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Sydney International Motorshow - Australias Only V8 Assembly Line

Staff, Thursday October 17, 2002.

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Ford Performance Vehicles is the only company assembling V8 engines in Australia.

Ford Performance Vehicles builds each Boss engine from bare blocks and heads, adding a wide range of local upgrades and internals on a brand new $1.5 million assembly track.

“We have maintained and built upon the standard previously set by Tickford to produce a premium performance engine that specifically meets Australian requirements,” says Ford Performance Managing Director, David Flint.

Initially, the production facility will build the Boss 260 for the Falcon XR8 and Boss 290 for the GT, GT-P and Pursuit.

Local production gives Ford Performance Vehicles control of specifications and assembly standards, while also allowing the company to pursue its own development path for future applications, reacting quickly to specific market demands and changes if required.

“The success we achieved with the final T-Series range highlighted the importance of an engine that responds and feels the way a premium sports engine should,” says Mr Flint.

The new Boss engine builds on that tradition, while offering the very latest technology available in global Ford V8 engines.

“Ford Performance Vehicles is committed to maintaining that precedent of a purpose-built V8 performance engine that is different from other V8 models rather than one lifted straight out of a crate.”

To deliver the solid muscle at low engine speeds that Australians expect in a performance V8 while maintaining the free-revving, deep-breathing feel of a thoroughbred sports engine, Ford Performance Vehicles has developed a unique V8 engine that has no equivalent in the Ford world.

After Ford Performance Vehicles added the latest development of the Mustang Cobra R heads with their twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder to the long stroke 5.4-litre block, the combination of strong low speed torque, high power output and crisp response across a wide range of engine speeds was outstanding.

Projected volumes for the Falcon XR8, GT, GT-P and Pursuit ute meant that the previous method of stripping down and rebuilding the engine would no longer be an efficient and cost-effective way of producing a world-class engine.

“We determined that the best way to provide the engines our customers wanted, across all the vehicles in the range, was to invest $1.5 million in setting up an engine line at our plant in Campbellfield,” says Mr Flint.

“So that’s what we did.”

To keep such an advanced quad-cam, multi-valve V8 affordable, Ford Performance Vehicles combines the best hand assembly approach started by Tickford with some of the newest and most advanced technology found in an Australian industrial application. Each engine is hand-built from a combination of carefully matched imported and local parts by FPV technicians, aided by highly sophisticated machinery to ensure unprecedented levels of accuracy and uniformity.

There is no wastage and the pristine assembly environment has more in common with a surgery than a factory. The latest computer-controlled dual nut runners are used for the critical fastening and torquing of the heads, con rods and main-bearing caps. Far more sensitive than manual tightening, they are programmed to react instantly to faults in materials and parts, sending an alert to FPV technicians.

The new line enabled Ford Performance Vehicles to adopt the latest industry best practices in quality control and occupational health and safety.

As a measure of the efficiency of this approach, the next cheapest quad-cam V8 in a similar four-door sedan application is the Jaguar S-type at $112,000, which has a much smaller and less powerful engine. For comparable outputs from a similar V8 engine, buyers would need to spend around $200,000 for a premium European brand.

“We won’t be announcing pricing until closer to launch but our customers can rest assured that the new models featuring the Boss engines will be within reach of the buyers of the previous Falcon XR8, T-Series and Pursuit ute models,” says Mr Flint.

For further information contact:
Ford Australia Communications
Phone: 03-9359 8491

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