FPV Territory makes Open Day

As if to confirm that an FPV Territory is now on the agenda, this year's concept for the FPV Open Day, held yesterday, was the wild Territory P-SUV. Part four door passenger car, part ute and part aggressive offroader, the Territory P-SUV highlighted the potential of an FPV performance model based on the Territory Turbo.

The P-SUV concept was a showcase for several FPV suppliers as well as a demonstration of Prodrive's own capabilities using existing components.

The main body change is the much larger bonnet scoop and an open rear section behind the rear seats. The floor of the open rear section and its extension was covered in machine finish metal sheets with the same material covering the fold-down rear seat backs. The carrying capacity of the Territory concept was of great interest to the crowd.

Extra vents on the side were enhanced with mouldings of a hand. Wheels were an unusual seven-spoke pattern.

The interior was spectacular as it marked a welcome return to a dash and seats colour-keyed to the bright blue exterior colour. The seats featured white inserts and blue suede trim strips. Although it was FPV's star exhibit, it had plenty of competition.

This year's event which featured over 400 owner cars on display had to be culled from 700 owners and their cars who had applied from all around Australia. This left cars parked in the surrounding streets almost as wild as those on display. First time models in club displays included several personalised Territory Turbo examples and the new Focus XR5 Turbo.

Although there was only one XR5 Turbo owner car on display, it took pride of place amongst what was once exclusively six cylinder and V8 muscle. Ford's efforts to better integrate its imported range with the local models have been appreciated by potential buyers and owners alike. 

Several police cars including an unmarked Falcon XR6 were of particular interest. A popular display was a new Falcon station wagon from speed camera operator Tenix carrying a full complement of speed camera equipment with personnel on hand to answer questions.

The big highlight was the themed club displays including the Bluetopia display from the FPV-Tickford Club of NSW where everything that is red turns blue. The club featured a blue Santa Claus, assisted by club members wearing blue Santa hats, who gave out books filled with blank pages titled Great HSV Models. Bogus news headlines announced that Qantas was changing the red tailed livery of its planes to blue. This banter and nation-wide camaraderie between Ford owners grows each year as owners of a diverse range of performance Ford models make the annual pilgrimage to FPV.

The club displays were joined by an equally large Aussie FordForums contingent of vehicles and owners.This year's event filled the grounds surrounding FPV and FPR headquarters and spilled over the road into the FPV manufacturing facility.

The overwhelming theme of the club displays was the owner enthusiasm in updating their BA-BF Falcon based models in inverse proportion to the factory's efforts to do so. The lack of an exciting new concept based on the current Falcon was a disappointment when this model still has another 12 months to run and forms the basis of the FPV range. This year's Open Day seemed to take on extra significance in maintaining owner loyalty in the absence of new or facelifted XR models.

Visitors were allowed into the race team workshops to watch the final construction and preparation of this year's FPR V8 Supercar entries including Steve Richards' brand new Castrol-liveried race car. Drag car demonstrations added excitement.

The FPV Open Day was started by former Managing Director Mr David Flint and is the only annual open house event run by a manufacturer in Australia. Entry is by gold coin donation to the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. All proceeds are donated after FPV staff work as volunteers for the day.

Images courtesy of Ian Moorhouse Photography

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