FPV News

Ford Performance Vehicles is introducing an ‘entry’ level V8, to be known as the GS. However, buyers should be quick as 50 have already been snapped up ahead of this week's showroom launch. FPV will build just 250 sedans and 75 utes, priced at $54,950 for the four-door and $49,950 for the ute.Images of the GS were leaked on a dealer website several weeks ago, forcing FPV into damage control. But FPV boss, Rod Barrett, was all smiles as he rolled out his new baby.He says the GS is designed to bridge the price gap between the XR8 and the FPV GT. "There is a huge price difference between the two, in excess of $20,000," he says.However to differentiate it from the XR8, the GS gets more equipment so it can wear the FPV badge. "We feel that in this economic climate we wanted to offer people a chance to get into the FPV family without going all the way to a GT," Barrett says. "We believe this car offers the pricepoint, content and power that does that."The GS runs a recalibrated 5.4-litre V8 GT engine from the FG that produces 302kW at 6000 revs and 551Nm at 4750 revs. The detuned engine shares its twin throttle bodies and intake system from the GT, headers, dual exhausts and a recalibrated engine control unit with the GT.Buyers have a choice of a standard six-speed manual transmission or six-speed sequential automatic. Barrett says the 302 is a perfect entry point into FPV, which steps up to the turbocharged F6 at 310kW and the full GT-spec V8 at 316kW.The special edition GS gets GT-spec suspension, brakes and dual exhausts, unique GS striping, 19-inch graphite alloys on the sedan, charcoal cloth interior, GT instrumentation, gearknob, starter button and badging, a premium stereo with iPod and Bluetooth and dual zone climate control.Externally there are GS and 302 graphics on the car. Each car will also get exclusive build plates. Barrett says the GS was well received by prospective buyers. "This is the best focus group that we've ever done for a car," he says.However, despite its popularlity Barrett says it is unlikely the GS will become a permanent part of the FPV lineup. However, he says he will consider another special GS series when the new FPV Falcons are launched on July 1 next year. It will all depend on discussions being held now between Ford and FPV on a V8 engine strategy across both companies.

Ford Performance Vehicles boss, Rod Barrett, says although his heart his willing, the FPV chequebook is reluctant to open in the service of returning the GT-HO to the road.The poor sales response to Holden Special Vehicle's hot one-off W427 Commodore is believed to have indirectly cooled FPV's desire to recreate the halo Falcon. HSV built just 137 7.0-litre V8 W427 sedans with a pricetag of $155,000.The Clayton carbuilder had originally intended to build up to 427 hot Commodores, referring to the car's cubic-inch capacity. Barrett admits he was a keen spectator to the whole W427 process. "I think there was a huge learning experience for us in that car," he says. "I'd hate to think that I would be putting a car on the market that was as expensive as that. "I would like to be able to do something at an affordable price for the man in the street."Despite the sobering W427 experience, Barrett's desire to build a GT-HO remains strong. "The GT-HO is a dream of mine," he says. "I'd love to be in charge of FPV when we bought out a GT-HO."Dealers around the country hold thick files of prospective orders for a GT-HO but Barrett admits the mystic surrounding the original may not transfer into modern-day sales. Despite keen interest, the company has not even crunched the numbers of how many it could build or sell.But Barrett is adamant it would not be a limited-edition Cobra or special 40th anniversary car. "It would be something entirely unique," he says. With such a car comes a responsibility not to "stuff it up", he says. "I've always said I'm not to prepared to even think about it until we've got all the hardware we require and the financial resources to do it properly," he says.A GT-HO needs to be a car that has unique performance, handling, braking, aesthetics, colour and limited build number "and it needs to reflect what the Phase III was", he says."Whether I'm there, or any man that follows me into the chair at FPV, it is a very brave move to put out a GT-HO if you don't do it right and don't have the financial backing to do it right."Barrett admits 2011 would be an ideal time to introduce a new GT-HO, which would mark the 40th anniversary of the Phase III car. "It is a constant question, it's the question that comes up at every car club event I go to," he says. "I love it but it is so far away from being a reality at the moment it's just off the table."FPV is on track to sell about 1975 cars this year, just 3 per cent down over last year's figure of 2035 cars.Barrett says the full tally is still good considering the economic meltdown. "We're not too bad considering the state the rest of the industry is in," he says.V8s still make up most of the FPV volume with 41 per cent of cars being six cylinder models. "Going forward, we're heading for a pretty good year under the circumstances," he says.Barrett also believes buyer confidence is coming back into the market. "Inquiry levels are up and I'm very confident about the future of FPV," he says.However, FPV's figures still trails arch-rival HSV by a significant margin. HSV sold 4778 cars last year and to the end of July, sold 1551 cars.

...following on the heels of the hot F6 E unveiled a couple of weeks ago.And one lucky Carsguide reader will be among the first to get behind the wheel of this awesome machine as our Guest Tester.The new vehicle will be released nationally on September 1, but FPV is not releasing much in the way of detail, except to say the mystery car will again pay tribute to Ford’s rich muscle car history.“Our next model to be revealed is something we’re really excited about,” FPV’s general manager Rod Barrett said. “The beauty of being a local manufacturer is that we can respond relatively quickly to market demand.“And this new V8 vehicle -- along with our recently released F6 E -- is a product that we envisage will be warmly welcomed by fans of the blue oval,” he added.“With plenty of FPV DNA running through its veins, our new addition will, like the rest of our range, be easily identified on the street and from behind the wheel as an FPV product.”And you could be the one to fly to Melbourne to drive this car for a weekend in October, as Carsguide’s Guest Tester. You’ll also have a guided tour of the FPV and Ford Performance Racing workshops, hosted by one of FPR’s V8 Supercar drivers.After the test drive, your review of the car will be published on carsguide.com.au, with photos of you at work behind the wheel.To enter, in the Comments box below tell us in 50 words or less why you want to win. Do not provide telephone numbers or house address, but let us know if you saw the competition in your local newspaper and which one it was.This competition has now closed.You must be over 25 and hold a current full manual licence to enter. Tell us if you saw the competition in your local newspaper's Carsguide section - because during each of the four weeks of the competition, each participating newspaper will announce a ‘shortlist’ winner from among their readers, who gets a great FPV prize package worth $80. Check back in your paper each week to see if that’s you.The competition closes at 5pm EST, Friday September 11, and the name of the Guest Tester will be announced in your local Carsguide section, and here, the following week.This competition has now closed.This competition has closed, and with all the great entries, the Carsguide Guest Tester judges had a difficult task. But the final winner was Nikki Robbins of Brisbane, with: “Our FPV who art not released, What say be they name? Thy colour range? Thy engine size? On quarter-miles how shall thee run? Give us thine fearless V8 brute strength, Forgive thee less-fortunate in Holdens, Lead us not into disappointment, But deliver us thine test-drive, Ford ever-and-ever, amen.” Congratulations to Nikki, and to all the entrants — there’ll always be next year... 

"What you are going to get is 310kW and 565Nm in something that looks like a 5 Series BMW," Ford Performance Vehicles boss Rod Barrett says. "When you put your foot down it is going to go ... and at a pretty good price advantage. "This really is our Euro competitor."At $79,740 the F6 E - built off Ford's award-winning G6 E Turbo at a price premium of $23,000 - slips into the FPV range alongside the V8-powered GT-E."I think it is more about choice," Barrett says. "We make these iconic go-fast cars like the F6 and the GT and that is the base of our range ... it's what our core business is about. But there are some people that we do not cater for in that range that want a bit more luxury and refinement."They don't want stripes and big wings and black wheels. They want a bit more leather and woodgrain and chrome and I don't want to lose them."Barrett says the overwhelming success of the F6 and the demand for the G6 E Turbo was enough for FPV to shift plans for the F6 E off the back burner and give it some exposure as a concept car at the Melbourne Motor Show earlier this year."It was obvious that there is a demand there for it - not significant, but a demand," Barrett says.The F6 E will be built as a limited production vehicle with plans for ‘less than 50’ this year."It is not a limited edition just a limited production run," Barrett says. "If it were to take off and there was demand for 100 or a 150 then we just keep building them - it's there to be built."Barrett says the F6 E is another model in the FPV range against which rivals HSV cannot set a direct competitor. "They have the Senator in V8, which I would say is our GT E competitor, but they don't have a turbo six and this is the luxury version of that F6. I really think the top end of town will take to this car ... it will cater for the non-V8 crowd."The F6 E is powered by Ford's proven 4-litre turbo-charged DOHC 24 valve in-line six coupled to the ZF six-speed high-torque automatic transmission with Sequential Sports Shift.In keeping with the luxury theme the cabin features seats in shadow leather with the F6 E logo embossed on the headrests, a dark walnut woodgrain finish on the dashboard and doors, sports leather steering wheel with cruise control and audio mounted switches, dual-zone air conditioning and memory on adjustable pedals.Dynamic stability control, side curtain airbags, reverse parking camera and reverse sensing system, electronic brakeforce distribution and ABS are also standard.Barrett says FPV sales have held up better than the industry-standard large cars numbers with 911 sales year to date against 1154 for the same period last year."Under the circumstances I will take that ? especially when you consider last year we were launching new models and had the Cobra sales," Barrett says.

But it's not the four-legged animal that runs around parts of North America prairies, it's Ford's new alloy V8. Coyote is believed to be the codename of Ford Detroit's new light-weight engine that could end up powering local Ford Performance Vehicles.The new 5.0-litre V8 is slated for the Ford Mustang and F150 in North America soon and the engine could be in line to replace Ford Australia's current 5.4-litre FPV V8 ahead of moves to Euro IV emission standards from next July.A decision on Ford's in-line six-cylinder and V8 engine strategy is expected at the end of the month. However, neither Ford president Marin Burela or FPV boss Rod Barrett are not giving anything away.FPV is not commenting, and Burela is only saying that the I6 Falcon engine remains a key part of Ford's future. Nor is he saying if Ford will broaden its V8 reach from its hot FPV cars to the rest of the Falcon range.Burela has hosed down suggestions that Ford could add a V8 Falcon model to sit above the G6-E turbo, aimed directly at the Commodore Calais V8."We've looked at that and our response has always been what the market is looking for," Burela says."It's been very clear to us that the G6-E turbo is the right solution."We have the V8 but when you look at what people are asking for, inquiring about, it's the turbo six that ticks the box for them."The Coyote 32-valve V8 is said to develop around 330kW and 540Nm in standard tune with a hotter supercharged version possibly powering some top-end FPV cars.Burela acknowledges that GM-Holden has made its V8 more relevant to consumers by adding cylinder deactivation technology in an effort to chase better fuel economy. But Ford also has plans, he says."We've got a comprehensive plan that we've been working on between us and FPV," Burela says."We've been focused on ensuring that we put our efforts in the right place to cater to the different consumers."Burela believes there will always be a desire and need for a Ford V8."But the question is how do you deliver that without creating an aura around the brand that you are only a large car company with large engines, which then tends to send these messages that you're not about fuel efficiency and not delivering the right emissions levels," he says.Burela says Aussies love their large cars but are increasingly becoming more aware of the environment."But they want the costs to be competitive and emissions to be responsible," he says.Ford is slowly shedding its blokey Falcon car company image with a more focused European range from the Fiesta right up to the Euro-inspired Falcon."People saw us as old fashioned … no technology," he says. "Now they see us as being relevant." 

Macrow closes gapTim Macrow has closed the gap to British raider Joey Fisher after the latest leg of the Australian Formula 3 championship at Phillip Island. He claimed pole and won the second heat, after Fisher claimed the first, to close the points gap to the series leader to 17. In other action at the Island, David Wall was the GT championship winner in his Porsche GT3 and Brett Holdsworth claimed top points in the Commodore Cup.Ambrose in solid run MARCOS Ambrose continued his top-10 form with another solid run from the 14th starting spot in the latest round of the Sprint Cup on his home track at Charlotte, North Carolina. Ambrose came home tenth in his Toyota Camry, a solid build-up to the giant Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte this weekend, and a result which also kept him in the top 20 in the Nascar championship.Davison on test track ALEX Davison had his first full day of V8 Supercar testing at Queensland Raceway last week and is hopeful of improved form in coming races with Stone Brothers Racing. His Irwin Ford was also lapped by Mark Winterbottom of Ford Performance Racing as the two blue oval factory teams swap information in a bid to drive them forward and end the domination of the TeamVodafone cars of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowdnes.McFarlane returns Andrew McFarlane returned from eight years overseas to blitz the field in the first race in the Australian Motocross round at Toowoomba's Echo Valley. But Jay Marmont still leads the Pro Open championship by13 points while Matt Moss closed the lead to Luke George in the Pro Lites series.ARC wraps up THE Australian Rally Championship will wrap in November following the postponement of the Coffs Harbour event originally set for June. Heavy rainfall over the course for the Daikin Coffs Coast Rally in March forced the organisers to re-schedule the event, although the exact date for the forest racing grand final has still to be set.Lola back in F1 LOLA is returning to Formula One in 2010 in a move which would see it join the proposed US GP team in a cost-capped world championship. The world's largest racing car manufacturer has not bee in F1 for more than a decade, after its last effort collapsed after an appearance at the Australian Grand Prix when funding from a major finance company did not eventuate.Repco route confirmed The route for the return of Repco Rally Australia to the world championship has been confirmed with a 340-kilometre course in the northern rivers region of NSW. The rally will be run from September3-6 and is expected to boost the local economy in the around around Murwillumbah by more than $30 million.Tagliani out ALEX Tagliani was the only high-profile casualty during final qualifying for this year's Indianapolis 500, with the former Champ Car front-runner missing a place in the 33-car field. The lineup for the race on May 24 is set with Helio Castroneves on pole — with Australia's Ryan Briscoe and Will Power in second and ninth starting spots — and Ryan Hunter-Ray at the back of the field.

PETFOOD magnate Tony Quinn scored the biggest success of his motorsport career when he drove to victory in the 2009 Targa Tasmania with his Nissan GT-R. His job was made easier when Jim Richards and Kevin Weeks both crashed out of contention, leaving the VIP Pet Foods boss with an eventual winning margin of six minutes over Jason White in a Lamborghini. Rex Broadbent completed a hat-trick with classic victory in his Porsche 911, while Greg Johnston took the showroom class in a Mitsubishi Evo.FOUR points was the margin between success and failure for Chad Reed in this year's AMA and World Supercross Championship as the superstar Aussie came up just short in the grand final in Las Vegas at the weekend. Reed scored 11 seconds places from 17 starts in the supercross series with his Suzuki, as well as three wins, but it was not enough to stop James Stewart lifting the title with a safe third place in Las Vegas.MARCUS Marshall surprised his V8 Supercar rivals by re-setting the lap record at Winton last weekend in his unsponsored BF Falcon. The speedy young Queenslander did the job in an ex-Triple Eight Ford on the soft Dunlop racing tyres used for the first time at Winton, dropping the benchmark time to 1 minute 22.9813 seconds as he raced to a memorable ninth place on Sunday afternoon.NICK Percat made another clean sweep of the Formula Ford championship races at Winton last weekend, with Chaz Mostert following him home in each of three heats. The weekend result gives Percat a 61-48 break over Mostert, with Mitchell Evans and Scott Pye next in the junior series.MARCOS Ambrose finished just outside of the top 10 in his latest Nascar start at Richmond in Virginia despite contact with the wall early in the event. Finishing 11th, after his benchmark fourth place a week earlier at Talladega, gave him his seventh top-20 result from 10 starts and moved him up to 19th in the Sprint Cup standings with his Toyota Camry.DEAN Canto and Luke Youlden have filled the co-driving seats at Ford Performance Racing for this year's V8 Supercar enduros. It is their second year alongside FPR regulars Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards at Phillip Island and Bathurst, as Nathan Pretty also returns for the long-distance events as a member of Kelly Racing.The pace-setting car in V8 Supercar racing is now driven by a woman. Amber Anderson, a 25-year-old Melbourne lawyer who is trying to build a racing career, has been chosen to drive the Nissan GT-R safety car at several rounds of the series and had her first start at Winton last weekend.SWINE flu meant an early end of the A1GP season which was planned to finish in Mexico City at the end of May. The series ended instead in Britain last weekend, when Team Ireland raced to the championship with Adam Carroll, as Team Australia trailed in eighth after an identical finish in the feature race in the UK by John Martin.THE popular Speed on Tweed historic festival has been revived as part of the program for Repco Rally Australia in September. The course through the streets of Mulwillumbah on the NSW north coast will also be used as a special stage during the running of Australia's event in the World Rally Championship.THE remaining events in the Aussie Racing Cars championship have been re-jigged for the rest of 2009, with a break until the Shannons Nationals meeting at Winton on June 27-28. The baby racers then head to Eastern Creek on August 7-9, Oran Park on August 29-30 and Homebush for the Sydney 500 meeting from December 4-6.The re-scheduled Victorian Open Sprint Kar Championship will be held this weekend at the Hume International Raceway near Seymour. More than 400 of Australia's best racers will compete at an event which was postponed from February 13-15 because of the tragic Victorian bushfires. 

JOHN MARTIN and Team Australia only took a 10th and a 12th from the latest round of the A1GP series in Portugal as Team Netherlands took the sprint race and Switzerland scooped the feature event. The feature race win gave Neel Jani his 10th A1GP feature victory, a record for the category, while the overall results for the weekend leave Australia holding 12th place in the A1 championship and trailing well behind pace-setters Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal.CHRIS Dyer has just been promoted to team manager of the Ferrari grand prix team after a crisis meeting intended to get the Italian superteam back on track in this year's world championship. After guiding Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen to world titles as their race engineer the transplanted Australian was originally moved up to chief track engineer for 2009 but - after the worst season start since 1992, with zero points from the first two races - team manager Luca Baldisserri has been switched to a factory job and Dyer has moved up.RYAN Briscoe is favourite as the Indy Racing League makes its first visit to the former heartland of Champ Car racing at Long Beach this weekend. Team Penske took first and sixth with Briscoe and Will Power at the IRL season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg in Florida and is expected to be just as strong on the California street course.MARK Winterbottom has a new website. The lead driver for Ford Performance Racing, and last year's V8 Supercar championship runner-up, is moving to the latest technology and will file from his mobile telephone using the popular Twitter system to keep things current at www.markwinterbottom.comAMERICAN veteran Paul Tracy has finally found a place for this year's Indianapolis 500 despite failing with plans for a fulltime return to racing in the Indy Racing League. Tracy, who has not raced at all since a one-off Champ Car start last July, will drive at Indy with the KV Racing Technology team.SOME of Australia's fastest young rally drivers will go all-out in May to win a fully-paid promotion to the World Rally Championship. They will tackle Rally Queensland, a round of the 2009 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, as the regional qualifying event for the Pirelli Star Driver program. The ultimate prize, if they make it through the whole Pirelli process, is one of five WRC scholarships for 2010. 

The change in direction is being assessed against the backdrop of falling sales for the flagship Falcon and the failure of the F6 X based on the Territory SUV, which has just been cut from Ford Australia's showrooms.Planning for a more-flexible future is about to shift into top gear at company headquarters in Campbellfield, according to FPV's British boss, David Richards."We have to be flexible under the current circumstances and look into the future and work very closely with Ford to adapt the product that we produce to what the market requires," says Richards, speaking while watching his Ford Performance Racing team in action at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide."I see a very strong partnership in the past continuing for some time.It's just that it will be in a different guise in the future and more flexible."Richards, who built FPV in Melbourne as an extension of his Prodrive motorsport and special vehicles company in the UK, says the hot Ford shop still has a solid future and he is confident it will survive any short-term downturns."The fundamentals are not about the individual cars, it's about the principle of what FPV can deliver to Ford," says Richards."What it does is provide a very flexible partner. Historically we have produced a range of performance cars, but who is to say that in the future we couldn't be adapting cars for other requirements."A lot of that is that a large factory like Ford Australia is very efficient at producing volume models, but quite often you do need 1000- off or 2000-off special vehicles that need to be done off the production line. And having the ability to that just next door to Campbellfield has been a great asset over the years."Richards says the situation is the same across the world and has created new opportunities for Prodrive in the UK."Recently we did an Alfa Romeo in Europe for the UK, because the feeling was that the product that had been produced for Italy and the rest of Europe didn't suit the British roads. And they wanted it tuned for British roads. And it's been a great success."Of course we've done other products in the past. The last Focus RS was done by us for Ford."He says the workload for specialist companies that can engineer and build smaller-volume cars is only going to increase."As the car companies slim down their facilities and focus on really delivering efficiencies into their model ranges, so the place for a business such as FPV - or Prodrive in Europe, for that matter - becomes even more important and valuable."That's what we do in Europe, more and more, for different manufacturers. It is often driven by the sales and marketing teams, who look for a particular product for a niche for a particular marketplace."So Richards admits there will be a changing job description for FPV."All we've got to do is adapt to the product requirements of the future. Whether that is small vehicles, whether it is still a smaller number of high-performance V8s, or what it's going to be is still a little hard to determine. But that's our role.But does Richards see the Falcon as the future of FPV?"Not necessarily. That's what its heritage is based on, but I fundamentally believe we've got to be flexible. If that means leaning towards smaller performance vehicles, the Ford Focus or whatever, then so be it."We work very closely with Ford and I'm very confident of our ability to do that." 

New challenge aheadCarrera Cup racers in Australia are looking for other challenges, including the latest GT championship, after the collapse of the Porsche one-make series. This year's championship was canned after only eight entries were received for the planned season opener on the streets of Adelaide for the Clipsal 500 meeting.A grip on the gridSebastian Bourdais has filled one of the few open seats on this year's Formula One starting grid, being renewed for a second year at Toro Rosso. Bourdais is a former multiple Champ Car series winner.Johnson in EnduroSteven Johnson will tune up for the V8 Supercar season by racing a Falcon at Bathurst. He is a late addition to the field for the 12-hour Showroom Enduro at Mount Panorama on February 22, sharing an FG-model Falcon GT-P with Nathan Tinkler and Nathan Callaghan.Life ban for drag racerChampion drag racer Brett Stevens has been banned for life and all his records and championships suspended after being charged with drug offences.Ambrose Daytona debutMarcos Ambrose will become the first Australian to start in the Daytona 500 this weekend in Florida, as he begins his first full season in Nascar's Sprint Cup with a Toyota Camry.