The fact that Ford's performance division has invested $40 million over three years on a new V8 should be interpreted that the Falcon is here to stay – for at least the next five years.
So says Bryan Mears, the boss of Prodrive Asia-Pacific, the parent company of Ford Performance Vehicles, itself a joint venture with Ford.
The future of local production of the Falcon has been questioned after decades of declining sales – and following comments from the global boss of Ford, Alan Mulally, who has stated
several times there will be "no more one-off cars" for individual countries. The Australian-made Falcon and Territory are unique in the Ford world.
Mears says FPV chose to supercharge the 5.0-litre V8 originally designed for the Mustang in North America because it has "a long future".
When asked by the Carsales Network if it would take closer to 5 or 10 years for FPV to recoup its $40 million investment in the GT Falcon's engine program, Mears said: "I wouldn't be thinking five years."
When asked if Prodrive needs Ford to continue manufacturing the Falcon locally beyond 2015 (when the current model is due to be discontinued or replaced by a new version) in order to recoup the $40 million investment, he said: "I won't answer that question but I will answer something else. When we had the choice of this investment, and when we … searched the world for a V8 that would do the job, that was a 'yes', a vote for the future.
"Ford would not have let us spend this money if they weren't confident about the future. They are partners in this business. Prodrive owns 51 per cent, Ford owns 49 per cent.
"Why would we invest the money if it was just [for] one year or two years, there is simply no reason for that, it wouldn't make sense. I can tell you we wouldn't have invested the money. We would have told you a pile of stories and said 'don't worry the 5.4 Boss is fantastic and we're going to put gold valves on it'.
"But at the end of the day we had to look into the cycle, well into the future.
"What Ford do … outside in their world is their business. But … there is no doubt in my mind there is longevity in this investment and we certainly intend to get every cent of our investment back within the intention of moving forward into other spaces."
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