NA / DA Ford Fairlane Spotters Guide

1988–1991 (Fourth generation)

June 1988 saw the next major revision: the Fairlane's straight edges gave way to gentle curves, based on the EA26 platform Falcon. The philosophy was the same: a long-wheelbase Falcon with a six-light body. The 4.1-litre six was heavily revised, becoming a 3.9-litre unit with improved fuel economy and power. These models were part of the EA26 development programme and platform (E for the market segment, A for Australia, 26 the project code). Therefore, officially they were EA26s, but colloquially, Ford aficionados prefer a two-letter code. Hence, the new Fairlanes were given the NA series code.

The equivalent LTDs came on stream as the DA series in June 1988. Like the previous generation, all N-series Fairlanes and D-series LTDs were built on the Falcon/Fairmont station wagon platform and this legacy is most noticeable in the disproportionally narrow station wagon rear doors on what was meant to be a limousine and in a car that otherwise caters well for rear seat passengers with a large amount of interior seating and legroom space. Nonetheless, these large sedans and were "limousine enough" to be one of the most common platform used by Australian body building companies to make stretch limousines.

Revisions from November 1989 for the 1990 model year saw the release of the NA II and DAII, the most notable change being the fitting of a four-speed, rather than three-speed, automatic transmission (since the Fairlane's debut it had a three-speed).

Although Ford Australia's official historian, Adrian Ryan, is emphatic there was never officially an NB series Fairlane, at least one early 1989 prototype fitted with a four-speed automatic escaped from the factory bearing a compliance plate marked "NB" and was registered as an "NB Fairlane". Ford also produced an alloy wheel identification guide poster for its parts counters listing one wheel as being for an "NB Sportsman Fairlane" and it seems likely that at one point the Series II NA was going to be called the NB. Third party parts suppliers also often list both an "NB Fairlane" an "NB - Series II Fairlane" in their parts catalogues adding to the NB mystery. DOTARS (the Commonwealth Department of Transport and Regional Services) has no record of giving Ford approval to use an "NB Fairlane" compliance plate for a production model which might explain Ford's reluctance to officially acknowledge the "NB".