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 Now I know this story has done the rounds of the world wide web more times than a certain Paris Hilton home video, however I think it deserves a re-visit for our last blog post of 2007.

 There is plenty of fanciful stories attached to these images. American man buys run down block of land in Portugal for next to nothing, finds huge barn with doors welded shut, cuts doors open and finds 180 classic cars stored there.

 The only true part is that the ‘barn’ is in Portugal and there is 180 classic cars stored in the barn! From best acounts the real story is that the cars are owned by a car dealer that decided to collect the most interesting cars that came through his doors in the 70’s and 80’s. Word is that the none of the cars are for sale either.

 Fanciful theories aside, it is still an amazing story. 180 of the best, worst and in-between vehicles of many era’s. Take a look at the Classic Car Heaven Gallery for the rest of the 60-odd pictures.

 We hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Holiday Season and a great start to 2008.

 Belinda and I would also like to congratulate Gary Grant of The Garage for doing an awesome job of the Carnival of Wheels. The CoW turns 1 this week and I urge all our readers to head on over for a look at the great job Gary does, even when it gets in the way of his busy schedule!

Craig and Belinda.  

 While we were on the subject of the mighty Blue Oval I thought I would add a link to a story that would bring a grown man to tears.

 The (unconfirmed) story goes - guy owns original XY GT, a friend of the owners friend is getting married, owner lends Falcon to the friend of his friend for the wedding, friend of the friend smashes Falcon!

 If the story holds true I would say all friendships would be a tad strained at the moment. Check out the article here, and have a box of Kleenex close by! 

 The countdown to the launch of the 2008 Ford Falcon has begun with Ford stating that they will reveal engineering details of the new Falcon in February of next year, ahead of the May launch of the new model, codenamed the Orion.

 The complete line-up of new Falcons, including the ute, wagon and high performance versions will be available before the end of June 2008.

 Just how ‘new’ will this Falcon be? The current model has been around since 2002 and that model shares some underpinnings with the AU Falcon which was launched in 1998.

 Ford insiders say that the new Falcon will remain fundamentally unchanged under the sheetmetal, except for new front suspension which has been revised with input from Ford’s just-retired handling expert, Richard Parry Jones.

 On the driveline side, Ford is unlikely to make any drastic changes to the current 4.0 six cylinder engine as a replacement V6 is due in 2010. The 4.0 straight six is already more powerful and fuel efficient than the V6 Commodore. There will however be minor improvements to both power and fuel efficiency for the new Falcon.

 There will also be a new five-speed automatic transmission replacing the four-speed unit found on the cheaper Falcons. The top-of-the-line Falcon will keep the well-regarded six-speed unit.

The 2008 FPV Falcon - phat!!

The big news is that the focus for the new Falcon has been on safety. Electronic Stability Control was made standard on all petrol Falcons recently and side and curtain airbags are expected to be made standard on the new range.

 Ford is rumoured to be working towards making the Falcon the first locally-built car to recieve the maximum five star crash rating from independent safety auditor NCAP.

 The look of the new Falcon - already been seen through leaked photos - indicated some drastic changes to the look of the Falcon and showed that the new car will bear similarities to the recently released Mondeo.

 Sales of the Falcon have dropped considerably as most Australian buyers have moved towards four-wheel-drives and small cars and Ford is said to be counting on the new Falcon to boost it’s sales in the local large car market. Falcon sales in 2007 are roughly half of what they were in 2004 and the car has slipped to fourth behind the VE Commodore, Toyota Corolla and the Mazda 3. Source: Drive.com.au

 I don’t know about you but I think 2010 will signal the end of an era with a V6 replacing the trusty 4.0 straight six in the Falcon. Similar to Holdens move to the ‘Global V6′, perhaps Fords thinking is on the production costs of the current engine?