Mick Webb: Why Ford failed

When the last Australian-made car to wear the iconic Blue Oval badge rolls off the Broadmeadows production line on October 7, Ford's legendary Falcon will be heavily-laden with history.

From the heady and courageous decision to build cars locally to the hugely influential societal phenomenon Ford represented here during 91 years of car-making in Victoria, the wrapping-up of Ford manufacturing Down Under will be marked on the Aussie automotive calendar in big, bold type.

Yes, this is landmark stuff.

A significant element in all this is that there exists a wonderful anecdotal narrative that lives within the circles of the Ford-associated.

Toss in the rich local Ford competition history that shaped the way we competed, viewed and talked about cars, drivers and circuits, and you start to realise the importance of fast Fords here in this wide, brown land.

While a lot of this is documented, much of it is not. You see, it’s carried by characters and geniuses alike. The stories remain largely between the ears of the people concerned, along with who they bother to tell.

These people are old enough now not to care what people think. The possible ramifications have faded and they are a rich vein of the sort of stuff that keeps a car enthusiast glued to every word that they care to utter, especially when talking of the old days.

None have been more influential in making local Ford engines go fast than Mick Webb.

Mention performance and Ford in the one sentence and that name is sure to come up. His ability to make Ford product go fast, and indeed handle, is legendary.

He’s had a hand in the engine bays of many very important Australian race cars, including the infamous one-two winning XC Falcons at Bathurst in 1977. Yes, you pictured the overhead shot of them just then didn’t you? Right there is the reason Mick Webb is who he is.

SVO (Special Vehicle Options) was established by Webb in the late 1980s. Webb and SVO are still enhancing and modifying Ford products today. He owns and operates the factory in Victoria, and that’s right where we find him; up to his ears in a 351ci Cleveland V8.

Webb’s never been short of an opinion, nor the wherewithal to say it. Typically, he doesn’t pull any punches when speaking of the demise of Ford in Australia.

“As you know I’ve had Ford tattooed on my bum for most of my life. From first going to Bathurst in 1968 and working for Bib Stillwell Ford in the Phase One and Phase Two days until now really,” he said.

“In those days we had fantastic managing directors – Max Gransden and Bill Bourke.

“That all changed. They stopped marketing their cars. Holden absolutely outgunned them with marketing. Ford salesmen became hopeless. And I’ve bought umpteen brand-new Fords. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another one.”

Why we’ll miss the Ford factory
History of Ford Australia’s large car
Ford in Australia: A rich history

Webb considers that Ford lost its way by not promoting what he calls ‘car people’ to positions of power within Ford.

“Look at it now. There’s not one person [at senior executive leadership level] involved with cars at Ford Motor Company,” he says.

“It looked like it would undergo a resurgence when Geoff Polites [Ford Australia President, March 1999 to March 2004] took over. He was fantastic. I could call him up any time; he really cared about the product and motorsport and, importantly, understood the local market.”

Webb readily admits to having an axe to grind subsequent of Polites moving to Cologne to take up his new position at Ford of Europe. It’s lore now that Tickford got the contract to enhance domestic Ford product.

In 2001, with Polites at the helm and AU Falcon sales flagging, the Blue Oval needed to improve the performance and image of fast, homegrown Fords; and quickly.

So Ford challenged HSV in the power battle by slipping a stroked 5.6-litre version of its V8 into all AU III Falcon-based T-Series Tickford cars.

The engine lifted the 5.0-litre's power level from 220 to 255kW, or the same figure as the mainstream models on offer from HSV. To match the extra performance of the larger-capacity engine, Tickford offered a massive cross-drilled disc brake package.

But Webb believes that Tickford produced decidedly underdone vehicles for much of its involvement and that, until the establishment of Ford Performance Vehicles, Ford missed the opportunity by watching-on as HSV turned out the real-world performance machinery Australians wanted.

“I was annoyed. I should have been building the engines for their performance wing under the SVO banner, and things may well have been very different. SVO had heritage with Ford and we had built brilliantly handling cars,” he says. “And, that was that.”

While sales of mainstream and performance Falcons have descended into a downward spiral ever since the AU, Webb attributes Ford Australia’s manufacturing demise in 2016 to what he believes is an uncompetitive, over-paid and heavily unionised workforce.

“There are people out there on the line making stupid amounts of money. It’s no wonder we couldn’t compete. I’m all for people getting paid well, but some of the figures I’ve heard are a joke,” he says bluntly.