Ford-first carbon intake for XR6 Sprint

When Ford Australia finally came clean on details for its limited-edition XR6 Sprint models last week, it omitted one important factoid.

Helping the XR6 Sprint become the most powerful six-cylinder factory Falcon ever produced will be the first carbon-fibre air-intake system in the Ford world, manufactured by the same Australian company that supplies the international F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

Designed and developed in Victoria by Ford and Melbourne-based supplier Premcar, the intake is already in production in the Waurn Ponds factory of Quickstep Holdings, which makes advanced carbon-fibre composites for the aerospace and automotive industries.

Apart from its automotive component production site in Geelong, Quickstep has an office in Munich, Germany and a state-of-the-art aerospace manufacturing facility at Bankstown Airport in Sydney.

It is here that it produces parts for the F-35 – the world's largest military aerospace program, valued at more than $US300 billion worldwide, with more than 160 JSF aircraft delivered so far to the US Department of Defense.

Quickstep has also been selected by Lockheed Martin as the sole supplier of composite wing flaps for the C-130J 'Super Hercules' military transport aircraft and supplies Northrop Grumman and Airbus.

On the automotive front, it develops patented manufacturing technologies to produce high-volume A-grade finished composite components for vehicles and has signed a letter of intent to deliver components for Thales Australia's Hawkei protected mobility vehicle for the ADF.

For Ford, Quickstep’s first automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) client, the XR6 Sprint's carbon duct fis part of an Australian R&D investment of almost $2 billion over the past six years, including $300 million last year.

"We are delighted to work with Ford on its groundbreaking
Technology," said Quickstep managing director, David Marino.

“Quickstep is very proud of our relationship with the Ford brand and the iconic XR6 Sprint, which represents the best of Australia’s automotive design and engineering capabilities.

“Through this program, Quickstep Automotive has now qualified its materials and processes with a well-respected global vehicle manufacture in Ford and this should lead to other automotive composite opportunities in the future.

"We are excited by this signature contract and believe the automotive growth opportunities for Quickstep will be significant.”

Ford says the carbon intake was developed to "increase performance feel" of the XR6 Sprint's 4.0-litre inline turbo-six and is "more responsive and significantly stronger than comparable designs".

“The Falcon’s legacy will live on well beyond this year through our designers and engineers that will continue to innovate to make Australian’s lives better,” said Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman.

“The Falcon XR6 Sprint’s new innovative carbon-fibre engine air intake is the latest example of how our local engineers and suppliers will reshape the auto industry well into the future.”

Quickstep said the carbon-fibre fabric material for the XR6's intake is sourced from the UK, pre-infused with resin in a 'pre-preg' process typically used in aircraft and performance vehicle applications, and then hand-laid in four layers and 'raw finished' rather than gel-coated.

"During design and development we qualified materials, resins and processes that replace a thick-walled, injection moulding plastic component with a very thin-walled carbon-fibre part," said Marino.

Ford said replacing the standard XR6 Turbo's plastic intake duct with a carbon-fibre unit led to a 46 per cent weight reduction, with the new part weighing 235g (down from 438g).

But Ford's Falcon and Territory vehicle line director David Wilkinson said the decision to use carbon-fibre for the XR6 Sprint was twofold.

“Normally this intake duct would be made out of blow-moulded plastic, which can be quite thick and lack dimensional consistency,” he said.

“By bringing Quickstep Automotive on board, we were able to embrace new light-weighting technology as well as provide the best-possible efficiency of the system on our turbocharged XR6 Sprint.

“Given this part has space restrictions from intake and the air conditioning lines, moving to a thin-wall material enabled us to achieve the maximum amount of air flow given the under bonnet space restrictions we had,” he said.

It's not the first time a Geelong-made carbon-fibre component has replaced a part on a production Ford, with Carbon Revolution last year beginning developing and manufacturing of the world’s first mass-produced carbon-fibre wheels for the Mustang Shelby GT350R for North America.

“Ford’s engineers, Carbon Revolution and Quickstep Automotive demonstrate there’s a bright future for the auto industry Australia because of our commitment, breadth talent and world-class education system,” said Dave French, director, of vehicle programs at Ford's Asia Pacific Product Development Centre.

As we've reported, Ford's new Falcon XR6 and XR8 Sprint models will replace the standard XR6 Turbo and XR8 sedans when they go on sale in May.

Therefore the 1400 Sprints – including 550 XR6s, 850 XR8s and 150 for New Zealand – will be the last XR Falcons produced before Ford ceases car-making in Australia after 91 years in October, when the Falcon is killed off after 56 years.

While the XR8 Sprint's 5.0-litre supercharged V8 will offer 345kW and 575Nm (and up to 400kW/650Nm in overboost mode) and the option of a manual transmission, the auto-only XR6 Sprint is likely to be quicker, and therefore the quickest factory Falcon ever produced.

This is not just because its upgraded turbo-six will deliver 325kW/576Nm (and 370kW/650Nm in overboost), thanks to a larger intercooler and fuel injectors from the now defunct FPV F6 Typhoon, a different airbox and revised transmission calibration.

It is because the standard XR6 Turbo is already capable of hitting 100km/h in 4.5 seconds in the right conditions, and a revised chassis that we expect to include upgraded suspension, wheels and tyres will make it even quicker.

It's likely, therefore, that all XR Sprints are already spoken for, but for the record the XR8 costs $59,990 (manual) and $62,190 (auto), while the XR6 is priced at $54,990.