FPV F6 Ute 2008 Review

Road Test - FPV F6 Ute

RRP: $57,990
Price as tested: $57,990
Crash rating: not tested
Fuel:  98 RON PULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 13.0
CO2 emissions (g/km): 311
Also consider: HSV Maloo (more here); TRD HiLux (more here)

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 4.5/5.0
Safety: 2.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.5/5.0

About our ratings

Ford Performance Vehicles has been hard at work on the venerable tradie's workhorse, the Falcon ute. The result is undeniably powerful, but its relevance is questionable.

Powered by a 4.0-litre turbocharged DOHC 24 valve inline six-cylinder engine, the F6 Ute produces an eye-watering 310kW at 5500rpm and maximum torque of 565Nm from 1950-5200rpm -- which, in a bespoke high-performance road car would be fine...

But the Falcon ute isn't really a bespoke high-performance road car, despite what FPV would have us believe. It's a ute, albeit one dressed up with big boots, flashy skirts and frilly bits. It has very little weight over the driving wheels and its working-class roots show in a leaf-spring rear end. It's built to carry a load of tools or sand, not provide microscopically-fine suspension functions at high speed.

For the record, the F6 Ute is rated to carry 486kg -- quite a bit more than a trio of dirt-bikes and a load of kit for a bloke's weekend. The test vehicle was fitted with a tough plastic tray-liner and a soft tonneau cover into which Ford have put a great deal of effort -- the hold-down mechanism is a kind of flat plastic over-centre clip that extends the length of the load-bed's sides and rear, so the tonneau is held down over its entire length, rather than just with elastic rope looped over occasional cleats. It's a neat and convenient system but alas offers absolutely no security, beyond shade and waterproofing [Ed: FPV offers an optional lockable hard cover for $2900, only that rules out the dirtbikes].

Indeed, overall the ute is well-appointed, with all the usual performance sedan conveniences -- remote locking, electric windows (but without auto up/down functions) cruise control and a ripper sound system; the headlights come on automatically, which is a useful safety feature. There's some leather on the FPV-branded seats but the steering wheel looks like a standard Ford parts-bin item, offering audio, phone and cruise-control buttons.

There's also one of those affected red 'Start' buttons on the console (the ute no longer starts on the key) -- at least it's a one-touch starter: the engine cranks until it fires.

There's a large central LSD screen which gives reams of information about what's on the radio and what the HVAC system is doing, but it's strange that on this top-drawer model, there's no sat-nav and no reversing camera. This is a major shortfall, given the length of the vehicle, the probability that rear vision might be obscured by cargo and the laughably effeminate exterior rearview mirrors.

In addition to the console display, there's another one for the onboard computer in the instrument binnacle, which offers a huge variety of info-options -- probably more ways of interfacing with the car than on anything else in this market segment.

The cabin is completed with vanity lights in the roof-liner above each sun-visor (instead of in the visor's vanity mirror) and another Ford parts-bin special, a small and overly plasticky glovebox. The dash itself is a mixture of faux carbon and cheap-looking silver plastic; Ford generally and FPV, in particular, needs some new blood in their interior decorating departments, in this tester's book.

There is some stowage space behind the seats, but the high-backed furniture makes actually putting anything in there a bit of a chore. The seats themselves are well-proportioned and do a good job of containing and restraining the occupants during the F6's more unruly behaviour. Interestingly, only the base of the driver's seat is powered, and that only for height adjustment -- all other movements are manual.

There's a choice of six-speed manual or auto boxes -- and no price differential. The manual's a TR6060 unit, but the evaluation vehicle was a two-pedal version, using ZF's superlative six-speed auto with sequential manual shift option.

The F6 Ute also comes with a limited-slip differential and a gamut of electronic driver aids: DSC stability control, EBD brake-force distribution, TCS traction control and ABS brakes. While we're in a safety frame of mind, the F6 310 gets pairs of front and side crash-bags, but (as mentioned above) misses out on the reverse-parking sensors or camera that are available in the F6 sedan and F6X SUV (Territory) versions.

As is par for the course with utes these days (the Commodore's at least as bad), over-the-shoulder head checks are confounded by bulky B and C-pillars. C-pillars in a ute? Yes, there's a strange little window in the rear 10 per cent of the cabin, but the driver can't see out of the right side one -- and the passenger's backrest obscures the left side one. They're about as much use as the windows in a hearse.

The F6 ute rides on attractive 19-inch alloys, mounting liquorice-strip 245/35 Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres. Significantly, this Aussie-built vehicle has a full-sized alloy spare wheel.

Lurking inside the rims are 355 x 32mm cross-drilled and vented brake rotors, squeezed by Brembo four-piston calipers at the front, and 328 x 26mm cross-drilled vented rotors pinched by red single-piston calipers down the back. No wonder this thing stops quicker than a political promise.

Initially, the ute feels pretty normal to drive -- the controls function predictably, it's got a reassuring solidity to it and the cabin is, if not roomy, at least comfortable. However, there's a lot of tyre roar apparent almost immediately and the ride's pretty coarse and unrefined too -- which isn't really surprising, given the enormous boots it wears and its rear suspension, derived as it is from a horse-drawn cart.

Once clear of obstacles and when a bit of pace is required, all but the most subtle pressure on the pedal unleashes a tsunami of horizontal energy, not all of which is linear. Some is lateral too! This ute bolts forward with a savagery which had at least one experienced driver of working class vehicles proclaiming it as: "The scariest thing I have ever driven."

It seems that the powertrain engineers have done their job almost too well. There's little or no turbo-lag, no hesitation, or any apparent dips in power -- just a wall of acceleration that swats the vehicle forward like it's been flicked by the hand of God. This is accompanied by a frenzied shrieking, the source of which we never fully determined. Induction, turbo or tyres? Most probably a combination of all three.

Even on dry asphalt, the Dunlops have no chance of containing this explosive acceleration and wheelspin, always seeming to corkscrew the back of the car to the right, probably thanks to the slippy diff.

Sadly the Stability Control and Traction Control systems are so tardy in taking action that even a halfway-decent driver will have reacted and corrected the slide before the electronics come into play. This is in direct contrast to the excellent system fitted by Holden, which activates early and subtly to give the driver as much traction as the tyres can stand -- and keep the car travelling pretty much where the steering's pointed.

Then when FPV's lazy system eventually wakes up to try and correct the already-corrected slide, the result is a clumsy, tragi-comic combination of a driver asking much and being denied most. Switching off the stability control is a mistake that a prudent driver will only make once, especially on a gravel or wet road -- although without the computer fighting you for control, there's at least some fun to be had in lurid slides, drifts and circle-work.

At least FPV pays lip-service to safety by fitting these electronic driver aids -- more than can be said for Toyota's similarly steroid-fed, TRD HiLux.

With a prudent right foot and ideal conditions, the F6 310 blurs the digital speedo in the central panel and is still shrieking and accelerating hard up past 180km/h and beyond. Indeed, it's been suggested that suitably unfettered and with a bit of (legal) room, the FPV F6 Ute would take a good, hard look at 270km/h. In a ute! In a sub-$60k ute!

There's no doubt the F6 Ute offers huge performance but in the end, it's debatable how much of it you can actually use. Is this a simple case of too much of a good thing?

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