2004 FPV F6 Reviews

Now add a durable six-speed close-ratio gearbox, a stronger clutch to take the torque strain, and get a veteran V8 Supercar driving legend to tweak the suspension. Now you're talking!On a rainy day in Melbourne last week as SES crews cleaned up after an unseasonal typhoon-like storm, Ford's performance arm, FPV, launched the turbo-charged performance Typhoon to the motoring media.The turbo Typhoon joins the MkII GT and GT-P and Pursuit ute in the Ford Performance Vehicles stable, with a manual only ute version, called Tornado, blowing into a town near you in January.The big story, though, is the Typhoon's (and Tornado's) flat torque curve. From just 1000rpm, there is 400Nm, enough to make any grown man weak at the knees. But that's just the start of it.From there, it climbs to a whopping 550Nm another 1000 revs up the dial. And there it stays until 4250rpm, where it rolls off gently back to 400Nm as the audible limit alert sounds at 5700rpm and before the limiter cuts in at 6000rpm.It launches in a long first gear and slips second, then hits 100km/h. And there are still four gears left in the stick shift.The Typhoon and Tornado give FPV a new weapon to attack the performance market and attract buyers they hadn't appealed to before -- turbo fiends.Product planning manager Mark Behr said turbo and V8 owners were different.He said a snapshot of their V8 customers showed they were self-made people, usually tradespeople, who were interested in V8 Supercars racing and wanted people to notice them. They were typically aged 35-55 and 85 per cent were family men.By comparison, he said, turbo customers were more interested in technological aspects. They expected Typhoon and Tornado customers to be slightly younger, white collar workers, former Euro car buyers and more interested in following F1 than Supercars. He even expected to attract WRX owners who now had a family.FPV sales and marketing manager, Roger Gray, agreed that the two turbo models would attract new buyers."We don't see ourselves as restricted to V8 buyers," he said. "F6 appeals to a new type of buyer."He said they had sold 2565 vehicles in the past two years since taking over from Tickford and moving to separate headquarters around the corner from the Ford HQ in Broadmeadows.GT accounted for 1154 sales with 52 per cent manual and 58 per cent choosing stripes. The GT-P sold 1020, 38 per cent manual and 50 per cent stripes, while the Pursuit ute has sold 391, 56 per cent manual. Stripes are not available. But Gray says the new range opens up the choice of new colours and stripe combinations as part of its bid to broaden its appeal to new buyers.He said there was no competitor in the market for F6 on value and performance."It has the most torque produced in a locally developed production engine."That extra torque placed extra demands on other parts of the vehicle and former Lotus engineer Alastair Bacon was brought in as program manager to ensure the vehicle met those requirements."The engine's increased torque required a transmission with increased torque capacity and durability," Bacon said.It also had to be made from available transmissions to keep costs down, with selectable gear ratios and had to fit in Falcon's floorplan.Their choice was a six-speed close-ratio Tremec T56 transmission, the same as used in the new Holden."But this is not an off-the-shelf gearbox," Bacon said.It has been engineered on FPV's new 3600sq m site which also houses the Ford Performance Racing team, a machine shop where they can design and mill their own parts, a panel fabrication area, two dynos and a dustproof engine building area.He said the transmission had shift precision without any increase in effort, good gear spacing without jumps or loss of revs, linear bearings on the shift rail to make shifts smooth and crisp, direct linkage shifter for better feel, reverse gear synchro and double synchro in all forward gears for fast shifting.A test through the typhoon-drenched Yarra Valley last week proved most of his claims.With a tall first gear, it launches strongly and hits the magic 100km/h mark well within second gear yet has a usable overdrive ratio within legal road speeds.

It surges forward as though a gale has erupted under the bonnet: You've unleashed a whirlwind, a storm on four wheels.Ford – or to be more precise, its Ford Performance Vehicles offshoot – has turned a six-cylinder Falcon into a turbocharged supercar, claimed to have the most torque, or pulling power, ever produced by an Australian production car.Drive the FPV F6 Typhoon and you believe it. It has been developed from the Falcon XR6 Turbo, itself a potent sports sedan, but given a dose of steroids – higher turbo boost, better breathing, more cooling, stronger engine parts, bigger brakes, bigger wheels, more aggressive-looking shape – to create the Typhoon, all $58,950 of it.The first cars have just left the factory (they go down the Ford production line, then are fitted with the special bits by FPV) and are on their way to dealerships. Eager buyers have placed orders already, and FPV expects to build about 60 a month.The "F6" part of the name refers to its forced-induction (meaning turbocharged) six-cylinder engine. The Typhoon part becomes self-explanatory when you put your foot down."Any gear, any time, any day, you can stick your boot in and get the full load," Typhoon program manager Alastair Bacon said.However FPV, wary of appearing too aggressive, will not reveal the Typhoon's acceleration figures.But since the XR6 Turbo is capable of the 0-100km/h sprint under 6sec and the Typhoon has considerably more power, torque and a new gearbox full of ratios designed to suit, it should produce times which will make Ford enthusiasts smile.Happily, the "hoon" word which lurks ominously in the second half of the Typhoon name doesn't apply here.It is mighty quick, sure, but not anti-social.Nor, in spite of its mega performance, is the Typhoon any hardship to drive. It stays reasonably quiet, even during full acceleration, and the ride is surprisingly comfortably and supple.Yet there is a sporty tautness about it, gripping the road with sureness, answering every movement of the wheel instantly, precisely.A key part of the package is a new six-speed gearbox which FPV also uses in the V8-powered Falcon GT. (No Typhoon with automatic transmission at this stage because Ford doesn't have one able to handle the turbo engine's output).The gearshift requires a firm push, but everything engages easily, happily and the clutch is not heavy enough to be a chore. Stop-start driving, surprisingly for a car with such muscle, turns out to be no worry.On a long run in the country, as the Typhoon romped on a preview drive, it trotted along with lazy ease, far from stressed. It felt, well, normal, which is a compliment for a car capable of such extreme performance.Yet after driving the Typhoon, even the awesome Falcon GT seems almost restrained because it takes a few moments to build up power, compared with the lighter six-cylinder car's right-here, right-now style of delivery. It responds with the eagerness of a light switch.Let rip in a full-bore takeoff – strictly for research purposes, you understand – and the Typhoon catapults forward, first gear seeming to last for just an instant before a beeper warns you've reached 5700rpm and it is time to grab second.Feels like it has enough force to tear furrows in the bitumen and that's what torque is all about. The more the merrier: this is the stuff which brings response when you touch the accelerator, which delivers acceleration, punch for overtaking and effortless hill-climbing ability.This is the stuff which the Typhoon has in such abundance that it is in exclusive territory. A scan of the performance-car lists shows that the next car which out-muscles it, with 553Nm to the Typhoon's 550Nm, is the Jaguar S-Type R at $162,500.However, FPV expects most buyers will be moving up from machines like Subaru's iconic WRX, drivers who love turbocharged engines but want a bigger car. The theory is that few GT owners will migrate to the Typhoon, because they're hooked on V8-style noise and character.To show that its performance isn't to be taken lightly, every buyer gets a one-day advanced driving course. Excellent idea.