Ford Landau (Australia)
Encyclopedia
This is an article about a motor vehicle built in Australia. For the Ford Landau built in Brazil see Ford Landau
Ford Landau
For information on the Australian Ford Landau see Ford Landau Launched at the 1970 São Paulo Auto Show, the Ford Landau was a full-size car, manufactured in Brazil from 1971 until 1983 by the Ford Motor Company at their São Paulo facility. It became Ford's flagship in that country. It was based on...

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The Ford Landau is a motor vehicle which was produced by Ford Australia
Ford Australia
Ford Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA...

 from 1973 to 1976.

Released in August 1973, the Ford Landau was based on the Australian XB series Ford Falcon
Ford Falcon (Australia)
The Ford Falcon is a full-size car which has been manufactured by Ford Australia since 1960. Each model from the XA series of 1972 onward has been designed, developed and built in Australia and/or New Zealand, following the phasing out of the American Falcon of 1960–71 which had been re-engineered...

 but shared its frontal appearance and luxury appointments with the P5 series Ford LTD limousine, another Australian design which was released at the same time as the Landau. The Landau was available only as a two door hardtop coupe and shared its 111 inch (2819mm) wheelbase with the Falcon. It was powered by an Australian built low compression version of Ford’s 351 cubic inch (5752cc) Cleveland V8 engine
Ford 335 engine
The Ford 335 engine family were a group of small-block V8 engines built by the Ford Motor Company between 1970 and 1985. The significance of the Numerals '335' designated to this series of Small block Ford V8 engines is relatively unknown...

with a power output of 290 bhp (216 kW) at 5000 rpm. Transmission was a three speed “T-Bar SelectShift Cruisomatic” unit, allowing a choice of manual or fully automatic gear changing. Four wheel disc brakes were fitted, making the Landau and its similarly equipped LTD stablemate the first Australian-built cars with this feature.

The high levels of standard equipment fitted to the Landau meant that only two items were offered as optional equipment: a cassette deck and full leather interior trim. This factor, combined with the performance orientated mechanical specifications of the Landau meant that it never had a direct rival in the Australian marketplace. Plans to update the original P5 series Landau with the frontal styling of the forthcoming P6 series LTD resulting in the building of a P6 Landau design study but the facelifted model was not put into production. The Landau was discontinued when the new LTD was released in 1976 after a total production run of 1385 vehicles.

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