FPV engine export hopes get boost

FORD Performance Vehicles’ (FPV) bid to export its supercharged Boss V8 has been given a boost with news of a fresh emphasis on muscle cars within Ford Motor Company.

FPV, jointly owned by Ford and Prodrive, invested $35 million developing the boosted 5.0-litre V8 which, at 335kW in GT guise, is the most powerful factory-built version of the Ford Coyote V8 in the world.

The company is now looking to recoup some of that money by selling the engine, or at least the engineering plans, to Ford in the US.

While FPV and Prodrive are yet to meet with Ford US executives regarding the use of the engine, the chances of it being picked up have been improved by a new emphasis on performance within Ford.

Ford Australia president Marin Burela says: “Ford Motor Company has globally, for the first time in many, many years, formally come out and said ‘we will have performance cars formally placed on our cycle plans around the world’.

Left: FPV GT. Below: Prodrive's Bryan Mears.

“Derek Kuzak, our group vice president of product development, has come out and publicly announced that performance cars are part of our heritage and is something we are committed to and something that we will continue to develop and invest in as we move forward.

“Jost Capito, our global performance vehicle director, is now leading the global initiative on behalf of Ford Motor Company to bring together all of the resources, all of the experts we have all around the world to ensure that we are always on the front edge.”

Prodrive owner David Richards told GoAuto at last week’s Paris motor show that the company would not need to sell the engine outside Australia to make money.

“The business case was based on domestic sales alone,” he said.

He confirmed the sales plan was for the engine – codenamed Miami – was for five years, the projected lifetime of the current Falcon.

Prodrive Asia Pacific managing director Bryan Mears said he would be doing everything he could to make sure the Australian engineered performance engine, which produces 335kW in the GT but has the potential to generate far more with a more aggressive tune, would end up in other Ford cars around the world.

“We believe this is a terrific engine and it has a range of applications in addition to the one that you are going to do today,” he said.

“I’ve certainly said previously, and I will say it again, that in terms of development of the Coyote engine, the way we have developed it I believe that is unique within the world that we know, Ford and Prodrive, and we certainly will be looking to make that engine available globally to the Ford organisation.”

Mr Mears says he does not yet know if Ford US will be interested in the engine.

“I’m not privy to what they are doing, what their plans are, so they may have other things in view, but the Australian business has produced a terrific Australian engine on the Coyote base, and we will definitely be pushing for every opportunity to maximise the production of that model.”

While the business case might have only taken Australian sales into account, FPV and Prodrive put the new engine through a longer than normal process of internal testing and quality approval within Ford.

This process not only appeased internal concerns of warranty exposure, which helped kill off previous attempts to build a supercharged V8, but also ensured the engine met the standards of Ford in the US.

Ford Racing in the US has just made available a supercharger kit for 5.0-litre Coyote using Roush and Whipple components, but it is hardly a threat to the FPV developed supercharged engine. This kit is simply bolts on to the existing engine and has limited warranty.

The FPV V8 has a huge number of internal upgrades to cope with the increased forces that supercharging generates. It has a unique supercharger housing and the latest Eaton blower components and has full warranty backing.

There has been talk of a twin-turbocharged version of the Coyote V8, which Ford US engineers favour for its relative fuel efficiency, but there has been no official confirmation that this engine is going to be produced.