aiboart

Ford probably has the best range of small to medium cars on the planet and a brilliant RWD platform in Falcon, however the cache of the Ford brand simply isn't there, which translates to poor sales and even worse margins. Rumor has it that Ford is aware of the above and is about to develop an up market halo brand al la Lexus, AMG, Acura, Alcyone, Infiniti, M, Arbath etc in order to boost Ford's credibility in the middle class car market,... which if you think about it is now pretty much anyone who does not own a hypercar. Apparently the chosen cars will share the same front-engined, RWD architecture and will consist of the new lightweight IRS/RWD Mustang, and, a new large RWD platform lux/sports-sedan/hatchback under the Lincoln brand. Given enough Australian Government funding into the project, where do you think the new moderate volume IRS - RWD platforms could be designed and built so as to ensure American levels of reliability, performance and low maintenance costs, and, European levels of handling...?

If it is outside the budget then it is outside the budget. However if the budget is arbitrary and potentially amenable to alteration then consider that money spent on braking systems produces vastly more smiles and bang for your buck in terms of G's, car refinement, system durability and shear drivability than any equivalent spend on the powertrain. Then there is the safety aspect of having a spot-on braking system... It is hard to get excited about spending money on discs and pads that after all appear to be simple lumps of metal and friction material with no moving parts. However like other solid state systems (including electronics, optics, tyres, oils etc) performance and reliability is all about the materials, the material treatment processes and the production quality. DBA discs are definitely manufactured in Australia. The factory and the foundries are in Silverwater in Western Sydney.

DBA4000 T3 slotted or even better DBA5000 (two piece) T3 slotted The Ford OEM Premium discs are pillar vented Rossini discs. These are great discs. IIRC RDA discs are not pillar vented units (they are vane vented). RDA discs are also imported from China. DBA discs employ an elaboration of the pillar venting principle called, 'Kangaroo Paw'. DBA would say that Kangaroo Paw is a significant evolution and improvement on the pillar venting idea. As good as the one piece Rossini discs are, and they are really good, the DBA 5000 T3 (slotted two piece discs) seem to be significantly better in a number of areas. The DBA discs are Aussie made and shipped all over the world where they enjoy an enviable reputation for track applications and high performance road applications.

I called a couple of motor trimmers who both confirmed that once the material begins to sag there is no effective permanent fix. The same information is also widely available from the web pages of motor trimming shops around the world. The issue is that foam backing on the headliner (rather than the headling fabric or the adhesive) breaks down after a time (8-10 years seems to be the magic number) due to heat cycling, thereby leaving the adhesive with no attachment point. Since the foam liner on the headling material is the culpable agent ( not the adhesive nor the headling material itself) a reasonable question to ask is why does the car industry bother with such a delicate (crap) solution? The reason is the foam headling, it seems, produces a more professional finish and it is by all accounts much easier to apply. In addition to the foam lining adds some heat and noise insulation to the cabin roof. The fix options are: go OEM or equivalent foam backed headling fabric. This stuff runs out at about US$16-20 per lineal metre. go OEM quality foam backed headlining but in a different colour, texture or pattern. The sky is the limit here. One can have pretty much any colour or texture or pattern including: metallic, camo print, tiger print, snake skin... up to and including a... Union Jack. The price is about the same as the standard stuff. go foam backed (Not Alcantara) suede or faux leather. Again the price is about the same as the standard stuff. go Alcantara. (as per Bentley and Ferrari).. which is approx AU$100 per lineal meter. (Our cars need about 4 meters). Note Alcantara is available is suitable weights for headlining, however, the materials is not foam backed and it may or may not need additional foam backing.

If you want to spend the money a fully engineered, carbon fibre, independent rear end suspension is or was available. Looks amazing, though no idea how it goes.

BA XR6-T auto with F6 airbox, otherwise stock =5.37sec G-Tech no wheelspin BA F6 man stock = 5.48sec G-Tech wheelspin

PBR (now owned by Bosch) history of OEM brake supply to the US, for Ford Mustang, GM Corvette and to Australia for Ford Australia and Holden http://www.pbrperfor.../bloodlines.htm PBR upgrade kits for XR-6 Turbo and variants and for FPV's. http://www.pbrperformance.com.au/ The PBR kit is the same as the factory fit, BA Premium Black and the BA FPV Standard Blue and also GM Corvette. The PBR 6/4 pot kit with individual pads is the same as fitted to the high end z06 Corvette, I believe.

I currently have the DBA T3's. When pushed hard drilled rotors can/will crack. The XS trades the durability of a slotted disc for the bling factor of a cross-drilled rotor. T3 are the high performace (slotted) version of the 4000/5000 DBA series.

Suggest you do your suspension mods in the following manner: buy the best standard size tyres you can afford. No skipping on tyre quality. No 20" wonder wheels or 25kg bling alloy lumps. leave springs standard (it is not uncool if it works) leave bushes standard and ensure standard bushes are in good condition fit Bilstein shocks That's it.

This is the philosophical source of Gillard's Carbon Tax Scam and the root of all Green's policy.

Standard springs + standard bushes + Bilstein shocks. Will work perfectly in wet and dry on all road surfaces and do it with more comfort and more agility and more grip than you ever imagined possible.

If you have a BA with the Blue FPV brakes then: The Ford Factory pads are great with the DBA5000's. There is no squeaking. The brakes stay immediate, hard, stong and perfectly linear at all times no matter how hard you push on or how cold the brakes. I tried the Ferodo DS2000's and found that that had a very impressive and immediate bite but: ultimate Fc was considerably lower that the Factory Pads. They just don't have the same braking power as the Factory Pads. This was really annoying and a big let down. the pads had noticable give, which like vague steering is steering is just a pain DBA are now selling it seems the new Ferodo Performance line of pads, which are made in Italy. The DBA and the UK Ferodo sight have this graph http://www.dba.com.au/products/ds-performance-pads/ that indicates the Fc goes from say 5.3 to just over 6.0 as the brakes heat up. If the data is correct then this is simply amazing braking power for a road car. It is out there. It is worth noting however that the data does indicate is how the pads go at temperarure at less that 100C as this is critical for road car performance. The sub 100C performance would need to be confirmed with Ferodo, or, with existing users of the pads.

Some people like the flaps for show. Some people like the holes for go. All in it is a personal choice.

As above, it is possible by replacing the module. This is not expensive and takes a few seconds if you are familiar with the system. It will look interesting for a short time but performance and durability are major backward step. In short, solid-state systems are the way to go (or rather stay in your case).

http://www.carbonart.com.au/index.php/products/ford/diff-cover

The 335i is a great car. In many respects it is also a little brother to the XR6-T, and, at only three times the price of the Falcon platform. The engineering of the 335i is perhaps slightly above that of an FG XR6T/F6; then again perhaps not. The alloy block in the 335i is more advanced than the iron block on the FG. BMW engines also operates sans throttle, that is pretty cool. The rear suspension of the FG XR6-T despite being made of steel pressings is a miracle of advanced mass production; you would not change a thing even if you could. Cabin quality is higher on the 335i than that of the FG XR6-T. BMW also put a few more pennies into NVH control, which pays big dividend in perception. The 335i does not have the bullet proof design or endurance of a Falcon (apart from a Hilux, Landcruiser or Commadore what does?). BMW parts are jaw droppingly expensive in Australia. Dealer service is much worse. Check!!! After market parts supply is not that great and certainly not up to the level of what is available for say Porsche, so you have to pay BMW prices. More generally BMW: Beware of any car with sequential gear boxes. Old style SMG's are rubbish to drive even when they are running perfectly according to the manual. Dual clutch boxes are brilliant when they are running. Both SMG's and dual clutch boxes typically cost around $13K+ for a service/repair. CVT's are the same. Beware any high revving engines. M3 is a case in point. M3 with SMG is simply a no-no (M3-SMG is a pig, basket-case and a money-pit). The M5 V10 engine despite its brilliance, suffers frequently from oiling problems that lead to catastrophic failure. The root causes are, high revs, high load, high temps and dynamic loss of oil viscosity caused by oil shear under those conditions. BMW refuses to acknowledge the issue... The cost of repairing a munched BMW V10 would buy you a brand new XR6-T or even a F6. Run don't walk from any BMW-7 series. The larger the engine, the faster you should run. These things have the reputation for being the fastest depreciating cars in the market; there is a good reason for that. In summary BMW make some very nice cars indeed, whose only fault is their price in Australia. However, any BMW that is not an M-Series, or, does not have either the x35i-Turbo, or, one of the larger V8-Turbo's, is a waste of time. Ownership of this type of car proclaims to the whole world the owner's technical and financial ignorance and their gullibility. BMW's like all Euro cars in Australia are a spectacular rip. (Get on the US car sales sites for a reality check!) If you have the means for all the rips and price gouges, and, still have the motivation, enjoy! If not, it may not be as much fun as you hoped.

http://www.dailymail...sday-claim.html This meaningless green drivel, by environment guru: Scientist's U-turn on doomsday claim Ex climate change advocate now believes sea levels rising is not a problem Former Nasa scientist said wind turbines were 'useless' By Mario Ledwith PUBLISHED: 00:38 GMT, 19 June 2012 | UPDATED: 06:49 GMT, 19 June 2012 He was once a guru to environmentalists, claiming climate change would kill billions of humans by the end of this century. But it seems James Lovelock has had a change of heart. On the eve of a major environmental summit, he has attacked the modern green movement – declaring its theories 'meaningless drivel'. Almost half a century after he revealed his Gaia theory, which inspired a generation of activists, the former Nasa scientists said he believed that rising sea levels were not a problem and that wind turbines were 'useless'. The 92-year-old described the modern green movement as a 'religion', which used guilt to gain support. Speaking about climate change, he said: 'I'm not worried about sea-level rises.' He added: 'At worst, I think it will be 2ft a century.' Slamming environmentalists, he said: 'It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion. 'I don't think people have noticed that, but it's got all the sort of terms that religions use. The greens use guilt. You can't win people round by saying they are guilty for putting CO2 in the air.' Mr Lovelock said he was a firm supporter of nuclear power and even voiced his support for fracking – the controversial process of extracting gas from rock deep underground, opposed by the green movement.He said: 'Gas is almost a giveaway in the US at the moment. They've gone for fracking in a big way. 'Let's be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.' In an interview, Mr Lovelock described existing theories of 'sustainable development' – a key topic for discussion at the upcoming summit – as 'drivel'. He suggested that humans should instead use air conditioning to deal with climate change in cities, citing Singapore as an example. He said: 'If we all move into cities, they become the equivalent of a nest. Then another thought comes immediately from that: if that's the way the flow is going, don't stop it, let's encourage it. 'Instead of trying to save the planet by geo-engineering or whatever, you merely have to air-condition the cities.' Speaking about Singapore he said: 'You could not have chosen a worse climate in which to build a city. It's a swamp with temperatures in the 90s every day, and very humid. 'But it is one of the most successful cities in the world. It's so much cheaper to air-condition the cities and let Gaia take care of the world. It's a much better route to go than so-called “sustainable development”, which is meaningless drivel. Mr Lovelock, who has conducted research at Yale and Harvard universities, has been a respected member of the academic community for decades. He discovered the presence of harmful chemicals – CFCs – in the atmosphere in the 1960s. He developed the Gaia theory while working with Nasa. It claims that the Earth has a self-regulating system which has automatically controlled global temperature, atmospheric content, oxygen, ocean salinity, and other factors. But last month, the scientist admitted that he had been 'alarmist' and 'extrapolated too far' with his doomsday-like predictions on the effects of climate change. His latest comments came just a week before the Rio+20 summit, a major conference on climate change, to mark the anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit in 1992.

Bosh also make activated carbon filters for BA/BF and possibly FG.

What about a Direct Injection Ecotec I4-Turbo from the new Falcon? 180+ kw, dead flat torque curve, low mass and a relatively good fit to the engine bay?

Cheap sound for your car. The link below is of the V12 version deployed in a farm tractor. There are V8 and V10 versions also available. Cost delivered about AU$55.

Jag went one better with the C-X75 concept. They took out the recipricating engine and slotted in a couple of gas turbines to charge the batteries and or super caps (using US Military turbine powered gen sets IIRC). That configuration is probably where we are all heading in the medium term unless someone cracks the fuel cell technology. Regards, aa

Does anyone know if the new Ford FG seat covers fit the BA/BF series? The original B-Series seat covers covered the side bolsters and could not be used on seats with air-bags. Regards, aa

Yes, but the Euro's charge you three times the price to have the same issues.

You guys do know that the all new Mustang with IRS will be running the Ecoboost-4 don't you...

Go the PBR kit for the 17" wheels. This was the FPV standard for the BA series and it works brilliantly. If you want even more, add PBR braided lines and DBA5000 front discs and you have a system that has quite staggering braking power and heat load tolerance; in addition the speed of system response and fidelity to driver inputs becomes simply phenomenal. Those last two points are a revelation in highly technical driving.