1965 Ford XM Falcon Utility 2JZ: Two Blue Jays

This unassuming 1965 Ford XM Falcon Utility has recently been listed on Car Sales, and it is a lesson in thinking outside the box.

Background

The original XM Falcon was a damn good looking car, and the third Falcon series sold in Australia. They came with a three engine options, all sixes. Disappointing, considering the US Falcon buyers had the option of slotting a Windsor V8 between the rails.

Still, the XM Falcon was a standout as it was Australia’s own, with a unique design that differentiated our models from the States sloppy seconds from previous years. It was a handsome devil, and has remained popular ever since.

Why is it cool?

Whilst Ford Australia wronged so many by starving us of a V8, many owners took it upon themselves to change things up. Windsor V8’s have ofcourse been the most popular. Infact, they slot right in, making the small block and obvious choice.

But the owner of this ute has taken a very different path, and opted for a 2JZ engine. You’gll find no twin turbo’s, instead the naturally aspirated 2JZGE vvti engine has been chosen. Despite the lack of snails, it’s still a hot bit of kit with individual throttle bodies and Haltech PS2000 keeping it all in check. This results in 220hp at the wheels, not huge by todays standards. But considering these cars are now 55 years old, I think 220 horses is still plenty enough to get you in trouble.

On that note, these cars had notorious steering- with a ratio suited to the “housewives” of the 60’s. In other words, you need to to really turn it to change direction. Luckily then, this XM Ute has had an RRS Steering Rack conversion to give you better control. Brake wise, its disks all round. Throw in a 5 speed and LSD, and you’ve got yourself a neat little streeter than can still do a Bunnings run.

I bloody love builds like this. Completely outside the box thinking, and excellently executed. Infact, I would love to own this thing, daily it even.

Things I would change? Probably the wheel choice, if I was being a stickler. Maybe lean into the radiused rear guards by adding some 60’s spec Cragar SS’s. Either those or retro JDM wheels to hint at what lies within.

Link me

You can head over to Carsales and find this 2JZ XM Ute for sale for $44k (link here).

1965 Ford XM Falcon Utility 2JZ: In the owners own words

For sale is a 1965 XM Ford Falcon Utility, built in the last few months as Ford were switching over to the XP series.
I believe in the saying that “a picture paints 1000 words” so I am going to let the story telling of this car be bought to life through the documentation of the past 4 years.
This utility was originally sold in Victoria and may have started life with the Police due to the colour, black dashboard and the steel patched hole in the middle of its roof. It came into my life after being a farm ute in country Victoria (Pyramid Hill) to then making its way up to Brisbane for a complete change to the sleeper it has become today. All the major rusted areas of the car have been cut out and professionally replaced,(being a country Victoria ute there was not too much of that either – just plenty of red dirt!), the interior has had a complete overhaul including new roof liner, carpets, reupholstered thunderbird bucket seats etc.

The main work load has been the engineering side of things, first being the elephant in the engine bay, a Toyota 2JZGE vvti engine, bolted to a 5 speed Toyota W58 gear box, which runs through to an overhauled Ford Falcon EF rear end LSD with trutrac internals. Back to the engine bay it is completely stock apart from ARP Studs, a rebuild less than 1000kms ago, EFI individual throttle body induction kit from Melbourne (amazing piece of billet aluminium) all managed by a Haltech PS2000 computer and Racepak iQ3 dash. This set up has been dyno tuned by Empire Performance and is achieving 220HP at the rear wheels.

Handling wise, the springs and shocks were tested and reset. I also changed out the 4-wheel drum brakes to 4-wheel disk brakes and upgrade the steering to a RRS power steering rack with collapsible XW steering column.
This car was always something I wanted to build, after tinkering with Japanese cars in my teenage years, I thought it would be fun to take that knowledge to one of Australians first generation utilities.

The only reason I am selling is because my passion for this build has left me, and I’ve reached an age where I would like to focus my energy on something like a house.

A roadworthy certificate and registration will be supplied.