FPV News

The wraps come off his all-new FG Falcon this morning and Frosty is already working on what he needs to improve from runner-up to champion in this year's series."Every year is a different challenge. Every year you have to do the best you can," Winterbottom says."Last year we came close, and as a driver or sportsman you want to improve. There are definitely areas we need to improve, and if we do then we'll be around the money."The goal for the year is to minimise mistakes, and that should put us up there."Winterbottom believes his new Orrcon-backed FG, which was also displayed as it will be raced by Steven Richards, is the best thing yet from Ford Performance Racing. But he is not predicting a walk-over."You instantly think a new car should be quicker. But tte BF was already a pretty dominant car over the VE. So to think it will be a lot quicker - well, it won't happen," he said."You have to up the success rate, and that means being quick at all tracks. Not being quick at one track and then struggling at the next.We need to improve the consistency and minimise the mistakes."Winterbottom says he has done all he can to boost his own performance, even using a renovation project in Melbourne to improve his fitness."I've been up on the roof, ripping things out. And I run to the house, so it all helps," he says."I'm fitter now than I have ever been, by a long way. You look at all the areas you can improve."Everyone can improve. I'm pretty hard on myself, so I look at some rounds last year and realise where we made mistakes. That's where I can focus, so that's what I've been working on."He is expecting a similar step up from the FPR crew, which is one of only two factory-backed teams - Stone Brothers Racing is the other - to survive a Ford cull at the end of 2008."The team is pretty tough on themselves. They want to improve."Winterbottom will not drive his new FG until the start of March but has been keeping close tabs on development."I've been to sit in it and have a look around. I'm happier," he says."Also, the guys are happy because it is a lot easier to work on. If everyone is happy at the workshop, and they are not working 24 hour days, the team functions a lot better." 

Everything is ready at the blue oval factory team for a three-car assault on next year's touring car championship, but not until the final crucial piece of paper is in the safe.FPV is competing with several others - Walkinshaw Racing and Paul Cruickshank both want to grow their teams next year - for two remaining license. And each has a pricetage in the $1.3 to $1.5 million range."It's a bit of a struggle at the moment. The real issue is the license," says FPR's director of business operations, Mark Roworth.FPR is looking cashed-up and competitive after the re-signing of Orrcon and Castrol, which both have long-term deals with the team, and the arrival of Westrac Cat to take a place on both the Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards' Falcons.Roworth believes he has the support to expand to a third car and is likely to be choosing between Andrew Thompson, Dale Wood and Jonathon Webb as the driver.But he stresses that a three-car team is more than just a money-making move."It comes down to the reason we want to run a third car. It has got to be strategic," he says."We want to find the next Mark Winterbottom. We need a succession plan for our existing drivers."There is no plan to get rid of them, and they both have long-term contracts, but you never know what is going to happen. It is far cheaper to develop a driver than it is to buy one."FPR has already run more than its own two Falcons from its base in Broadmeadows, with both Team Kiwi and Jim Morton's Ford Rising Stars operation taking their on-track hardware from the team.Ironically, Morton's decision to quit V8 Supercars has hurt FPR as he sold his license to Marcus Marshall, who is establishing a new team for '09 with a major internet company paying the bills."That's a bit disappointing. If we had known that Jim Morton was getting out we probably would have moved to get the license," Roworth says.But he stresses that FPR is not just planning to run a third car to boost the money it makes from Orrcon, Castrol and the rest of its backers."The key thing is to ensure the third car is not just a revenue stream, but complements the other two," Roworth says."That sets us apart from some other people, perhaps like the Walkinshaw operation. 

The last time FPV brought out a limited edition model - this time last year- it looked back to the late seventies and revived the Cobra badge for a limited run of 500 striped sedans and utes.

The Ford driver Posted his second round victory of the year in round seven at Queensland Raceway yesterday.Winterbottom won races two and three after finishing second in race one on Saturday to secure the overall round win from Holden's Russell Ingall and Ford's James Courtney.The Ford Performance Racing driver now holds a 122-point lead over defending V8 champion Garth Tander in the series, with the Holden driver fourth on the weekend.Winterbottom was flawless all day yesterday, setting up his triumph by surviving a race two crash-fest to win the middle peg of the three-race sprint round.He got the better of fellow Ford driver and Saturday's race one winner Courtney off the grid and also won the battle of the pitstops.Then Winterbottom held off Ingall at the start of race three and didn't give anyone else a sniff to close out the victory.Ingall, with a second and two thirds for the weekend, finished second overall to post his best result since moving to the Supercheap Auto team at the start of this season. 

Despite our wide brown land having millions of empty hectares – more than enough to swing a camera crew, you’d think – Ford Performance Vehicles turned to the computer to create both landscape and vehicles for their new ad.FPV employed the use of computer-generated Imagery (CGI) to create the sparse landscape featured in the powerful commercial, with all vehicles developed in CGI from CAD data.FPV decribes the ad as “the epitome of the ultimate driving environment, one that is stark and graphic, but also represents freedom and escape from the everyday.”"Such an environment with no roads and plenty of wide open space enabled clean graphic imagery and angles that would be difficult to achieve elsewhere,” the press release says."To manage such a production with eight cars and a production crew would be an extremely consuming and costly exercise and besides, the vehicles were in production at the time," FPV general manager Rod Barrett says."We rarely use television to advertise our brand and to be able to use this technology in the way we have is extremely advantageous," Barrett says."The result was a more flexible shoot, no large crew, no weather contingency, and the freedom to choreograph the shots, choose our own weather conditions, rehearse the shots and then produce the finished television commercial."The TVC, produced by advertising agency Magnum Opus and CGI specialists Airbag Productions, will be mounted here at midday tomorrow and will premiere on pay television on Sunday July 6 on Fox Sports, Sky News, Fox Sports News, Discovery and the History Channel, with airplay during the free-to-air coverage of the V8 Supercar Series. 

Blueblood Dick Johnson was tossed on the tip yesterday by Ford.After more than 30 years as a blue oval battler, often fighting single-handed against a horde of Holdens, he was left behind in a dash for cash.Craig Lowndes will also be caught in the crossfire from a decision by Ford to centralise its cash commitment with just two V8 Supercar teams, Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing.Lowndes' team, Triple Eight, was dumped by management at Broadmeadows in a money move which also affects former Bathurst winner Jason Bright's team. The decision is likely to save Ford around $3 million, a significant sum as it battles falling sales of its flagship Falcon."This is a weird one," a stunned Johnson said yesterday."It's a bit disappointing. We always knew things were up for negotiation, but . . ."I'm 63 but right now I feel more like 190. It's already been a tough year."Roland Dane, the head of Triple Eight, was also not happy."I'm surprised, given our record," Dane said."Team Vodafone has won 16 rounds of the V8 championship in the past three years. FPR has won four, Stones have won two and Dickie Johnson's team has won one. We've also won four of the six enduros in that time, including two Bathursts."Ford have clearly got some issues they have to deal with. I wish all the employees at Ford all the best, because the company has obviously got a few challenges at the moment."The Ford cutback comes as the company looks for more bang from its V8 Supercar buck, although it says motorsport its still its single biggest sporting spend and well ahead of cricket. It has only just completed its all-new FG Falcon racer, which is set to race from the start of the 2009 season.Full details of Ford's future will not be revealed for some time, with FPR believed to be working on a three-car program for next year with James Courtney moving from Stone Brothers to take the extra wheel. But FPR and SBR will form a technical liaison, with the Melbourne team building cars and the Queensland outfit responsible for engines.The impact is likely to be extensive and could even shake the foundations of V8 Supercar racing, as Holden has also scaled-back its involvement in recent years and new company chief Mark Reuss has recently said he would be happy to see another carmaker in the contest."I think it's probably time to move on from the whole Ford-Holden thing, because it turns off as many people as it turns on. We'll crack on with life. I work on the basis that there is no point in getting too steamed up if there is no money to be earned or it doesn't make us go faster."Johnson joked that he might even end up driving a Toyota, although his lifetime commitment to Ford is unlikely to change."We'll see where it goes from here. I need a bit of time to think about things. I see no reason to stop being a Ford person.""We're pleased to see that Ford continues to support the sport. How they spend their money is entirely up to them," is all the CEO of V8 Supercars, Wayne Cattach, said.Johnson actually began his racing career in Holdens, but had his first start in a Falcon in 1975.Since then he has raced American Mustangs and British Sierras, and even a production-class Laser, before returning to Falcons in the V8 Supercar era. He also rallies in an Escort.His ties to the company came in 1980, after he hit a rock while leading at Bathurst and Edsel Ford - then the marketing chief at Ford Australia - offered to a dollar-for-dollar deal to match donations from his fans."It went from there. I guess the biggest win for me was getting the first championship in 1981," Johnson said."And Bathurst in the Sierra days was pretty good, before the Bathurst wins in the early 1990s."Johnson's team has been hit hard by money troubles in recent years, with the laconic Queenslander losing more than $2 million of his personal fortune in keeping the operation running. He is now facing a bankruptcy proceeding, although a re-structure and a new partner has kept his team on the track.Youngster Will Davison even gave Johnson a much-needed win at Eastern Creek in Sydney this year."We looked like we were back on track. Now this," Johnson said."It's not quite seven figures that we're losing, but Ford was a significant part of our budget because we haven't had much to work with."Dane was less worried about the cash, as his Vodafone deal is the biggest in the V8 Supercar pitlane."Ford's contribution to our budget is not that great. So I'm not particuarly concerned from a commercial standpoint," he said.But he is now re-assessing the future of his team, which was founded in the UK and won last year's British championship, and admits he has been talking to other carmakers."Who knows what is going to happen in future? I've only ever spoken to other manufacturers, and it's plural, in the context of understanding their long-term marketing plans in Australia."Only a fool would rule out another brand. Never say never."V8 SUPERCAR RETHINKThe rising cost of racing and falling returns from Falcon sales have forced Ford's re-think on its V8 Supercar program."The days of winning on Sunday and selling on Monday are well and truly gone," the vice-president of sales and marketing at Ford Australia, Mark Winslow, told the Herald Sun yesterday."And the costs of this sport are getting larger and larger."He admitted Ford has cut its Supercar spending but defended the move by saying the company's overall sponsorship budget was unchanged and V8 racers still got the biggest slice."It's reduced from what it was, but it's still our largest sponsorship," Winslow said.His new strategy is to maximise the Ford force in the sport, both in results and in cars which look more like blue-oval road cars than high-speed billboards for other brands."We've been very successful but now the time has come to focus and leverage our brand. From our point of view, this will give us the best chance for success," he said."Up to now we haven't got our true-blue brand out there, which is a problem for us. We want them to look like a Ford car."Winslow backs the decision to focus Ford's spending on FPV and SBR, despite the company's history with Dick Johnson and the racetrack success of Team Vodafone."They have both got the depth. We think it's a good strategy to go forward."How you define success isn't just about what step you take on the podium. You also have to leverage every dollar you invest."Triple Eight is stellar. Clearly Vodafone are a strong sponsor . . . but they are predominantly red and we are blue."Winslow also denied the cutback was the start of a withdrawal from V8 Supercar racing or the company's other motorsport spending in Formula Ford."I've always said V8 racing is valuable to the brand. We just need to make an investment and get a return on that investment." 

Imported cars are hardest hit by the new LCT threshold but some of our homegrown brands also suffer.

A Ford GT confiscated by police is claimed by its owner to be worth at least $200,000 after he painstakingly restored it with a gleaming blue spray job and faultless interior.

Holden's performance arm is upgrading its engines this month, weeks before rival Ford Performance Vehicles releases its new range. HSV is updating the current 307kW LS2 to the LS3 V8, which pumps out 317kW.The upgrade should see HSV maintain its power advantage because FPV is reportedly set to offer a 315kW V8. HSV says the timing simply coincides with its supply of the LS2 running out.“Our customers want the latest and greatest technology in their cars,” HSV managing director Scott Grant says. “The General Motors LS3 engine continues the HSV tradition of scouring the world for technological advancements to enhance the driving experience.”At the unveiling of the new FPV range in February, company boss Rod Barrett said the Blue Oval performance brand would not engage in a power war with its Holden rival.FPV will rely on an upgraded version of the 5.4-litre Boss V8 for the short term, but promises more upgrades, including a reborn GT-HO.The new HSV engine comes at a price. The ClubSport R8 now starts at $64,550, up $1660, the Maloo R8 goes from $59,990 to $61,550, the GTS is up $1000 to $76,990 and the Senator Signature cops a $1200 increase to take it to $79,190.The Grange has been bumped up $1700 to start at $84,690. The LS3 unit is 6.2-litres and produces 550Nm of torque at 4600rpm, the same as the LS2. It is built in North America by General Motors Powertrains.Despite the size increase, HSV is reporting a slight drop in fuel economy for the new models.As well as the local line-up, the engine will feature in HSV's export models, the Vauxhall VXR8 sold in Britain and the Middle East-bound CSV R8. The same engine is fitted to the Chevrolet Corvette in the US.HSV says that automatic gearboxes will also get an oil cooler as standard. As an option for ClubSport, Senator and Grange buyers, new 20-inch alloy wheels will be available at $2500. 

Ford Performance Vehicles' V8 Cobras have turned into an instant classic. Buyers are paying $30,000 above the recommended retail price for the used versions of the cars, which had a recommended retail price of $65,110 for the GT sedan and $61,200 for the ute.One website has two Cobra sedans for sale, one with 10,000km on the clock listed for $80,000 and the other with just 500km for $95,000.Another buyer has a $109,000 asking price on a Cobra that has done just 29km. Another has $84,990 for an example that has travelled 1500km. Yet another buyer has his XC Cobra listed with his BF Mk II Cobra for “best offer over $200,000.” It is the same story with the Cobra Pursuit utes, with prices varying from $74,000 to $87,000.FPV general manager Rod Barrett says he could have built more Cobras if Ford had let him.“We were restricted. I would have liked to have built more. In 40 years, though, those 500 cars will still be classics,” he says.Last year FPV built 400 sedans and 100 utes with a Cobra badge.All 500 cars were snapped up by dealers, but a handful remain, with some FPV dealers holding back on stock to maintain interest.Cashed-up buyers are clearly keen to spend what it takes to secure a piece of Ford history, Barrett says.And he says FPV had to field some negativity for recreating a commemorative Cobra from the 1970s.“We copped a bit of criticism for recreating the Cobra, but it's an icon worth remembering.”The latest Cobra sedan and ute is powered by a Boss 302 engine developing 302kW/540Nm, and is equipped with FPV stainless-steel fabricated exhaust manifolds and a high-flow dual-exhaust system.For motoring buffs, 302 was the capacity in cubic inches of Ford's small-block V8 engine and is also exactly double the 151kW output of the 1978 Cobra's 4.9-litre V8 engine.The GT Cobra has a limited slip differential and is available as a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission with a high torque clutch or the ZF six-speed automatic transmission.The latest Cobra came about to mark last year's 30th anniversary of Ford's one-two win with drivers Allan Moffat and Colin Bond at the famed Bathurst endurance race.To commemorate that win, Ford Australia released 400 Falcon XC Cobra coupes in July 1978. Those cars are now highly collectable, with one 220,000km example recently priced at $71,500.