After selling Falcons sourced from America during the 1960s, Ford of South Africa elected to change direction by importing the Australian equivalent in 1969 to immense popularity.
The American Falcon was sold in South Africa between 1960 and 1963 when it was quietly discontinued due to similar reasons as to why it was a hard sell in Australia. Ruggedness and reliability proved lacking, so in 1969 the South African arm of Ford elected to import Falcons from Australia renaming it the Fairmont GT.
XT and XW model types began to enter the South African Ford showrooms after being assembled locally, but built in Australia. Featuring a 351 Cleveland crate motor, GT mirrors, dash, steering wheel, console, bucket seats and the choice of a FMX cruise-o-matic auto or four-speed top loader sending power through a 9” diff.
Nicknamed affectionately as the ‘Rhino’ these Fairmont GTs are now highly prized and some have even returned back to Australia for collectors.
It certainly reversed the bad stigma of the Ford brand following the earlier Canadian assembled Falcon’s run and many of the 1800 imported live on in this current day.
This wasn’t the last Australian import to South Africa as the EL generation Falcon was sold there beginning in 1996 and ending in the early 2000s with the AU. Even the Territory was exported there in the mid-2000s continuing Ford Australia’s association with South Africa nearly 40 years on from the first Falcon.
Australian-built Falcons were also exported to Fiji and Papua New Guinea in the early days, while a left-hand-drive derivative was abandoned in 2007.
It was later considered to export the Falcon to China and the Middle East, but this plan remained stillborn due to the Ford Crown Victoria already being sold ending any hope of expanding its market reach.