Post by Redforever on Aug 26, 2013 10:33:29 GMT 10
As most people expected, Ford are set to underwhelm their performance fans yet again with insiders confirming that there will be no GT HO to farewell the Falcon and that FPV will cease to exist as of next year.
The hot insider rumours in Wheels and Auto Action have Ford shutting down the FPV brand for good next year and the GT model becoming just another Falcon and the GS most likely going in favor of the return of the XR8 as Ford prepare the revised FH model for release in 2014 as the last ever locally produced Falcon.
Apparently a 351 KW GT HO version of the GT was well down the development path when Prodrive walked away and Ford simply couldn't justify the cost to engineer such a model given the Falcon's sales volumes and time left in the market.
The FH was originally slated as a major face lift of the almost 6 year old FG design, but falling production and the end of the Falcon announced a couple of months back have left Ford with little choice but to do what they can with a significantly reduced budget. With likely only around 20 to 25k FH Falcons ever to be built, Ford just couldn't justify a big spend with such a small volume to recoup their costs.
Look out for some significant front end styling changes and the adoption of some Euro spec tech upgrades but little in the way of performance upgrades for the FH and no halo model to farewell the iconic local Falcon.
A 351Kw GT HO would further appear redundent given the significant output advantage the 430Kw VF GTS Commodore enjoys. Whilst many after maket tuners have easily screwed 400 plus Kw's from the Supercharged Miama V8 in the GT. To pass emissions, durability and warranty considerations, Ford would have to invest a significant amount to bring a car with such a high output to market.
Money they clearly don't have to spend on a model that they clearly aren't interested in.
So Ford fans, it appears that Ford Australia are going to walk away from their performance heritage and let their tens of thousands of fans hanging on the tree with no farewell hipo model to celebrate their rich performance history and to farewell the Falcon with some dignity.
Whilst HSV release the fastes, most powerful and most sophisticated model in local history, Ford are left on the sidelines watching their performance heritage whither and die.
And it would appear that they really couldn't care less and Ford fans should be very angry about that....
The hot insider rumours in Wheels and Auto Action have Ford shutting down the FPV brand for good next year and the GT model becoming just another Falcon and the GS most likely going in favor of the return of the XR8 as Ford prepare the revised FH model for release in 2014 as the last ever locally produced Falcon.
Apparently a 351 KW GT HO version of the GT was well down the development path when Prodrive walked away and Ford simply couldn't justify the cost to engineer such a model given the Falcon's sales volumes and time left in the market.
The FH was originally slated as a major face lift of the almost 6 year old FG design, but falling production and the end of the Falcon announced a couple of months back have left Ford with little choice but to do what they can with a significantly reduced budget. With likely only around 20 to 25k FH Falcons ever to be built, Ford just couldn't justify a big spend with such a small volume to recoup their costs.
Look out for some significant front end styling changes and the adoption of some Euro spec tech upgrades but little in the way of performance upgrades for the FH and no halo model to farewell the iconic local Falcon.
A 351Kw GT HO would further appear redundent given the significant output advantage the 430Kw VF GTS Commodore enjoys. Whilst many after maket tuners have easily screwed 400 plus Kw's from the Supercharged Miama V8 in the GT. To pass emissions, durability and warranty considerations, Ford would have to invest a significant amount to bring a car with such a high output to market.
Money they clearly don't have to spend on a model that they clearly aren't interested in.
So Ford fans, it appears that Ford Australia are going to walk away from their performance heritage and let their tens of thousands of fans hanging on the tree with no farewell hipo model to celebrate their rich performance history and to farewell the Falcon with some dignity.
Whilst HSV release the fastes, most powerful and most sophisticated model in local history, Ford are left on the sidelines watching their performance heritage whither and die.
And it would appear that they really couldn't care less and Ford fans should be very angry about that....
