Mist

LOL! Someone is having fun, good on ya!

From reading car mags and forums when I can the evidence seems to suggest that the difference between HSV and FPV V8 performance largely goes away once the FPV V8 has had some time to open up. It seems they start out comparatively low on power through the revs but pick it up after some k's on the clock. Autocar NZ did a comparison a few months ago, might have been just a XR8, but it was one that had been around a bit and it actually beat the Expensive Daewoo equivalent (R8?) by .2 secs 0 to 100 I think (going on memory here). Of course still gets blown away by the phoon ;-)

Heh, so did I, funny how that stuck out more to some of us than the lowered ride!

The F6 won NZ Autocar magazine's Car of the Year award... by a big margin. As you would expect they loved it: "For those judges who hadn't driven the F6 before, the experience was eye-opening and brain-searing: for those who had, it was a reminder that this was the most memorable road test of 2008". They finished up saying: "Is it worth paying $24,000 more than the XR6? You bet. FPV could double that margin and we would still name this Car of the Year. If Ford were a corporation led by a genuine car enthusiast instead of an ex-Boeing exec, the F6 would be exported to Europe and the US, where it would also be quickly hailed as one of the greatest sports-sedans ever." (The standard Falcon also won the Large Car of the Year category while the F6 got into the finals by being performance car of the year).

As Russ said those are the stock 18" rims for older typhoons. I have them on my BA2 phoon and personally I think they look better than both the 19" Dark Argents and the similar but slightly stock 19" wheels on the BF2... But each to their own

Let's face it, Expensive Daewoo aren't selling HSV's this cheap because they want to. They're doing it because GM's back is to the wall globally and the whole company is on the verge of bankruptcy. I imagine they are losing money on a number of these deals BUT it brings in some cash and they are much better with $60k cash than a car that in THEORY is worth $70k but isn't actually worth anything until sold. Those that are asking Ford to wake up with the crazy bargains need to stop and think a bit. You're saying that Ford should throw the baby out with the bathwater just because Expensive Daewoo has to? Ford aren't quite at the firesale stage yet and while I'm sure they would like to be making more sales it's hard work trying to compete on price when your main competitor (HSV) is practically giving their cars away. They would likely just end up cutting each others throats even worse. So while I would love a bargain I can certainly understand why Ford isn't lining up to slice prices to the bone yet. My 2 cents (BTW, I never noticed before, this forum has a CRAZY number of smilies!)

At a guess the cost of supercharging the Boss with reliable hardware, testing it, readying for production and getting it passed through all the various regulations is much more than the extra money they would make from selling 200 GT's at 90k (which is about 3-4 million?). If they are going to supercharge the GT then I imagine they will do a GTHO, possibly higher volume and certainly more than 90k cost. Could be wrong though!

I actually like the look of the side stripes and the wheels look OK (though I agree with the guy who said they look devilish to try to clean!). Of course I'm only interested in F6's so whether I like the cosmetics of the GT is kinda irrelevent

No, they didn't do the quarter mile. (and from the sounds of it when they first started at the drag strip, launching from the start end, the F6 was going sideways more than forwards because of the cold rubber on the strip... the first 0-100 for the F6 being 6.66 before they moved to the finish end of the strip instead).

NZ Autocar October 2008 issue has a run off between the FPV F6 (auto), Audi S3 and Mitsubishi Evo X SST. They registered a 4.99 0-100 time on normal road surface for the F6 (which beat the other two fairly easily). Then they took it to a drag strip and actually did some times as the finish end of the strip to avoid the rubber at the start. They recorded a 4.82 0-100 time for the F6 with the gearbox in D and traction control on (which they reckon worked best for them). They also commented that even the 4.99 was the fastest Aussie car they had ever tested. So there you go - if you can get the traction 4.8s are on the cards...

Well agreed but it's hardly stock then is it? I was thinking more about the endless argument between HSV and FPV fans as to which has the fastest cars. It's still stock if you throw an extra few kilos in the boot but if you put slicks on then you've changed the game.

Our local FPV salesperson had a story for me along similar lines regarding traction. Apparently when FPV were developing the FG F6 they managed to get 4.8s 0-100km/hr times. Then when they had their pre/early-production samples they were struggling to beat the 5.1 from a standard FG XRT. The difference? The development FG F6 apparently had extra equipment in the boot for performance analysis. The solution? They dumped some weighty stuff in the boot and were able to get their 4.8 times again. The story sounds a little too pat to me but I would believe the punch line - if you can get the FG F6 to have traction off the line it should nail sub 5 seconds. Would be an interesting conundrum. How much extra weight is optimum on the back wheels for a 0-100 sprint? What about a quarter mile (where the start matters slightly less and the extra weight being carried further would matter more).

It seems pretty clear that the problem is traction, particularly after reading Pashen's review of his test drive. Better quality tyres might help? Otherwise, what are the maximum width tyres you could put on the back end without changing the rims?

Drive them both - it is the only way. I bought an ex-demo manual BA2 F6 and when I picked it up I thought I had made a mistake. The clunky feeling shifter, the high clutch pick up and a bit of shunt in the drivetrain all had me wishing I had bought an automatic (although I didn't actually have much choice - there weren't any BF autos at comparable prices when I bought). 8 weeks later and its a different story. Its not that the car has been worn in any more (it already had 10k on the clock when I bought it) but I have learnt to drive it. Clutch pickup point seems natural, throwing into any gear is easy (except maybe first thing on a cold day) and I almost always avoid any driveline clunk or shunt by knowing how to change the car properly now. I still think the auto is probably the better car if you aren't really fussed about having a manual. But my previous XR6 was a manual and I think overall I am glad I stuck with it - I just enjoy the extra control. That said, if I had been like you and had a choice between a manual and auto at identical prices then I think I would have got the auto. P.S. I'm also in NZ.

Each to their own - I think the old 18" rims (eg on the BA Mk2) are the best looking rims around for a phoon... which is why I have them

Heh. I'm having real trouble deciding. Even the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's are still in the running after the reviews I read seemed to think they were pretty quiet and excellent for wet weather performance. So that leaves me considering the Goodyear GS-D3, Advan V103s and Pilot Preceda's. I haven't checked availability and pricing yet (in NZ) which could be the deciding factor. No one is really bagging any of these tires at present so I am guessing they are all pretty good and all significantly quieter than the SP9000s?

Thanks Ben, that's just the sort of info I was looking for. Have you found the Advans have got much noiser with the wear? I mean, of course they will have got louder but do you think they are still quieter than the SP9000's were at a similar wear level? How's grip in the wet with the Advans?

Thanks for the answers guys. The Pilot Sports and Pilot Preceda's do look to be coming out top. However I have a question. The tread on the Michelin Pilot Preceda is quite different to most sport tires - the Pilot Sport looks more traditional with the large diagonal channels. To my very untrained eye it looks like the Pilot Preceda wouldn't be all that good in the wet. Given that I live in Auckland that is an important consideration... So has anyone found the Preceda's suck in the wet?

From the pic of your car it looks like you have at least 18" rims (possibly 19?). Do you have the Eagle F1 GS-D3's on them? (ie are you speaking from experience with these tires on a large mag?). As for the stereo... well yeah that works too !

Thanks for the answers so far... anyone else want to comment? Still keen to hear from anyone who actually has tried the Advan V103s. Thanks - have you tried either of them on a Typhoon or an FPV with similar chassis/wheel size/etc?

Well I finally picked up my Typhoon, an ex-demo (11000km) manual Vixen Red BA-II. Looks great and good fun to drive. The only downside is that it is significantly noiser than my old car (1997 EF2 XR6) so I'm on a mission to soften the noise where I can. The most annoying noise is whine/road noise from the tires. It has the stock Dunlop SP9000s on it (18" wheels). They are probably a little less than half worn but have probably had a pretty hard life - I think I will keep them for drive days. The goal is to replace them with quieter tires for everyday driving. They still need to have decent grip though - particularly in the wet! These cars have too much power to risk anything but quality tires. So, anyone got any suggestions? I have read good things on this forum about Yokohama Advan Sport V103s being quiet but I'm open to any suggestions...

What about Red Line Synthetic? My local dealer reckons it is meant to be pretty good. Anyone tried it in their diff? Has anyone found that a good oil actually helps reduce whine in the diff?

I've been reading over some old threads - boy people were down on the F6 when they first came out! At the time (which was BA Mk1 I think, before the clutch fix) the F6 dyno's were apparently showing: - 200ish RWKw which was apparently not much more than many XR6Ts (however this apparently was on a new engine which hadn't been worked in properly yet). - A torque curve which dropped off pretty rapidly above 4000RPM Now, with BF out, there don't seem to be people bashing the performance any more. Why? Has something changed? Does the BF have more power than the BA Mk1? (even though 'officially' they are the same?). Does the torque curve hold up better at high revs on the BF? What about the BA-Mk2? Or is it just that people had unrealistic expectations back then and the BA F6's were fine? I ask because I am considering buying an ex-demo BA-Mk2 manual which I can get for a pretty good price. What I really want to know is whether the BA-Mk2 manuals are known to have less power than the BF manuals? Note: I realise that modding is an easy way to get a lot of power out of any F6 BUT I really just want to run a stock car... a fast stock car of course! Hence my interest in stock F6s.

That is actually what I would expect. Most cars are most efficient at low revs. The base engine for the Typhoon is presumably the same as the standard Falcon which is still a 190ish KW engine... it shouldn't NEED the turbo fired up to move the car! Do you get the gearbox noise I was talking about at these speeds? Or is your manual quiet even at low revs?

Fair enough... I'm not sure if it would annoy me longterm or not. Rattles and so on really irritate me and I think the gearbox "drone" would be the same. The cars I drove it was happening at revs where it really shouldn't IMO (ie up to 1700-1800RPM). Anyone else had this problem and find it frustrating or no big deal?