RE: Latest Hot Ford Falcon Gets Prodrive-Developed V8

[sykotoyRS4]

I live in Australia and see these things everywhere, they are junk......same shape for years....still same body as local taxi's..ford falcons are as "greeat" as ford sierras...not.
the interiors are plastic rubbush, very low grade cars and so are the drivers. And they weigh a lot...1800kgs +

[mat205125]

Riggers said:

Sam43Harris said:

No sure if I like the looks of this monster....

I know what you mean. I've been trying (and failing, so far) to find pics of it where it doesn't look rather tacky... but I think it's mostly to with the bright car on white background...

I think that the designer must have been recruited to Ford from Nike.

[Dagnut]

Always preferred commodores

[Fury1630]

You want to hope that belt on the front doesn't break, I counted 11 pulleys!!

[Cacatous]

sykotoyRS4 said:

I live in Australia and see these things everywhere, they are junk......same shape for years....still same body as local taxi's..ford falcons are as "greeat" as ford sierras...not.

You mean like German taxis are based on BMWs and Mercedes? Does that make them crap too?

sykotoyRS4 said:

the interiors are plastic rubbush, very low grade cars and so are the drivers. And they weigh a lot...1800kgs +

They aren't Mercedes but they aren't plastic rubbish either. Oh and most big sedans weigh that much.

Based on your crap sentence structure and penchant for ellipses I'd wager you're too young to drive on of these?

[ian_c_uk]

infradig said:

vit4 said:

Wish they'd sell these over here a la VXR8.

Coleman Milne bring Fairlanes over for the funeral industry,maybe they could sneak a few of these onto the next boat.

Indeed:

http://www.coleman-milne.co.uk/new-cars/ford-fairl...

I see plenty of "standard" 4doors being unloaded there in grey and black, look quite nice, I'm sure they'd sell you a standard or even bring over a special one (for a profit of course!)

[Moogle]

I too thought 450 horses (with supercharger!) is quite low compared to the stock 'factory' quoted normally aspirated 410 horses?

Maybe the former is at the wheels and the latter is at the crank? That would probably work right since the lowest tune that the factory supercharger for the new Mustang is like 525bhp isn't it? And if that is at the crank, 450 at the wheels makes sense right?

[LuS1fer]

Nobody quotes power at the wheels, what would be the point? Maybe the Aussie authorities don't like silly power outputs. The stock 4.6 Mustang put out 300 and blown it put out 420. Add a chargecooler and it was 470-500. The old GT500 was 500 and the new 540 and you can be sure that for prioduction cars these are very "safe" tunes with no real chance of detonation occurring. A 412hp 5.0 with a blower should add around 120hp and a chargecooler boost that to 150 or more.

As for Ford's colours and graphics being influenced by Nike , that's like saying the Beatles were influenced by the Kings Of Leon.

[Moogle]

LuS1fer said:

Nobody quotes power at the wheels, what would be the point?

Personally I don't see the point in quoting power at the crank but each to their own.

[AdeTuono]

308mate said:

AdeTuono said:

dave stew said:

My family have lived in Australia for almost 25 years. In 1992 I was writing for 'Performance Ford' magazine and managed to borrow a Falcon XR8 from the Ford press office for a few days to drive around in and review.

In 1993 I managed to get a bright red XR6 complete with 'Tickford' wings and quad headlights. Both were manuals as they had been specced by the press office and both wore Victoria number plates which meant that I got cut up in NSW traffic!

Great fun, at the time I thought it would be a good idea to start importing them into the UK, but then you get home and get back on with your day to day life...

Anything like this.....?



I picked this up off eBay a couple of months back. Tickford-built 5.0 V8, manual, and a bit 'interesting' at the rear with no weight in the back. Compares nicely with my old Maloo.

Maybe that was your red XR8 I followed over Alder Hills in Branksome last weekend then Ade?

Very likely; it's back on an 'X' plate now, and not the number in the picture. Wouldn't have been me driving though; I bought it as a pool vehicle, so could have been one of my guys taking it out for the weekend. Couple of them live out that way.

[Kawasicki]

sykotoyRS4 said:

I live in Australia and see these things everywhere, they are junk......same shape for years....still same body as local taxi's..ford falcons are as "greeat" as ford sierras...not.
the interiors are plastic rubbush, very low grade cars and so are the drivers. And they weigh a lot...1800kgs +

I live in Australia too and I'm surprised at your comments. I disagree that Falcons are junk, also the shape has been on the market for 2 years, so fairly new really and I think the basic shape is great. I had an XR6 Turbo and I loved it. Hardly ugly and very fast...both round corners and in a striaght line - less than 5 seconds to 100km/h! The packaging is excellent, they make great fast family cars.

[Hectorthedog]

Kawasicki said:

sykotoyRS4 said:

I live in Australia and see these things everywhere, they are junk......same shape for years....still same body as local taxi's..ford falcons are as "greeat" as ford sierras...not.
the interiors are plastic rubbush, very low grade cars and so are the drivers. And they weigh a lot...1800kgs +

I live in Australia too and I'm surprised at your comments. I disagree that Falcons are junk, also the shape has been on the market for 2 years, so fairly new really and I think the basic shape is great. I had an XR6 Turbo and I loved it. Hardly ugly and very fast...both round corners and in a striaght line - less than 5 seconds to 100km/h! The packaging is excellent, they make great fast family cars.

I too live in Oz and used to drive the non-turbo XR6 but have also driven the last two generations of Commodore. The Ford wins hands down as it's a much nicer place to be. The latest generation Holdens have awful interiors - cheap, nasty plastics and a steering wheel so big you'd think it came from a yacht. Ford is better quality, although still not up to European standards.

Maybe another reason for the limited power is that fact that the speed limits are so draconian here. Most roads are 50 or 60 kph. I have a Focus XR5 Turbo (ST in the UK) and rarely get to give it some beans. The roads are also terrible so you're always wary and cautious.

[Vario-Rob]

Having been peddled around the Bugatti Circuit in its predecessor I can honestly say it was an extremely impressive bit of kit.

Make no mistake, it held up very well on a very demanding circuit so if this offers more of the same or indeed is even better then let’s hope one or two do find their way to these shores.

£40k tops mind you
I

[jarrus464]

I'd love to see this over in the UK,

I love the VXR8 and the Monaro and if it's as good as those, (I dare say it would be better) than I'll take one!

THe LS engine has been around a few years now and GM have had time to fettle it and nip and tuck it here and there, this new ford v8 is pretty much brand new. There is loads more potencial in this engine and I dare we haven't seen the last of it in terms of power making.
It should make more power due to it being more advanced than the older 5.4 and it is way more advanced than the GM LS (as awesome as they are)

Please, please, please Ford sell it to us pommies!!

[FestivAli]

mattmoxon said:

LuS1fer said:

It looks awful, like some panda.

The article is a bit thin on detail. The new twin-cam 5.0 in the Mustang produces 412hp and 390lb ft of torque in a fairly low state of tune and the new 5.4 alloy GT500 unit develops 540hp so why has this only got mid 400's and why is this a new peak in Aussie V8s when a supercharger on a Mustang 5.0will make far more?

Edited by LuS1fer on Monday 10th January 13:09

That's what I was thinking, even a charger on a low boost tune would kick out more than that?! the older 4.6 unit with a supercharger usually puts out at least ~420bhp if not a whole lot more.

It's marketing. When HSV tweak the exhaust on their next model, FPV can up the boost on the supercharger to maintain or beat them by a few kilowatts, without too much effort.

For the record, this car came out some months ago and this is old news. Autoblog did the same, only reporting this a few days ago. I know they get lots of their headlines from PH, and it probably goes vice versa, but you both did the same thing with the latest HSV (or VXR) - that car came out a few months before PH or Autoblog reported it either.

Regards,
Ignored Antipodean.

[LuS1fer]

jarrus464 said:

It should make more power due to it being more advanced than the older 5.4 and it is way more advanced than the GM LS (as awesome as they are)

I don't really understand the need to have something "advanced" ie far more complex and harder to maintain and service when the LS* provides the same or better power, same or better torque and is far more compact which means it is now the staple diet for many engine upgrade kits. It is also equally economical wthout all the fancy variable cam timing. It's taken Ford long enough to catch up and while there is no doubting the credentials of the 5.0, it's not going to make GM run off and design a new engine just yet.

[dave stew]

Hectorthedog said:

Kawasicki said:

sykotoyRS4 said:

I live in Australia and see these things everywhere, they are junk......same shape for years....still same body as local taxi's..ford falcons are as "greeat" as ford sierras...not.
the interiors are plastic rubbush, very low grade cars and so are the drivers. And they weigh a lot...1800kgs +

I live in Australia too and I'm surprised at your comments. I disagree that Falcons are junk, also the shape has been on the market for 2 years, so fairly new really and I think the basic shape is great. I had an XR6 Turbo and I loved it. Hardly ugly and very fast...both round corners and in a striaght line - less than 5 seconds to 100km/h! The packaging is excellent, they make great fast family cars.

I too live in Oz and used to drive the non-turbo XR6 but have also driven the last two generations of Commodore. The Ford wins hands down as it's a much nicer place to be. The latest generation Holdens have awful interiors - cheap, nasty plastics and a steering wheel so big you'd think it came from a yacht. Ford is better quality, although still not up to European standards.

Maybe another reason for the limited power is that fact that the speed limits are so draconian here. Most roads are 50 or 60 kph. I have a Focus XR5 Turbo (ST in the UK) and rarely get to give it some beans. The roads are also terrible so you're always wary and cautious.

You can say that again - people forget just how draconian speeding is over there.

[LuS1fer]

dave stew said:

You can say that again - people forget just how draconian speeding is over there.

I do understand that point but it's largely wasted as once you go over 400hp, it's a bit of an academic argument whether it's 450 or 550. You can drive a Veyron at 200mph but you can also drive it at 30 and I'm sure no-one would suggest they drop the power. As a V8 owner myself, I also understand the trade between peak power and torque but it's hardly lacking to begin with.

Edited by LuS1fer on Wednesday 12th January 19:18

[richb77]

It looks a little tacky but to be fair...It has a V8 which means its already about 1Million times better than the oil burning Euroboxes we get here in the UK.

[99t]

Well I can see what they've tried to do there, but