Here's an amazing car from Ford of Australia. This is a truly hot rocket, a real road burner, that can mix it with the sporty V-8s and come out on top. It is modestly called the
FPV F6.
I suspected it would be quick, but did not know just how quick when I picked up the FPV F6 – cars built by the Australian Ford Performance Vehicles division are plain FPVs now. This F6 sits below the GT V-8 in the hierarchy, but offers the same, if not better on road performance. It is based on the latest version of the Ford Falcon, introduced early in 2008.
On the road, the F6 looks pretty good, as the big wheels and reduced ground clearance make this muscle car look lower. All in all it is a pretty sleek and stylish car – apart from the rather weird front end. It is different though!
Wants to go sideways
I came out of the garage crossed the dual carriageway, turned right and put my foot down just a little, and the car skipped sideways. I hastily corrected, and thought: 'Wow, this has more kick than I was expecting,' and eased off till I got out of town, and took in the ambiance.
Not bad at all. Sure the interior is all a fashionable dark color, but dark grey instead of black, with comfortable seats giving plenty of lateral support, and the instruments are clear, white on dark grey. The electronic display between the rev-counter and speedo is the same color, instead of the garish orange used by most car makers these days.
All-round visibility is pretty good, the rear wing being low enough not to get in the way. I was soon tooling along the freeway, the car riding and steering nicely, and all very quiet. Later I came to a couple of roundabouts, and the F6 went around flat smoothly, with very little roll. Impressive for quite a large sedan, 195 inches long and proportioned to suit.
I also noted that the ZF six-speed auto, which has a manual sequential override on the gear lever, was very responsive, shifting down quickly and smoothly without being asked, other than with a prod on the loud pedal. Seemed as if this was going to be fun.
Exciting in the wet: sideways or sideways
When I went out for my first test run, it was raining, and continued to rain, hard or light for the whole time I was out. I soon learned that at T-junctions, and round low speed corners it was a case of sideways or, well, sideways.
True, the stability control allowed me to have a little fun and then prevented things getting out of hand – or so it seemed – but the steering was high enough geared to correct and get back on line.
Out on a fast sweeping road, the overall impression was of a silky smooth engine and gearbox. Every time I put my foot down, it gave me a real kick in the back as the turbo came in. If I was not going straight ahead, there would be a little kick sideways on the wet road. Australians like cars that go sideways, but in this case control seemed good, and I was finding that the F6 could live with some much exotic metal.
For its size , the F6 is not too heavy – just a little lighter than the Jaguar XF – and has quite modest size tires: 245/35R19 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx on 19-inch rims. The brakes are pretty good, as you would expect from Brembos working onm 14-inch (355 mm) diameter discs at the front and 12.2-inch (325 mm) discs at the rear. The discs are cross drilled to clear away dust and water.
Good turn in
On the long sweeping bends, the F6 turned in quickly, the new front-mounted rack and double pivot, wishbone front suspension making the car very sure-footed. Pressed harder, and a little roll built up – no more- but the car steered and handled impeccably.
I tried the Performance mode in the auto, and found it gave even quicker response, and that the manual control really does leave it up to you – even if you leave the engine bouncing on the 6,100 rpm limiter. On the other hand, the forward/reverse gear lever is far less intuitive than paddles on the steering wheel, which I felt were sorely missed on twisty, hilly roads.
On less demanding roads, the auto works so well you don't really need to shift manually. And me, who generally lusts after the full control of a manual sequential box!
Terrrific acceleration – at almost any speed
At any speed, the acceleration is so quick, it is hard to remember that this is a big lump of steel, with plenty of room for four people and their luggage. And this is what makes the F6 more amazing. It does almost everything sports coupe would do – and can out accelerate a lot of them, thanks to this fabulous turob six which produces masses of torque from 2,000 to 5,200 rpm.
In manual, you keep the engine spinning between 3,000 and 6,000 for peak performance – and I mean peak. Here is a car that gets to 60 mph in just over 5 seconds, and is as fast as the Jaguar supercharged V-8, and might be even more responsive.
Responsive is really the word that describes this engine. Despite having a single turbocharger, there is no lag, the engine just pours on the power whenever you want – just superb. Do you really need a V-8? I doubt it.
And it rides well
I was expecting a pretty hard ride – generally Australian cars are biased towards firm suspension that can joggle around on poor surfaces. But not the FPV F6. The ride is amazingly supple, and better than many an 'ordinary' sedan, yet you that this terrific acceleration, great steering and handling to match.
The engineers must have used the Jaguar sedans, till recently from the same group, as the benchmark, and they certainly succeeded in combining handling and ride in a way you associate with Jaguars.
When pressed, the handling remains neutral, but with a tendency to power slides. The result is a real muscle car that can be driven very quickly over good country roads, or can be a lot of fun round the twists and turns. What's more this FPV F6 is a match for muscle cars that cost a lot more and bear more exotic names. And it looks the part – pretty sleek for a muscle car based on an ordinary sedan. Yes, FPV has come up trumps with this F6 – it is a great muscle car.
