Confirmed: Ford to build 310kW XR6

Our sources have confirmed Ford Australia is working on a high-performance XR6 sedan, which will be a limited-edition swansong for the FG X Falcon before production ceases in October 2016.

As we revealed from the FGX Falcon launch on Monday, Ford has ruled out an even hotter version of the born-again XR8 sedan (pictured), which is powered by a 335kW supercharged 5.0-litre V8, to honour legacy of FPV's final limited-edition 351kW GT F.

Officially, however, it remains silent on the prospect of a more potent version of the latest XR6 Turbo sedan, which was released this week with an unchanged turbocharged inline six offering 270kW/533Nm (as much as Holden's 6.0-litre Commodore SS), priced from $39,190.

Motoring.com.au sources have now confirmed Ford does indeed plan to release a more powerful limited-edition version, powered by the same 310kW/565Nm turbo-six from the discontinued FPV F6.

In effect, the high-output XR6 special, which could revive the Falcon's special-edition 'Sprint' nameplate, will be an FG X version of FPV's FGII F6, just as the new XR8 is essentially a Ford Falcon version of the FPV's limited-edition 2012 GT RSPEC.

Apart from firmer RSPEC suspension and beefier Brembo brakes, the hot XR6 is also likely to borrow the XR8's wider 19x9.0-inch rear wheels, potentially giving it the traction to be quicker than the born-again XR8.

Ford makes no official performance claim for the latter, but the $52,490 XR8, which can deliver more than 375kW in overboost mode, should hit 100km/h in about 4.7 seconds.

But given FPV's previous F6 was always around half a second quicker to 100km/h than the V8 GT in standard trim (at about five seconds), we expect the RSPEC XR6T special to be even quicker than the final XR8 – as well as cheaper.

Indeed, apart from its engineering resources being overstretched with work on global models, another reason for the delay in Ford's hottest six-cylinder FG X is to honour what's regarded as Australia's finest homegrown engine via a swansong Falcon limited-edition.

The 310kW F6-spec XR6 is made possible for the same reason a full-house XR8 Ute is not: the availability of off-the-shelf hardware.

FG X Falcon and SZII Territory advances include new front and rear styling, new equipment like SYNC2 infotainment, digital radio, automatic wipers and front parking sensors, plus the "cascade" of features such as upgraded suspension for the base Falcon from the discontinued G6 and fuel-saving technologies across the range from Falcon EcoBoost.

But Ford's $103 million investment in the final iterations of both models did not extend to engineering and durability validation of upgraded powertrains, such as an FG X-spec XR8 Ute with a 335kW V8 and RSPEC suspension tune for its leaf-sprung rear-end.

FPV's hottest ute was the FGII Pursuit, powered by a GS-spec 315kW blown 'Miami' V8, which Ford says would simply not have been sophisticated enough to sit alongside the 335kW RSPEC XR8 sedan in the FG X line-up, leaving Ford without an answer to Holden's SS Ute.

"All those things would have added cost, and without them it [a GS-spec XR8] wouldn't have been good enough," said Ford Australia's E8 (Falcon and Territory) program manager Natasha Milner.