Wheels Australia — August 2016

@wheelsaustralia 65

USTRALIA is

changing, faster

than we think. In

fact, it’s about to

get one hell of a

hurry-up as these

two long-standing

staples of life – the Ford

Falcon and the Holden Commodore – cease

to exist in their current forms.

In the Holden’s case, it will morph into

a large German-built, front-drive or all-

wheel-drive hatchback, still wearing the

Commodore nameplate. The big Ford will

soon disappear into an uncaring world

gorging on tubby SUVs.

At bread-and-butter level, that’s no

huge deal. A Mondeo Ambiente is more

accomplished than a boggo Falcon at

carting people around in quiet, efficient,

luxurious comfort, underpinned by a

Ford of Europe chassis brimming with

sophisticated spirit. But replacing high-

performance rear-drive variants is going

to be nigh on impossible. Which – tissues,

please – brings us to this; the last-ever

Wheels Falcon v Commodore comparo.

Some of you will be thrilled to bits,

cultural cringe in full bloom, relieved that

other products will soon dominate the

Wheels cover. Not us. Not when Ford’s final

Sprint-badged XR6 Turbo and XR8 are

bowing out boasting best-ever acceleration

and finest-ever handling talent, and

Holden’s excellent SS-V Redline sets the

benchmark for affordable performance

and dynamic ability. So it’s not just with

a heavy heart that we’re farewelling

Australia’s fiercest and longest-running

rivalry, it’s with a legitimate cause for

celebration because these rear-drive brutes

have never been better.

Or faster. While FPV’s final car – the

351kW GT-F – was a smidge perkier

than today’s 345kW XR8 Sprint, the

difference is so insignificant as to be

virtually redundant. On a perfect surface

at Ford’s You Yangs speed bowl in 2014, we

clocked 0-100km/h in 4.68sec for the GT-F

automatic and standing-400m numbers

of 12.68sec and 186.7km/h. Yet here we

have the same Smoke Grey XR8 auto that

struggled to get its power down at Sydney

Dragway a month ago managing to rip

through the same increments in record

time for this test. And that’s despite its

launch control having gone to a long Friday

lunch, never to return.

Using a man-made launch technique

of giving a touch of throttle while being

held on the brake, then squeezing on the

power as the XR8 produces the perfect

amount of wheelspin from its 265/35ZR19

rear Pirelli P Zeros, that very same XR8

auto nails 100km/h in 4.78sec and the

400m marker in 12.72sec at 186.8km/h.

And it feels fast, revving out cleanly in

its first two gears but feeling particularly

buxom at the upper end of its speed dial,

nailing 0-220km/h two seconds faster than

its compatriots. All to the tune of subtle

blower whine and a crackling exhaust

blurting at each upshift.

Interestingly, the mega-boosted six-pack

Falcon can’t beat its V8 stablemate. With

launch control at full fitness, the 325kW

XR6 is pretty much neck and neck with

the XR8 until 70km/h, when the eight

begins to assert its dominance. Even at

100km/h, the XR6 is less than one-tenth

behind (at 4.84sec) but its standing-400m

time tells the true story, registering

12.93sec at 181.5km/h.

And there’s something about the turbo