BrentS

Hi all. This has probably been mentioned in another thread, but in case it hasn't, I've just read that the last bastion of de-restricted speed zones will be no longer from January 2007. Yep, that's it folks.......the Northern Territory is introducing 130kph maximum speed limits across what are currently its de-restricted roads. So, there we go. Another win for political correctness; for big brother mentality; for money hungry local/state government; for the "nanny state". I've driven on the autobahns in Germany and have witnessed how well open limits can work, if administered and implemented properly. So, Australia's answer: do we teach better driving skills? Nope. Invest in upgrading the roads? Nup. All we do instead is simply scrap the only open space where a good car can have its legs stretched a bit. Fantastic. Whilst this will no doubt appease the "speed kills" zealots who view anything more powerful than a 25cc 2 stroke scooter as a weapon of mass destruction, it'll do stuff all for road safety IMO. The only casualties out there now will be what they've always been out on those big, flat and straight roads......accidents caused by inattention and people falling asleep at the wheel. My money will be that sadly, the first fatality post 31 January 2007 out there will be the diesel Volvo with bald tyres towing an overloaded Jayco caravan that careers off the road after the driver falls asleep after doing 90kph for the last 12 hours, rather than somebody in a Typhoon getting it wrong at 190kph or whatever. Same old story ladies & gents. Slowly, but ever so surely, inch by inch, we're being legislated out of existence. My humble 20c worth. Brent.

Hmmm. Well, it seems like there's some variations on the theme. I just thought I'd ask anyway. Thanks to all for your responses. Brent.

Hi guys. Have had my BF GT for a few days now. No problems so far. However, I have noticed that the red light around the starter button stays on permanently after I start the engine, until I turn the ignition off again. Is this supposed to happen, or is it supposed to turn off after the engine starts? Thanks, Brent.

Replicant, I'm 100% with you regarding your post. I'd like to think that maturity has something to do with the fact that I don't engage in that many traffic light derbys anymore, but also I know its for reasons of mechanical sympathy and desire to keep my licence that you mentioned as well. As you point out, its hard enough launching a manual rear wheel drive car off the line at maximum performance, let alone a 4WD. I wonder how many Subaru WRX owners have the talent or the willingness to thrash their cars in the way that a maximum performance takeoff demands? 5,000rpm and drop the clutch? Not in my car thanks. Brent.

Congrats on your purchase. The sound of the 8s is awesome. The XR8 will be a great car. PS. Are those burnout marks on the road in the photo yours???

Well, given that I've just purchased a BF I GT, I'm sort of glad that BF II doesn't mean any big changes. Bodes well for the resale values of the current BF FPV range. However, that's just being selfish from a current model owner's viewpoint. Being totally objective, I think that BF II is a disappointment for performance car enthusiasts like us. Arguably the XR6T was a good thing to begin with, so a sharper price is probably good. However, Ford have erred badly if they think that they can sell XR8s with just a price cut and nothing else, and surely PFV could have done a little bit of tweaking to the range (a few extra kws for the V8s, or Bilstein shockers for all FPV cars, or a ZF diff etc). Its only October 2006 and already there's heaps of evidence around of discounting etc by Ford to keep the sales ticking over. It'll be a long, long year 2007 for Ford as it battles the VE whilst waiting for Orion. Brent.

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about it. Bought it off the lot, so it was a case of take it or leave it when it came to colour and stripe package etc. I'll see if the gold stripes grow on me or not, then decide what to do from there. Yes, I'll get the windows tinted guys. I just didn't want to be ripped off by paying Ford to do it! FYI the car itself was $57K on the road. I knew if I waited for BF Series II it would be a struggle to replicate that price, so I took the plunge. PS. I know she's not as fast as some others, but its my first V8........and a pretty handy upgrade from the 1994 ED XR6 that I'm currently driving. Brent.

Thanks mate. I pick it up on Wednesday. Can hardly wait. Gee, the engines feel damned tight (the test car I drove only had 30kms on it). Not all that loud in terms of the exhaust until you give 'em a poke either. Still, I fell in love almost immediately. Brent.

Pfffffttttt!!! You turbo boys are easy to pass.....you're usually too busy playing with your boost control to see us coming!

Thanks. Hardest part was getting my wife comfortable with the stripe package, particularly as I only afforded the car because I traded her beloved Expensive Daewoo Vectra in!

Hi all. Well, I finally yielded to temptation. Saw a brand new BF GT auto at a price too good to be true at a Melbourne dealer. Auto, black, stripes, leather, sports steering wheel, reverse sensors, FPV floors mats. I've never attached pics before, but I'll try here:

Sure, they could have but the odds are slim and none because supercharged V8s aren't street legal in all states if memory serves. ← You mean that in some states its illegal to drive a Mercedes V8 Compressor or an XJR Jaguar? Hmmm. Not sure about that.

Rather than cut $6-7K off the price of the XR8, for that amount of coin, they could have put the BOSS 290 engine in it, whacked bilsteins in all round, and still had $$$ left over to give a couple of grand discount to the list price. FPV could then have supercharged the BOSS 290 to say 320kw and we'd all be leaping for joy. Alas, no cigar.

Andrew, you've hit (at least one of the nails!) squarely on the head. That's probably a big bit of the problem for FPV........they're trying to run their business on a shoestring. Corners get cut, quality issues creep in, development work gets cut. As many car companies can attest from around the world, it costs big $$$ to design and develop cars, even if you're not building the things from scratch. If you don't have the coin, you're stuffed, or soon will be. As an aside thought, why the do we "need" FPV? Why shouldn't Ford Aus have its own 100% owned and operated performance division, thereby giving its performance arm access to the much larger financial resources that Ford has access to? I mean, we have this Tom Gorman clown (CEO Ford Aust) carrying on how Ford MUST win Bathurst this year, yada, yada yada. If he's serious about Ford winning races, building better cars, and getting more "credibility", then maybe HE should put his money where his mouth is and develop a fully fledged performance arm of Ford. No, the money certainly isn't endless, but it may be a lot better than the financial handcuffs that FPV find themselves shackled with. I'm sure 100 people will come back and say to me its been tried before etc and I'll look like a goose, but gee, there has to be a better way than the current situation? Is there?

Jonom, Agree that the big $$$ development items will be held until Orion arrives, but FPV have to sell cars between now and late 2007/early 2008 when Orion arrives. A company can't just pull down the shutters and say "stuff it, we'll just wait until the new model comes and go and play cards until then..." The model cycle of Australian cars is a bit weird in that way. Ford (and also Holden) do stuff all for ages, maybe adding a new pinstrip here, or a coffee cup holder there and call it Series II or Series III, then they'll come out with an all new car that has massive changes to sheetmetal, interior, mechanicals etc. Simultaneously, such big changes mean that resale values of the 'old' model go into freefall. At the same time, the the all-new models inevitably have quality control issues for the first 12-18 months or so until the myriad of production line and component bugs are sorted out. Maybe a few more meaningful, incremental changes are a better option? Suppose that was what I was trying to say. I'm certainly NOT advocating that FPV scrap the BOSS engine and go through the massive expense of developing a whole new engine for the 18 months until Orion arrives, but maybe just some smaller things to keep the pace. If I'm shelling out for $65K for a GT, or more for a GT-P, then I'm already heavily invested in the car.....another $1-2K for a better diff, or different cam or whatever really isn't going to make me not buy the car. Probably the opposite in fact. I'd happily pay a few $ more for a better "stock"car than go through the hassle and risks of after market mods, with all the insurance implications etc. Brent.

Before FPV leapt into the Force 6 and Force 8 projects, maybe the development $$$ would have been better spent on getting the GT a little more competitive, or on sorting out the long list of niggling quality faults that a lot of people on this forum have mentioned. FPV are not a huge operation.......the more resources dedicated to other models such as the "Force" models etc would surely mean less resources available to improving the existing GT/GT-P and Typhoon models. I don't want to flame FPV too much, as in truth I may own one in the next 6 months anyway if things go to plan, but gee, they're letting the great GT nameplate slip a little. If you're competing in the top rung of the local V8 sports sedan market, you've really got to keep on the ball. In 3 months time it'll be year 2007....... yet FPV have campaigned the Boss engines, virtually unchanged, since late 2002 or thereabouts. Is that competitive? Does that strategy really provide what it takes to remain at the top of the tree? Personally, I don't think so. I believe FPV have had the opportunity to make running tweaks and changes to their V8s in particular to keep them very competitive, but have sat on their hands. Whether its new diffs, different cam, variable cam timing, Bilstein shockers etc the opportunity has been there to make incremental improvements, whilst not destroying resale values on the older models. I'm still holding a vague hope that FPV will throw us some sort of a bone with the BF II GT. Maybe a lower diff ratio, or a tweak to the exhaust headers? Something incremental just to entice potential customers to splash out $65K+ on one of their cars? Yep, probably living in hope.............

Bloody hell! This thread makes for very ordinary reading. As for mine, a '94 ED XR6, she's had a new radiator, new water pump, the discs machined twice (still originals), and one or two suspension bushings. Not bad for 12 years. Although I admit she's only done about 104 Kms.

Good idea. A slightly lower diff ratio would be a good start for better off the line response. In this Australian police state we live in, do we really need moonshot gearing? Unfortunately we don't live in Germany where you can cruise at a lazy 140-160kph and give it the odd rip to 200+.........that's where some higher gearing works well. As for here? 100kph? Pffffftttttt!!!!!!

Blueboost, You're probably correct in regards to a decent tune, exhaust etc doing wonders for the 8s, but its just the whole insurance/warranty thing that weighs on my mind. Getting warranty stuff done is tough enough at the best of times, and honestly, I don't know if I could be bothered trying to explain to some clown at the Service desk why an exhaust modification isn't the reason why the gearbox flew apart or whatever. Likewise insurance. There's never a problem until you've got to claim, and if you've really bent your car, you'd be amazed at how hard an assessor will look at the vehicle when there's the prospect of a claim for thousands of $$$. Sorry, but my preference is stock for the moment at least. I know that will always mean compromises, but it should be a damned competitive car straight off the factory floor. You shouldn't have to buy then car, then spend $$$ modifying it with all the associated insurance/warranty issues JUST to bring it up to spec with the competition. Just my 20c worth. Brent.

Turbo6man, I stand corrected on the Tickford T3. It was a belter! But gee, it seemed like Ford stuffed around with the Windsor for an eternity by only ever doing half a job with it, then the 250kw version arrived but was only around for what seemed like 3 minutes. I vividly recall looking at a new T3 in a dealership when the BA had already hit the showrooms. I seriously considered buying it, but the dealer was demanding about $5K MORE than the original list price despite the fact that the BA was out! So, the equation was to pay over the odds for a model that was already superceded before I would have driven it out of the lot. As with most of us here, I'd heard about how much better the BA was allegedly engineered as compared to the AU, so this clinched the "no sale" for me at the time. Hmmmm, if I had my time again though.........

WARNING....LONG POST!!! Hi all. Yeah, I'm a longer term member & reader of the forum but haven't posted much (due to time commitments at work), and for that I apologise. However, I feel compelled to reply. You'll probably all get a laugh out of this, but I'm still campaigning a 1994 ED XR6. Why don't I have a more recent model? Err....because I've spent my life waiting for the "new model" all the time. Yes, I realise the error of my ways, and that no matter when you look to buy a new car, a new model is always on the horizon. However, I feel that my current situation also reflects the way Ford has positioned itself in terms of product offerings over the last 10 years. To explain, I have to come clean and say that I have a slight bias towards a V8. My grandfather owned a Ford V8, my old man owned several, and so I want to follow on the family tradition! I may only keep it for a few years before realising that an F6 Typhoon is the way to go, but just once in my life, I want to own a bent 8. Given this preference towards a V8, I've found that for the most part of the last 10 or so years, Ford's new models, from EF onwards, have only ever tended to just catch up with the General, rather than comprehensively get out there and beat them, hands down. Only a couple of times I've though Ford actually got in front: firstly, when the 220kw Series III AU XR8 came into being (but I disliked the styling and had concerns about resale so didn't buy); and secondly, when the BA was launched with the Boss 260 (but being a brand new model, I didn't know if it would be full of bugs or not, so let it go). Aside from those two brief points in time, in my humble opinion, its been slim pickings. Yep, I know, I know...if nobody ever bought the first of a new model, then no new cars would ever be made. I know all that stuff. Its just that I'm a little older and wiser, and I simply can't afford to update my car every 3 minutes as soon as a new one comes out, so I want to be as happy with my purchase as I possibly can be. Like it or not, Ford has been chasing tail in terms of their V8 offerings ever since the Gen III came out, straight & simple. Now before I get flamed, I'm the first one to admit that there's a lot more to a performance car than straight line oomph. I know that. I don't flog my cars, and the fact that my ED XR doesn't burn a drop of oil after 12 years service is testament to that. At the same time, I just cannot bring myself to potentially part with upwards of $65K for say, a BF GT and find myself breaking into a sweat if a $45K SS pulls alongside at the lights. Sorry, but I just can't swallow that. Call me old fashioned, but IMO if I'm paying a premium price I expect performance to match. Lots of people cry that performance isn't everything, but a quick browse of this forum at any given time of the week will show dozens, if not hundreds of topics, and thousands of posts about who's doing what to their cars....edits, exhausts, cold air intakes, cams, headers, chips, custom tunes, diff ratios....and god knows what else. Why? Simple really: performance. How many of these mods that are commonly talked about are done to improve handling, or refinement? Stuff all. Most are done for power. To make the car a bit special. For rolling response performance. For the thrill of having more horses under the bonnet. Despite all this, lots of people still then turn around and make excuses from Ford when they're behind the eight ball in terms of performance and street cred. Remember guys & girls, we're enthusiasts here. Our interests are in the performance models. We're not talking taxis here. We're paying a bloody lot of coin for our cars, and we deserve as good a product as is possible in this segment. The last thing I want to see is that we get used to a "near enough is good enough" approach where the best we can hope for is to just catch the competition, as opposed to lead it. Yes, this applies more to the V8s than the 6s where Ford has done a much better job with the Ts and the Typhoons. So, its with great trepidation that I read updates in this thread about what the BF II will bring for the V8s. If Ford have to charge another $1k for the XR8 and another $2K for the GT then so be if, but for god's sake, do 'something' Ford!!! The current XR8 is dead in the water, and the GT can be belted by a $45K stock SS. Its not good enough, and we should demand better. Yes, I'm in the market for an XR8. Budget may even stretch to a GT. I'm a potential new customer to Ford. However, If BF II means no more than a new pinstripe and that new ugly bonnet, I won't be buying one. I may actually look at an Bogan special or HSV, and that'n ot a throwaway line. Sorry for the rant guys, and thanks for your patience. Great site too. Best wishes to you all. Brent.

Guys, With all the talk so far centred mainly on the new 6 speed manual, I was wondering if anyone has any technical pointers about the effect of the lower diff ratios on the autos, both for XR6T and XR8. What's the likely RPM effect at a steady 100kms? Will there be much of an accelleration effect? Never know, this may shave a few tenths off the times for the autos which would be very nice.

To any of the techos out there, how easy (or otherwise) and costly would it be for Ford to add variable valve timing to the BOSS engines? It seems that variable valve timing is the way to go for lots of performance engines now, and to my limited knowledge, I think this may be a way around the usual problems of having a strong bottom end, but also maintaining top end power delivery. I think its a given that both the XR8 and GT could do with another few kw, and more linear torque, so maybe this is an option??? Just a thought anyway. Cheers. Brent.

As a prospective purchasor later this year, the mind says the F6, but the heart says the GT. Have never owned a V8, but as my old man and my grandfather have both owned FOrd V8s, I almost feel compelled to carry on the tradition. If they slot a strengthened (and lightened) 5 or 6 speed sequential auto into the Series II GT, this would probably sway me to that. Hmmmmmm.......Series II GT. What are the chances for variable valve timing on the Boss engines? That would theoretically fix the slightly soft bottom end, and give more top end as well. Another 15kw or thereabouts to boot as well.

Two things I find interesting here in looking at the issue of the Typhoon: 1./ In my humble opinion, it looks like good value for money. Say for between $12-14K over the price of a T you get different body kit, 30kw extra; a tonne of torque spread all through the rev range; better brakes; better gearbox (I think); higher quality-look interior; beefed-up internals, such as larger intercooler and engine mods. I think it looks pretty good (on paper at least). 2./ In terms of the extra kw, I note with interest that Ford (as fiscally tight as they are) still saw fit to put in heavy duty valve springs and strengthened conrods to handle the extra 30kw. I'm no engineer, but if Ford wanted to screw out 300kw from this engine (as some have been calling for), we'd have to pay for further strengthening of things like big end bearings, balanced crank etc. I think we need to recognise that this is not just a case of taking the same car and turning up the boost. There's more than a few people on this forum who think that the be-all and end-all is to crank up the boost to get 300+ kw. I'm not sure what all these Nizpro etc kits offer, but I hope they incorporate some major internal engine mods, as I have an errie feeling that all these 300+kw T's that are starting to float around may be the automotive equivalent of hand granades just waiting for a conrod to blow through the bonnet. Personally, I think that the Typhoon will be to the XR6 T what the GT is to the XR8.............a fair bit more car for your money. Brent.