AS far as cheap prestige motoring goes, it's difficult to find more metal for your money than any Fairlane. Essentially a Falcon sedan stretched over the wagon's longer wheelbase, it was Ford's cash cow from the moment the 1966-1968 XR Falcon-based ZA model was released in 1967. Ford tried the same trick again with the XA Falcon-based, ZF Fairlane 500-derived LTD in July 1973. It had an even longer wheelbase, lashings of luxury and headlights concealed behind louvres. Although sales were small, Ford persisted with the model, which borrowed its name from big Amercian Fords from the 1960s. It stands for "Lincoln-Thunderbird Division", by the way. By the time the NA Fairlane-derived DA range rolled along during 1988 the model was becoming more sophisticated, with rack and pinion steering, a Watts Link rear suspension, complex electronic instrumentation, fuel injection and a self-levellling rear suspension system. Then, more importantly, V8 engines came back on stream in late 1991, after an eight year break. The DC II featured here was a refinement model, capitalising on Ford's hard work ironing out all the quality niggles that so plagued the EA/NA/DA project. It also had the job of fighting off a resurging Holden Statesman Caprice, resurrected in Commodore-based VQ mode (previously it was a remodelled HQ Kingswood dating back from 1971) after a five-year slumber that started with the demise of the WB in 1985. As far as luxury was concerned, Ford was finally beginning to not rest on its laurels, and about time too...