FPV GT F 2014 Review

Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) GT F

In the 24 hours or so since Ford Australia officially launched the last FPV, there's been a remarkable lack of clamour. And that, frankly, has surprised me.

The LAST Ford Performance Vehicles model... A supercharged V8 four door sedan with over 400kW that accelerates 0-200km/h in the mid-14sec range and dispatches the standard 0-100km/h sprint in the mid-4.0s... The most powerful and fastest Falcon ever!

The relative lack of excitement in the wider automotive world is illustrative... Our commenters' laments giving 'voice' to the mood of the meeting: too little too late. Contrast this to the amount of ink and fanfare archrival Holden Special Vehicles received when it unveiled its supercharged GTS. Once again Ford and FPV have clutched defeat from the jaws of victory...

Imagine if this car with its genuine 400kW-plus engine calibration had arrived when FPV launched its GT R-SPEC in mid-2012. Methinks the response would have been very different.

And on the surface the 400kW-plus FPV could have been launched then. Couldn't it? After all, save for a minor rear suspension change, no hard parts differ between the R-SPEC and the GT F...

In brief, under Ford's strict engineering regimes, the answer is no.

Ford, and by dint of association FPV's, engineers are a very careful bunch – at times frustratingly so. While they are been all too aware of the potential of the locally developed FPV blown eights, they have also been bound by the corporation's engineering rules and conventions.

In layman's non-technical terms, until the latest 'smarter' engine control modules arrived in time for the 'FH' program and Ford and FPV's engineers mastered and understood the potential they delivered, the engine calibration that liberated just some of the Coyote-based 5.0-litre 'Miami' supercharged V8 latent horsepower was simply against the rules.

You'll read the new GT F engine gets more boost – it doesn't. Peak boost still sits in the 7.7-9.2psi range.

You'll read that FPV has added overboost mode – they haven't... It always existed in the Miami calibration.

What the engineers (lead by FPV engine calibration guru, Bernie Quinn) have done is used new 'tools' such as alternative throttle pedal maps (different maps for different gears) and better integration of the Falcon's Bosch 9.0 DSC stability control system to allow the Miami V8 to give closer to its best across a wider range of real world conditions. This in turn allowed them to calibrate the engine to hold existing maximum boost pressures (and therefore maximum torque -- beyond 569Nm and up to 650!) across a wider rpm range.

Torque times rpms equals power. Cue bigger headline kW number.

The end result in power terms is a stated maximum that insiders privately suggest is pretty close to what the car delivers – at the rear wheels! Measured against the ECE standard (other manufacturers quote DIN, a less stringent and prescribed standard via which to measure power, says Ford) that number just happens to be the iconic combination 351.

If the marketeers had been in charge, could that badge have just as easily been struck at another iconic Ford number: 427? What do you reckon?

Clearly the 351 is a nod to Australia's most famous fast four-door, the GTHO, and the 351 cubic-inch V8 engines that powered it and a series of Ford's fastest. Although the overboost function does not operate in first gear (where the rear-drive car is traction limited), in the other five gears FPV GT F's peak power is around 403-405kW.

This is less than the 430kW output of Holden Special Vehicles' top-line GTS sedan, but arguably, it still makes the GT F engine Australia's most powerful home-grown powerplant.

With the final update of Falcon just around the corner there are no panel or bodywork changes that set the GT F apart. In a direct salute to the Falcon GTs of old, however, the GT F features bonnet, roof and rear deck stripes. Ford Australia enlisted the help of the US-based Ford factory Shelby Mustang team to streamline the decals' installation. Very efficient. Very anal. Very Ford.

The GT F has also been gifted gloss-black accents on the 'raccoon eyes', grille, applique, rear diffuser and wing, door handles and mirrors. This, says Ford, ensures "the GT F is unlike anything that has come before it".

In truth, this and a new colour pulled forward from the new XR8 named Stealth (a dark metallic grey) do give the car a different 'feel' to the slightly cartoon-esque GTP. Never fear though, you can still order a white one with blue stripes. Or indeed a brown one with gold stripes...

The GT F's interior upgrades are overplayed in the press kit. "With darker tones and more lustrous finishes" says the blurb. But again it works. 'GT orange' is featured on the GT F's '351' badging, instrument dial faces, seat stitching and embroidery, and the requisite build number badging.

The hero stripe graphic and detailing also features on the 'ICC' infotainment system's start-up screen. Here Ford has included the car's build number on start-up and also added additional performance-related gauges to the system including a G-sensor.

Alas the functionality is a far cry from HSV's multi-mode EDI (Enhanced Driver interface) and along with a lack of driver aids such as forward collision warning (available on other Ford models) almost serves to date the car.

The GT F's suspension and braking package is essentially taken from the FPV GT RSPEC launched in August 2012. And its good – perhaps the best in the class.

At the rear, the RSPEC set-up delivers higher spring rates, re-tuned dampers, a larger anti-roll bar, wider (9.0-inch) wheels and tyres, and reinforced rear lower control arms. The front-end benefits from stiffer upper control arm bushes and upper suspension strut mounts, and re-tuned dampers.

A revised toe setting on the rear wheel alignment also enhances turn-in response, says FPV, and the RSPEC upgrade also includes stiffer transmission mounts and a launch control mode for the stability control system.

The GT F further evolves the package with the addition of owner adjustable rear camber. This is facilitated via an eccentric bolt on the wheel end of the upper control arm and allows an extra degree or so of camber to maximise rear grip for track outings.

We can't really tell you categorically whether it works or not.

Indeed, our time in the new GT F at its launch at Ford's You Yangs proving ground was very limited – just a couple of chauffeured (albeit very quickly) laps around the freshly resurfaced ride and handling circuit and two laps on the iconic banked Constant Speed Track behind the wheel of a manual GT F 'mule' (still a GTP to look at, save for the wider rear wheels). Unlike others, we won't pretend this is a comprehensive road test.

On the ride and handling circuit, however, I was reminded of the engaging chassis characteristics of the RSPEC. Our Ford engineering driver pushed the car hard on the in-places-slick new surface, and what impressed was the sheer mechanical grip of the car and its poise in fast changes of direction.

Unlike some other performance cars in this genre, the GT F also rides well. Ford's chassis guys seem to always have been ahead of the game in this regard.

We can also vouch that the recalibrated engine is a muscular, super smooth and extremely refined powerplant.

If anything, it's better behaved and smoother than the generation it replaces and has big buckets of go. Although a 160km/h limit was placed on us (no helmets, OHS rules), a quick blast through the gears had 200 and change up in the manual car in no time.

Simulated overtaking performance in fourth and fifth gears from around 100km/h was eye-opening. Where the old engine would start to bleed boost (and therefore reduce torque) at around 4300rpm, this one rolls on like a steam train.

My drive was in a manual only, but I'm reliably informed the matching of the new V8 calibration and the revised ZF six-speed auto is good. Both up and downshift strategies have been changed to make the most of the revised engine characteristics.

Interestingly, although Ford programmed around 68 per cent of the GT Fs to be built as autos, the order bank demanded closer to a 50:50 split. There's a message in that regarding the enthusiast nature of the buyer of what is destined to be a very collectable Falcon.

Indeed, the Blue Oval faithful clearly don't mind that this car is "too little, too late". All but a handful of the 497 $77,990 cars available in Australia (three of the 500 will be auctioned for charity by Ford) are already sold. Ford is steadfast in its commitment that no more will be built.

FPV Chief Program Engineer, Peter de Leur, said in building the GT F his team's goal was "to create the best vehicle we could; a vehicle that pays respect to Ford GTs of old yet celebrates all that is good about Ford's performance credentials".

In all that is implicit and explicit in that statement, for better or for worse, mission accomplished.