Ford Falcon XR6T 2005 Review

It's a Tremec T56 box found in other Ford muscle cars including the Mustang Cobra and, oh yes, Holden Commodore V8 though the Ford version is individualised in terms of shift feel and gearing.

It's a bit of a payback when you think Holden uses a copy of the Falcon front suspension in its V8 Supercars. Component sharing is bigger than you think between the two.

The six-speed replaces a good five-speeder in the previous model and is intended to more efficiently capture the potent performance of the 4.0-litre, turbo six.

It does that better than in the XR8 and delivers absolutely sparkling performance pretty well everywhere.

Slip it into gear, push the throttle and away you go – whoooosh.

The box offers smaller gaps between ratios and therefore a more sporty feel. Even so, the turbo engine still delivers a long, smooth and strong run through each gear.

The turbocharger goes into warp drive quickly and is rarely caught off-boost unless a totally wrong gear is selected.

It isn't a high pressure turbo and relies on clever induction design and other electronic stuff to boot out some 240kW and an even more impressive 450Nm of torque from just 2000rpm.

Ford engineers shortened the final drive to optimise the new six-speeder and maintain its oomph.

The XR6 Turbo is a weighty beast at nearly 1700kg, even more for the four-speed auto version but all that engine torque deals easily with the situation.

The car also feels more nimble than before possibly due to firmer springs and other minor tweaks.

A couple of interesting things come with the six-speeder: electronic lock out of reverse while the car is moving, alloy pedals, a new flywheel and other mechanical changes that improve the car.

A new range of colours is available but the stunning orange and lime have been deleted. Boo hiss.

The test car was a hoot to drive and was particularly entertaining on winding roads. It is something else again to surf the turbo boost and feel the potent engine hurl this big car forward, much better than the XR8 in fact.

There is an audible whistle from the turbo that has been all but engineered-out of other turbo cars. Go Ford.

Dynamics are up with the high output engine giving the XR6 a sporty feel and good manners, even on rough roads.

A traction control system has a high threshold making spirited driving more satisfactory.

At $46,350 the turbo model commands a premium of $7500 on the "atmo" XR6 but it's a whole lot more car.