1977 Ford Fairlane ZH Marquis Sedan

Description

The Ford Fairlane is a full-sized luxury vehicle produced in a series of models by Ford Australia between 1959 and 2007. From 1959 to 1964, the Fairlane was a locally-assembled version of the American Ford Fairlane, as Ford Australia's top-of-the-range model until replaced by an Australian-assembled version of the full-sized American Ford Galaxie. In 1967, Ford Australia reintroduced the Fairlane, this time as an Australian-developed, luxury, long-wheelbase version of its mainstream Falcon, positioned between the Falcon and the Galaxie. In May 1976 the ZH Ford Fairlane series (also known as the P6 derivative) addressed earlier complaints about the Fairlane being too close to the Falcon in appearance. The designers retained the same central section from the upcoming XC Falcon (including that car's new rear doors), but put on lengthened front and rear ends, giving the car more bulk and a luxury impression. Another sign of the upmarket move was the 500 becoming the base model Fairlane (the earlier Custom trim level was deleted) while Marquis was the range topper. ZH also moved to the use of the metric system to denote the engine sizes: the basic engine was known as the 4.9 L, the other as the 5.8 L. All ZH Marquises built after January 1979 had Borg-Warner differentials instead of the Ford 9-inch. Ford produced the Fairlane at Campbellfield, Victoria, and Eagle Farm, Queensland, in the early years. Around March/April 1978, with the upcoming release of the Ford Falcon (XD) and its derivatives, Ford consolidated Falcon production at Campbellfield and Fairlane manufacturing to Eagle Farm.