Four-armed Falcon

Derrick Kuzak is Ford's group vice president of Global Product Development. As the product guru at the Blue Oval, he has journalists hanging on his every word -- a bit like Jesus Christ or Australia's Federal Treasurer, strange as that parallel may seem.

Typically, when Kuzak announces that Ford will be introducing leaner engine technology or a greener product strategy, it's at a Detroit dinner attended by journalists and the consequent report inevitably stirs up intrigue in far-flung parts of the Ford empire -- like Australia.

Speculation then mounts that Kuzak's quoted generalities have specific application here, even though it's well known that Ford's original decision to close the Geelong engine plant -- and the subsequent reversal of that decision -- were made by Ford Australia management and weren't passed down from on high like the Ten Commandments.

The latest report concerns Kuzak's aims for every Ford model throughout the world to offer a four-cylinder alternative to six-cylinder or V8 powerplants within the next four or five years.

"A number of people are speculating about it following comments made in Detroit last week by Derrick Kuzak about every Ford model around the world having a four-cylinder engine in its line up by 2013/14," Ford's Communications Manager Sinead McAlary told the Carsales Network.

"That was a broad directional comment from Derrick and is undoubtedly the right direction for the company to follow but we have yet to determine exactly what form that will take for our local line-up here. We are currently evaluating a range of technology and powertrain alternatives to supplement our I6 engine but it is too early for us to comment on any specifics at this point."

The operative word there is "supplement". Any four-cylinder Falcon will be a different powertrain option, not the sole powertrain for Ford's large car.

"The thing for us, is if we go to look at a four-cylinder option for the Falcon, the car itself is still going to be the same size, so we have to have power and torque that is acceptable for a car that size. Nobody will buy it if we just put a smaller engine in it," says McAlary.

"Ecoboost technology is key for us, if we go down that path, but it's still in the very early investigative stage, so I can't really say any more."

Ecoboost is a range of petrol-only engines that rely on forced induction (turbocharging) to make up by volumetric efficiency what an engine lacks in displacement. The point to consider there is that Ecoboost engines are petrol engines, but is Ford also considering a diesel four for the Falcon?

"That wouldn't be top of our list, no," says McAlary.

"At this point, I can't be any more specific than that, other than that we're looking at a number of different alternatives that would supplement our I6. We're not talking about replacing the I6."

McAlary agreed that engine options being considered for the Falcon four are not necessarily in the public domain as yet. The jump-off point for the four-pot Ford is still some years in the future, potentially.

One issue that can be extrapolated from this is that a four-cylinder Falcon, as McAlary points out, would need to produce output commensurate with current power and torque available from the inline six -- with significantly better fuel economy.

That would then push Ford to up the power and torque for the inline six -- and that has the potential to make the XR8's V8 redundant.

Ford seems committed to retention of the inline six built at Geelong (see separate export story here), and the turbo six develops enough power and torque to make the V8 look effectively weedy.

And with the XR6T being lauded for its dynamics, relative to the XR8, the V8 is looking on thin ice indeed. Consider too that if Ford must reduce weight and change packaging to make the four-cylinder Ecoboost engine viable, something has to give and it may well be the V8 in the longer term.