twin cam heads off the 4.6L mustang cobra engine I believe. Beleive it's unique to Australia.

 

[W8 a minute]

This is why US car makers are hurting. They keep all of their best cars out of the biggest market. I think that car would have sold millions here in the USA.

Nice ride.

 

[Mooble]

What's more astounding is that you have a country with only 20m people that puts out cars like these. Imagine NYC having its own auto industry. They share many of the same pieces now, but for most of its life, the Australian auto industry was almost completely independent of the rest of the world.

 

[cubdenno]

the reason we do not get all of the great cars is that the goverrnment puts so many restrictions on them that they can't bring them here. Ford as some amazing cars out there. I wanted a Cosworth Escort something aweful in the 90's. They were unreal.

Your car is beautiful. Great looking install.

 

[syd-monster]

Having heard and seen this very car in real life (datamine & I are in the same sound comp series) i can assure you, its as good as the photos suggest.

In regards to cars we get & you don't. Don't worry, there is a heap of cars you get that we dont get either, ie new Mustangs, Camaro, Challanger, all the Lincon's, US spec and priced Honda or Acura (eg a NSX is a $200,000aud ($130,000us) car here).
We dont get any real Chevrolets (yes, no Corvettes apart from the privately imported ones) no Pontiacas, Firebirds, US Fords, Olds, or GMC's, etc. or any of the full size pick-up trucks. All our cars are also right hand drive and from a race car drivers pov, that sucks! Much prefer LHD, but alas... so some times its good, some times not so.

 

[JayinMI]

Having heard and seen this very car in real life (datamine & I are in the same sound comp series) i can assure you, its as good as the photos suggest.

In regards to cars we get & you don't. Don't worry, there is a heap of cars you get that we dont get either, ie new Mustangs, Camaro, Challanger, all the Lincon's, US spec and priced Honda or Acura (eg a NSX is a $200,000aud ($130,000us) car here).
We dont get any real Chevrolets (yes, no Corvettes apart from the privately imported ones) no Pontiacas, Firebirds, US Fords, Olds, or GMC's, etc. or any of the full size pick-up trucks. All our cars are also right hand drive and from a race car drivers pov, that sucks! Much prefer LHD, but alas... so some times its good, some times not so.

Firebirds (and old Camaro's for that matter) got cut off around 2003. Oldsmobile when under YEARS ago. I am kinda surprised about the trucks, tho.

Sorry about the hijack, the install looks awesome too...

Jay

 

[data_mine]

Thanks for the comments (and history lesson) everyone.

We do get things pretty good car wise here. The Ford vs Holden (GM) rivalry since the 60's means we get some nice features and performance for low prices.

 

[tusk]

Nice install and ride!


Holden FTW though oke: