With the new BA Falcon comes an exciting
new range of colours available to the Ford purchaser - a welcome addition to the normal
dark tones with the usual traditional whites and reds. Introducing a total of five new metallic
colours and two striking bold solid colours for FPV's range, the Falcon also retains seven from the AU3's colour chart - not exactly a bad
thing - considering how good the AU3 managed to look right in the very end.
The new colours are:
Phantom:
a deep purple with flashes of mouve, blue and burgundy - both depending on the angle
and light you look at it in. Restricted in availability to Ford's performance models. As Ford
puts it "a deep, expressive and emotionally charged purple...rich and vibrant, Phantom draws
on the strongest hues of nature to deliver a colour that's bold, confident and full of
passion" - couldn't have put it better myself. Having seen an XR ute in full day light
in this colour out on the Geelong road, I can tell you they ain't lying either!
Acid Rush:
An electrifying shade of yellow echoing GM's latest colour choices. According
to Ford "It's a retina-searing,
hot yellow, with plenty of shine and vigour." Sounds good enough to us!
Not Available on BA Fairmont or Fairmont Ghia.
Ice Mint Silver:
- A tinted silver with a hint of green which replacing the AU's Liquid Silver
- even brighter again with a refreshing, silky touch and just a hint of green -
not available on BA XR or Ute models;
Mercury Silver:
A lighter, mid-toned silver to replace Meteorite. Describing the new
colour as 'edgy' and 'technical' (could be good for all us Sci-Fi phobes) Sharon Gauci - Ford's
BA Falcon Colour and Trim Design Manager - goes on to say "It's a pure nuetral silver that
travels from dark to light seamlessly." Available right across the range.
Blue Pearl:
A dark metallic blue that replaces Navy Blue. Not available on BA XR.
Blood Orange:
First seen on Ford's R7 concept car at the 2001 Melbourne International Motor
Show, this colour appears to contain a metallic content and looks to be set to
appear exclusively on Ford's new GT / Pursuit Ute / GTP range. Considering
Ford's previous colour choices (Vermillion Fire of the 70's GT range) the
reintroduction of this colour range couldn't be more timely...
Citric Acid:
A new colour and by Ford's own description, a "bright lime
green-yellow" that will work to polarise buyers like no other.
Still, with echoes back to the Superbird colours available on the XA GTs and
Coupes it's inclusion is apt at the very least - even if Ford chooses
understandably not to go the whole hog with bonnet black outs and racing
stripes.
A short list of colours
carried over are:
Silohette:
(black with a light metallic fleck) - available right across the range;
Venom:
- a
very traditional but sensational rich red that really comes to life on the
BA. Not available on Fairmont or Fairmont Ghia.
Narooma Blue:
- a delicious blue that behaves well in all lights transforming from the darkest of blues to a sensational
much lighter hue in full sun. Very similiar to the old EF colour 'Cobalt' Blue many people have described it as having
more 'purple' in it than the Galaxy colour it replaced. Introduced for the first time in
AU3. Not available on Fairmont or Fairmont Ghia.
Blue Print:
- the first of Ford's 'hero colours', it met with much enthusiasm almost replacing silver as the most popular
XR colour. Restricted to Ford's Falcon performance variants, there is no doubt it's popularity should continue for
some time unabated with only the last six or so months of AU3 production being available in this luscious hue. A long
time coming it finally gave Ford owners the answer to GM's more adventurous colour range that started with the 'Tiger' bronze
introduced with VT.
Congo Green:
- much darker than the earlier 'Oxford Green' which it replaced in the latter part of AU series 1. Applied
to the BA Falcon under Simon Butterworth's watchful eye the effect is more like the British Racing Greens of the past giving
a sensationally luscious approach with the BA's one-style-suits-all theme from Forte to Fairmont Ghia.
Available right across the range.
Winter White:
- White is white, what can I say? Boring but practical, white will continue to form part of the
Falcon's colour range.
Barrossa Red:
- A fantastic deep red metallic that must draw its inspiration from the Candy Apple Reds of the custom car
scene of the late 70's and 80's. Like Holden's 'Tiger' (which is similiar to many colours that were offered
in the 70's) this is one colour that has been totally transformed by it's application to the monochromatic exteriors of
today's late model Fords, giving a very classy look especially when combined with a set of machined finish alloy wheels.
Not available on BA XR.
Ford Australia design director Simon Butterworth comments that the palet of new colours came
after the design team identified "holes" in the Falcon's colour range.
"What we found was we had a clustering around the dark area and quite a few light colours
and a big void in the middle. - And we really wanted to get some interest in that middle
area." - fancy words for a lack of inspiring choices on the paint chips.
Hinting at a new more aggressive policy by Ford Australia at colour choice and
brand building, Simon continues with how Ford now sees it as a priority to stamp
it's mark on the colour blue - the colour of it's logo. With three
delicious shades of blue available in BA, there is no doubting Ford is making good on it's
promises - lets just hope their aggression lasts way beyond the BA launch and
doesn't disappear as per the Ford most of us know...
