Mike1

Great video. Hope he idled it down for a while before shutting it off!!!!

Zman, yeah Centreford. Service has been great so far (they do our fleet cars as well) l except the goose in service that when I asked him how many disc rotors he had replaced on the BA's he replied that he had never heard of a brake problem on the BA.

I ordered mine (with fleet discount) 27th Feb a contract showed "Late April 2003" delivery. Salesman phoned mid March and said delivery more like late May now due to demand. Phoned again early April to say it was now not going to be built until early June therefore delivery mid June at the earliest. Said if I wanted a car without premium sound or blueprint he may be able to source another car from another dealer - no, not interested. A couple of weeks ago I was driving past the dealer so I called in (mainly to get a "fix" and at least sit in an XR) and without my asking the salesman showed me their current XR orders (all the peoples names and order dates) and a letter from the factory showing their allocation per month. At first I was sceptical of the wait increasing (thinking maybe my order pushed out to sell an non fleet car) but the salesman has been pretty upfront and has now just phoned to offer me a loan car (a BA but probley an XT) at no cost as he knows the lease on my current car is due mid may and needs to be handed back to Orix. Also I just received a letter from the dealer prinipal apoligising for the delay and enclosing 3 day tickets and pit passes to the V8s here in Perth in June. Ah well I guess it will be worth the wait!

Mr Walker, do you know if the Hayman Reece is ok with reverse sensing? In the past I have put towbars on my cars due to the misses tending to reverse but the "feel" method (keep backing up until you touch something then stop).

I had a McDonald Bros nitros kit on a 351 XB ute. Went like a scladed cat!!!! Problem I see is feeding the extra fuel into the motor needed to stop it leaning out and burning pistons when the nitros is injected. (mine trashed a couple of pistons before I went forged). Maybe just a case of plumbing extra injectors?

One of the Ford guys at the Perth Auto Expo I spoke to said production of XR's had recently increased from 30 per day to 50 per day in an effort to go some way to meeting demand. While the wait for your car seems endless the plus is resale values should hold up well given the supply/demand situation.

I was following the truck with this XR when it turned into the Mandurah dealership on Tuesday 29/4. Also on board was a blueprint n/a XR6 and 2 Fairmonts. Good to see more BAs on the road every day. Might just be my biased outlook but there seems to be more BA's than VY's out there.

Went to the Perth motor show on 28/4 and while looking at the XR's on the Ford stand one of their guys came up and asked if I was interested in one. I explained that I've got one ordered with delivery due early June but was concerned about the brake rotors. He was one of the first Ford people to be honest and said that the problem should never have happened and it was simply a matter of substandard rotor material. He said that Ford was onto the problem and cars built from here on should not have the issue. We will see I Guess. Funny thing was a week ago I dropped the company car in for a service at the local dealer and just making conversation with the service manager I asked how many rotors he had replaced on the BA's. He said none and had not heard of any brake problems!!!!!!!! What a goose.

I agree something organised needs to be done. This problem is not confined to just XRs but one which has been a problem on the BA from day 1. To give an example back in September last year I was part of the "BA 24 hour test drive" whereby you registered with Ford and they provided an XT for 24 hours. You then took part in a feedback survey etc.... I picked the car up (had about 2000 KMS on it) drove about 200 metres up the road and discovered a badly pulsing brake pedal. Drove straight back to the yard and told the PR person that I would rather have a vehicle without warped discs! She apologised, told me she would report it to the service manager and got the keys to another BA. I did about 300kms for the 24 hours and when I handed it back the next day the brake pedal was beginning to shudder!!! (this car had about 3000 KMS on it from memory). Needless to say the PR lady said she would relay the fault to the engineers at the factory. From my experience this appears to be a problem with the disc material. The weight of the car or driving style should not cause this problem. I have raced cars and competed in various event over the past 15 years and have found when punishing a vehicle with inadequate brakes (my XYGT for instance) you tend to lose braking efficiency due to heat which then returns to normal upon cooling. At worst you end up with glazed pads. It would be interesting to get Fords official response on this ongoing problem!

I had a plastics company cut me a piece of sheet (I think it was polypropolyne???) which I mounted under the (very low) front spoiler of a Walkinshaw Late model camira years ago. From memory it cost me about $80 and worked really well. When I sold the car I took it off and the spoiler was unmarked. The plastic sheet was buggered so it had done its job. The difference here is the XR front bumper is a lot higher from the ground and therefore any sort of sheet or protection material would be seen far more easily. Might be worth looking into.

Had the same problem on an AUIII. Dealer replaced the sender unit and fixed the problem.

Was just at my dealer trying to get a delivery date locked in for my car and while leaving I commented to the salesman that the Phantom XR8 looked nice on the showroom floor. He said that it had just been bought by Jay Upton the boss of Advanced Engine Components (AEC) to use a development mule for the company. This company is the one who did the engineering and built the supercharged 300+KW AU 2 door (in conjuction with Herrods in think) and they also do the MX5 V8 Bullett. To find out some more I phoned AEC and spoke to one their engineers who said that were going to put a supercharger on it with the view to supplying a big KW engine to Ford direct not to the aftermarket. The next GTHO perhaps?????

Silverhawk, great looking car mate. Not too many silver ones on the road that I've seen so far so that makes it more special I guess. The Dwellingup run is a good one (used to do on bikes a while ago.)

Put a similar set up on our track car (Lotus) with excellent results. Dynoed the car before and after but as a Motec and exhaust went on at the same time cant say how much of the increase was intake alone. (makes a great sucking intake noise but!!!)

Silverhawk, Dealer is Centreford. Good service so far (they handle our company vehicles via Orix) but no car!!! I've been told I have only been allocated a temporary SIDO until a build date has been locked in. Does this sound right??

The trouble with using the 20-30% drivetrain rule is that it is inconsistant. It works pretty well when talking small numbers (KW's) but not when the numbers get larger. e.g. you have a XR6T with 240 engine KW which equates to say 190KW at the wheels. The drivetrain soaks up say 50KW in this case (approx 21%). You then go the chip, exhaust, airbox, intercooler, boost etc route and get say 300KW at the wheels which at a similar 21% loss equates to approx 380 engine KW. All of a sudden the exactly the same drivetrain has soaked up an additional 30KW?????. Food for thought.

Henry, my dealer here in WA had a non turbo with premium sound and a turbo with standard sound on the floor. A guy walked in and wanted the turbo but with premium sound but didnt want to wait until June/July. To make the sale they swapped the systems over (a big job admittedly). Might be worth checking with your dealer to see if this is a possibility? (Meanwhile my delivery date has moved from May to June. grrrrr)

Mr Walker, sounds like you enjoy driving events (sprints, club events etc). Have you done any in the XR yet? If not you should enter the Classic Challenge on 12 and 13 April. (check out www.classicrally.com.au). 2 days of driving events (20 in total) and great fun. I've done the last 5 of these and it's a great way to give the car a workout in a controlled environment.

I've always found Autosol pretty good on exhaust tips in the past.

Worth trying Shannons. I have had two Harleys, an XB GT and a very modified (550+hp) ute with them and premiums were reasonable from memory. They specialise in modified and performance cars. I'd go with them for the XR but I've financed it on a novated lease this time. :idea:

When I ordered my car and opted for Premium Sound the sales guy said that Ford have had problems with burnt discs getting stuck in the stacker due to stick on labels on the disc not from the quality of the disc itself. Therefore if you burn them write on them don't stick on those cd labels.

I'm new to this great site and would like to know if anyone can point me in the right direction. I've ordered an XR6 (Jan 2003) due to be delivered early may and as I have two small kids (2 and 4) I want to purchase a couple of metres of the Plexis Blueprint fabric to get the kids booster seats upholstered to match the car (would look pretty good I think). I've asked the dealer who was no help and phoned another 2 dealers here in Perth who both said they didnt think I would be able to buy the fabric. Seems wrong to me as surely the fabric must be available to repair accident damage etc..