Falcon four a non-runner

Ford Asia-Pacific's chief vehicle engineer, Rob Connor, today admitted that Falcon's future is still based on computer simulations.

Where most would assume the Australian arm of the Blue Oval would have tested four-cylinder-engined mules of Falcon, the decision to add a four-cylinder line to the Aussie large rear-wheel drive icon, has been based purely on unreal-world calculations.

"It's all computer simulations, so pretty much every aspect of how the car's going to drive, what the acceleration's going to be like, fuel economy... How loud it's going to be... is all simulated up front..." said Connor.

Ford in the US has published figures of 205kW of power and 380Nm of torque for the new engine, so it appears that the new engine has the legs -- on paper.

"We're about two weeks away from being able to have a drive… I'm looking forward to that…" said Connor, when asked what progress had been made with real-world testing.

Whilst it's common now to undertake extensive virtual testing of crash structures and the like, it is nonetheless still unusual that such a ground-breaking decision would be announced ahead of engineering evaluation vehicles even turning a wheel.

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