Ford welcomed the return of a hero recently with the reveal of the first fully Ford-built GT at Broadmeadows, signalling the start of FPV production at Ford’s BroadmeadowsAssembly plant and the return of full GT production after 37 years.
“FPV is the ultimate version of the Falcon and we are very excited to have taken over assembly of these performance machines for our FPV customers,” says Ford Australia President and CEO, Bob Graziano.
“Ford’s history with performance vehicles goes back a very long way and nameplates such as GS and GT are warmly welcomed back in-house. The F6 range features the most potent version of our locally developed i6 engine and it’s a real buzz for us to be completing these cars for the first time.
“Designed for our enthusiast customers, FPV vehicles are the hero cars of our local line-up and are genuine performance machines. From the 310kW F6 to the 335kW, 32-valve, quad-cam, supercharged Miami V8 powered GT, each FPV provides customers absolute performance.
“The individual customer experience that comes with FPV ownership starts right here in the new FPV Assembly Facility where each FPV is hand-finished for individual customers. It is all part of a very special ownership experience that comes with each FPV.
“The FPV customer is an incredibly discerning buyer that is looking for craftsmanship, individuality, heritage and performance in their purchase and FPV focuses on all these points.
“At the Geelong engine plant, one technician builds the engine from start to finish and signs the block on completion to reflect the quality of workmanship and pride that has goes into each individual engine.
“Geelong will soon start to supply the Miami V8 for FPVs with final testing happening now.
“Even though these cars have previously been assembled by FPV, I feel the FPV brand is returning to its natural home. Today, we are very proud to be assembling these hand-crafted performance machines right here for our FPV customers,” Graziano said.
To facilitate the seamless transition of FPV vehicles from the Glenbarry Road FPV plant, Ford has built a dedicated FPV assembly facility within the Broadmeadows Assembly Plant, where the cars are now hand-finished. By bringing production in-house, Ford has been able to achieve a range of assembly efficiencies for FPV vehicles:
- Double handling of vehicles eliminated. Vehicles are no longer required to be relocated to an external FPV facility for assembly.
- Exhaust vacuum tube now fitted on the production line, removing the need for disassembly and reassembly later in the build process.
- FPV assembly facility is located next to Ford’s Customer Acceptance Line for quality assurance and validation
To ensure the vehicles meet Ford Australia’s rigorous quality standards, Ford has recruited its best technicians to build the cars. Each has been specially trained to work for FPV.
As the brand responsible for tuning Ford’s locally produced Falcon models, FPV has been creating performance Fords since 2002. It has produced such legends as the first BA Boss GT, as well as the peerless GT R-SPEC.
FPV bodies have always been welded and painted on the same production line as Falcons and Territorys and assembled to a rolling state before being delivered to FPV for final assembly.
The rolling chassis are now finished by hand in an FPV-dedicated facility at the Broadmeadows Plant to ensure each FPV is finished to the same high standard customers expect.
“There has been a lot of excitement at the factory knowing that FPVs are now being built here,” Ford Australia Assembly Plant Manager, Andrew Higginbotham, said.
“We’ve made several changes to the assembly line and have also established an FPV area where individual FPVs are hand finished to ensure each customer receives the ultimate FPV.”
The FPV Range currently consists of three, six-cylinder and five, V8 performance models.
With an awesome 310 kW of power, FPV’s turbo-charged F6 sedan, F6E and F6 Ute are some of the best performing six-cylinder vehicles on the Australian market.
Powered by the high-performance 4.0 litre turbo-charged DOHC 24-valve in-line six, the F6 produces maximum power of 310 kW and maximum torque of 565 Nm. To achieve the significant 40 kW increase over Ford’s XR6 Turbo variant, FPV engineers strengthened the piston design and cranked up the boost.
A new intake system has improved airflow from the air intake to the engine head inlet, which substantially reduces pressure drop without a loss of boost capability.
As a result, the F6 delivers impressive power and torque figures, without compromising on driveability and fuel efficiency. The F6 boasts fuel consumption figures of 12.3 litres/100km in manual transmission and 12.1 litres/100km in automatic guise.
With up to 335kW of power, the 5.0-litre “Miami” V8 the FPV GS and GT range has been designed to meet FPV’s stringent performance requirements. Based on the “Coyote” 5.0-litre found in the Mustang GT, the Victorian-assembled “Miami” features a quad-cam 32-valve head combined with a Harrop Supercharger to produce 335 kW and 570 Nm in GT guise.
At the end of 2012, Ford purchased the assets of FPV required to engineer, manufacture and market the FPV brand in Australia.
Production of FPV vehicles moved from the Glenbarry Road facility, to Ford’s Broadmeadows Assembly Plant 1, over the summer break.
The first fully Ford-built FPV to come from the new Broadmeadows dedicated FPV assembly facility is a Silhouette Black GT, with Black Shadow Leather interior and no external striping.
