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Right now the FPV focus is on the mouth-watering GT R-SPEC, a quicker, better handling version of the current GT.
After that -- who knows? If FPV's new boss Bryan Mears does, he's certainly not telling. With continued speculation over the imminent demise of the Falcon, the question has to be asked.
Because, take the Falcon out of the mix, and you'd have to think FPV is dead in the water. Ford for its part has not guaranteed production of the Falcon beyond 2016. The future we're told is in small cars, not big hungry V8s like those from FPV and competitor HSV.
But Mears remains adamant the company has no plans to produce a small performance car. He said there are no small cars in the current Ford portfolio that really lend themselves to performance tuning anyway.
"Besides there's already a number of crackers in the segment," he said. Right now Mears is wondering if he made the right choice when he put in his order for one of the new R-SPEC limited edition models.
He ticked the box for black, but looking over his shoulder he said the red one is starting to look pretty good too. All will be revealed when he drives the car up from Melbourne to the Bathurst race come October.
Only 350 of the R-SPEC cars will be produced, along with 75 utes. It comes in black, red, blue and white, but at least 175 of the sedans will be finished in the hero black and red colour scheme. The final mix of colours will depend on the number of orders received.
The car is priced from $76,990, the ute from $57,990 which makes the ute a bargain except that it gets few of the upgrades shoehorned into the sedan. The Brembo brake package remains an optional extra on both.
The R-SPEC features a significantly recalibrated suspension package, new wider 9 inch rear wheels with 275/35 R19 Dunlop Sports Maxx tyres and, in an FPV first, Launch Control. Under the bonnet, however, the new GT RSPEC remains unchanged, powered by FPVs all-aluminium Miami BOSS 335kW supercharged 5.0-litre V8.
The race track-inspired GT RSPEC was developed in response to feedback from customers and the media. The goal of the 18-month project dubbed Panther was to give the car better traction and handling. The new 9 inch rears and wider 275 tyres along with stiffer rear suspension setup are designed to improve in-corner grip and allow the driver to get the power down earlier out of corners.
Changes to the front end are designed to make the car feel more agile and responsive, with a greater feeling of control. Launch control usually found only in high end Euro performers is available with both the manual and automatic transmissions and will help prevent burnouts. Anyone who has driven one of these cars will attest to the fact that they are very difficult to get off the line cleanly, with the tyres intact that is.
So, how quick is the GT R-SPEC? They're not talking numbers (if we told you, we'd have to kill you), but sources close to the company claim the car is capable of a 0-100km/h time of 4.5 seconds. That puts it lineball with Chrysler's new and cheaper 6.4-litre SRT8. But for some punters, only a Ford will do.
Only available in hero black with red striping, the ute is $5000 more than the standard GS V8 ute but apart from the wheels and ‘you beaut' paint job that's all you get. The wheels by the way are 8s not 9s. The ute gets none of the suspension changes or launch control from the sedan. But, Mears said, it will be the ute that sells out first -- not the sedan.
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