X marks the spot?

Is Ford Performance Vehicles' F6 X the first of a new model series? There have been persistent rumours that Ford was about to drop the Falcon badge and replace it with a series of alpha-numeric model designations (since denied by Ford -- more here).

It now appears that the rumours may, in fact, have been referring to the company's joint-venture go-fast arm.

It was confirmed at the 2007 Sydney Motor Show reveal of FPV's new F6 X version of the Ford Territory that F6 X was not a concept name but would be the actual badge applied to the production version.

While refusing to be drawn on what was coming in the Orion-based range, recent appointee FPV General Manager Rod Barrett, confirmed this week that the F6 X was not a one-off badging exercise.

"I'm not prepared to say anything other than there will be some changes," Barrett told the Carsales Network.

This is a major shift from an earlier FPV strategy (announced at the launch of the F6 Typhoon) that saw the company register three seven-letter storm names ready to appear on future turbocharged models. The names were Tempest, Typhoon and Tornado.

After the F6 Tornado ute and Typhoon sedan appeared, it was a pretty safe bet the next cab off the rank was to be a Territory version called Tempest.

The F6 X seems to signal the end of this strategy. And it begs the question is FPV is planning to drop the Typhoon and Tornado badges [Ed: and Force6 and 8] at the launch of its 2008 Orion-based range.

Even if the evidence now suggests that this is the most likely scenario, it makes little sense. For new models that came from nowhere, started their own heritage, then broke all the rules that said that a six-cylinder muscle car would not sell, both have been hugely successful. In fact, their success virtually forced then-HSV boss John Crennan to eat his words after he famously said the cars would flop.

The new F6 names were a conscious departure from the Ford-Tickford strategy of applying meaningless alpha-numeric designations to the FTE range including TE50, TS50 and TL50. The new F6 names were also designed to protect the GT's heritage by creating their own, based on the storm/turbocharged imagery.

After the FTE badging strategy was identified as one of the contributing factors behind the embarrassing failure of an otherwise compelling range of performance cars, it is hard to imagine why anyone at FPV would want to revisit this era.

If XXXX is the beer for drinkers who can't spell beer, does that make the F6 X the hot SUV for drivers who can't read?

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