Global Courant 2023-05-02 12:01:36
The passage of time strengthens legends. In the case of cars, it makes them more appreciated and, therefore, expensive. With almost half a million units manufactured, the Ford Falcon integrates the Olympus of legendary models of the Argentine automotive industry. Within a range full of variants, there is a Falcon that remains an object of desire even half a century old: it is the Sprint, the sports icon that celebrates 50 years of its birth.
It was May 2, 1973 when the first unit of the Sprint left the General Pacheco plant; It was put up for sale in August of that same year. Aesthetically identifiable with the stripes that crossed the hood and the sides in that first version, in the Club Amigos del Falcon de Argentina they have no doubts about what this version still represents among fans of the iconic Ford car: “It is the most desired and the most wanted.
The Sprints that the Club Amigos del Falcon gathered this Monday revolutionized the surroundings of the Faculty of Law. Photo: Courtesy Maria Jose Salmerón Martins.
That is why this Monday, in the middle of the May 1 holiday, they held a meeting at an emblematic point in the city of Buenos Aires to pay homage to such an icon: they met near the Faculty of Law to celebrate the date. There were Sprint models and others of the Falcon for the celebration that brought color and noise to Figueroa Alcorta avenue, in the heart of the Recoleta neighborhood.
The Falcon is the car that marked a break in the history of Ford in Argentina. It was the model that prompted the construction of the current plant in the north of the Conurbano and thus leaving behind the factory in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca, the first that the Detroit giant had built in Latin America, in the 1920s.
The inauguration of the General Pacheco Ford plant
Serial production of the Falcon began on January 10, 1962; On January 27, it was presented in partnership with a mega event in a theater on Corrientes street. The legend of one of the quintessential national cars began, which eleven years later was to define the appearance of its quintessential sports variant.
Nace el Ford Falcon Sprint
At the beginning of the 70’s, the Falcon began to build its legendary presence in Road Tourism. In 1969, Rodolfo De Álzaga had achieved the first triumph with the model. And in 1972 the journey of the most successful model in the history of the category began: Héctor Gradassi from Cordoba won the first of the 22 titles that the Falcon obtained in the TC.
The Falcon Sprint of the first generation, from 1973, in full celebration for its 50th anniversary.
The momentum of that crown achieved by Pirín Gradassi (four times champion in the TC, all with Falcon) was one of the keys for Ford to aim to launch a very sporty variant of the model that was already a success on the streets of the country. It was already times when Chevrolet had the Chevy Series 2 coupe on the market, the creation of Jorge Ferreyra Basso who revisited the iconic Moño car. And the Torino was a success.
Thus, in General Pacheco the need was raised to have a model that would add to the trend of sports cars, surpassing the Futura XP and SP that had appeared in the early 70s. In any case, there is another version of the history, more bordering on a fable of those times of lead that were lived in Argentina, from the permanence of military governments and the growing power of the guerrilla.
The 50 years of the Falcon Sprint: the first restyling, from 1975. Photo: Todo Falcon,
“It was never verified nor will anyone officially verify it, but it was also said that the Falcon Sprint responded to the request of the Armed Forces to have a car that was powerful to chase the guerrillas, who had the Torino as one of their favorite cars. . And that the answer to that was the Sprint”, Néstor Lema, the president of the Club Amigos del Falcon, told Clarín.
A Falcon Sprint differed from the rest at first glance, since it had side stripes (commonly called “Pipa”) and central stripes in black or white that were combinable among eight body color options.
In addition, the exterior mirrors were located further forward, on the hood area, while the radio antenna protruded from the roof. Those were the details that differentiated it from the Futura, the model from which it was based.
The 50 years of the Falcon Sprint: the first restyling, from 1978. Photo: Todo Falcon,
Inside doors it was distinguished by offering, for the first time in the Falcon range, seats with reclining backrests, while in the equipment it had a heater and defroster, cigarette lighter, radio, rear speaker, center console and sports steering wheel with leather finish. The grille was black, as were the wheels, which in turn had chrome petals.
However, the juiciest thing was its engine. The 221 -representative figure of the 221 cubic centimeters of displacement- SP 3.6-liter inline six-cylinder, which had exhaust and intake manifolds and a double-barrel carburetor to deliver 166 HP of power at 4,500 rpm. The box, meanwhile, was a four-speed manual with a lever on the floor. That first Sprint in 1973 had a top speed of over 190 kilometers per hour.
Why the Falcon Sprint is an object of desire
It was not the top-of-the-range model in the Falcon family, but that title belonged to the Futura. Even the name of Sprint did not exist for the industry. “The green license of the Sprint shows that it is a Falcon 4-door Futura version. They can be recognized as originals with the VIN plate on the driver’s door, where they have the acronym KA that identified the 221 SP engine”, Néstor Lema explains.
Why so much thoroughness to find the originals? “First, because today the Sprint is the most sought after model and the one that is paid the most. So much so that there are more Sprint than they manufactured. Not even Ford knows how many were produced, but it is possible to find many that painted the Futura with the stripes to try to pass them off as a Sprint”, indicates Lema.
The Falcon Sprint that starred in a record: it was stored for 30 years and was sold for US$40,000.
The sports model was a sales success. In 1975 the first changes were made to the bodywork of the Sprint, when it already lost the characteristic stripes on the bodywork. With the 1978 restyling it went on to have a two-tone body. It was in the same year as the final goodbye to the Chevy coupe.
The Falcon Sprint came to be nine years old. The new generation of the model launched in 1982 – the same one that remained until the end of the model in the early 90s – led to its being replaced by the Ghia SP version.
The Falcon Sprint lined up before going out to spin down Figueroa Alcorta Avenue.
According to the records of the Club Amigos del Falcon, there is a Sprint from that last batch that reached a record price. It is a 1981 copy with barely 40,000 kilometers traveled that was preserved for 30 years in a garage on blocks so as not to wear down the original tires.
This story came to light in 2017. It was about a Moorish Red Ford Falcon Sprint model 81, whose first owner died in 1983. For sentimental reasons, his parents decided not to sell the car: they only used it until the mid-1990s to travel to Córdoba, and later it was stored in the garage of a house on four blocks so that the original covers do not deform.
The Falcon with which production ended, as it rolled off the assembly line in Pacheco.
The person who discovered it in Laferrere paid US$27,000 for the car. A short time later, when he put it in condition, he received an offer from Chile for US$40,000, at which price he finally sold it to a local collector whose identity is not known. “It is the highest price the club has registered for a Falcon Sprint. He beat a line 73 with stripes for which they had paid US $ 25,000 ”, reinforces Néstor Lema.
At the Club Amigos del Falcon, they always pay tribute not only to the Sprint, but also to the 494,209 units of the Falcon that were manufactured in Argentina until September 10, 1991, when they said goodbye with a ceremony that took eight days to manufacture and one raffle. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the model, they made an extra with several copies of those that it has among its partners.
They met in front of the Faculty of Law and from there they paraded through the Recoleta and Retiro areas of the city of Buenos Aires. It was the way they chose to join the celebration and show some of those Falcon Sprints that, in their wake, arouse a reaction that stands the test of time: impossible not to look at them.
