Ford competitive to the letter

By ALASTAIR SLOANE motoring editor

It's a world of alphabet soup: the GT, WRX and FTO this and the GT3, MR2 and XKR that - each depicting a particular car model.

Now there's another: FTE. The letters stand for Ford Tickford Experience and represent the latest T-Series Fords from Australia.

They are swept-up, go-fast Falcon and Fairlane Variants called the TE50, TS50 and TL50, and they are designed to compete pretty much with Commodores from rival Holden Special Vehicles.

Some would say Ford is just playing catch-up, that it has left its run at HSV 25 years too late. It should have capitalised on the huge success of the Bathurst-winning GT and GTHO Falcons of the late 1960s and early 70s - 20 years before HSV even got off the ground.

Ford knows it should have done things differently. But its policy at the time was to build as many Falcons as it could while setting aside some for once-over-lightly GT treatment.

As a result it was plagued with a couple of dodgy models at critical times and basically handed over a multi-million dollar, home-grown, high-performance market to Holden.

Now it wants to try to lure back some of the customers it lost, those who switched to HSV because Ford didn't offer a credible, high-performance alternative.

It boosted its motorsport budget in Australia this year in an effort to win on Sunday and sell on Monday again. But sales of the Falcon still lag behind Commodore.

So who is Tickford and why is it making go-fast Falcons for Ford Australia? Tickford Limited is a British tuning house which has mostly reworked vehicles for Ford in Europe, cars like the Ford RS200 and Cosworth RS500.

Tickford Vehicle Engineering is the Australia subsidiary, owned 51 per cent by Tickford Limited and 49 per cent by Ford Australia. It began business in Melbourne in 1991, reworking the EB Falcon range without much sales success.

But the new T-Series - "a specialist, low volume range designed to put the passion back into motoring" Ford says breathlessly - promises much more and will be sold through 21 FTE-appointed dealers in New Zealand.

"The whole approach to the development of FTE has been to refocus our business on the needs of the customer - in essence to put them back in the driver's seat," says Ford New Zealand managing director Nigel Harris.

"FTE is designed to deliver to car buyers what Ford is calling a 'total ownership experience,' where the emphasis is on the quality of the product and the levels of service.

"Today's professional person doesn't have the time to chase around for information. They want to talk to someone who knows the vehicles inside and out, and we have worked hard with our sales staff to ensure they are experts in FTE products."

There are three T-Series models, each powered by a 5.0-litre V8 producing 220kW at 5250 rpm and 435Nm of torque at 4000 rpm.

The TE50 and TS50 have two gearbox choices: a conventional five-speed manual or an adaptive manual/automatic with shift buttons on the steering wheel. The TL50 comes with the adaptive shift as standard.

All three cars sit on double-wishbone suspension in the front and a multi-link arrangement in the rear. The TS50 and TL50 have a special Koni unit for the rear set-up.

Safety equipment includes bigger, improved anti-lock brakes, seatbelt pretensioners and dual front airbags.

Interior and exterior equipment can be tailored to meet customer needs.

The TE50 rides on 17-inch wheels and costs $77,000. The TS50 has 18-inch wheels and is priced at $87,000. The long-wheelbase TL50 - a premium version of the Fairlane - also has 18-inch wheels but is $98,500.

Harris says the prices reflect what the range has to offer.

"At 220kW, this is the most powerful vehicle we have for sale in New Zealand.

"It is easy to build a car that just goes fast, but one that handles, performs and has outstanding driving dynamics is what we aimed for and we have worked hard with Tickford to create."

New Zealand will receive four vehicles a month. The TS50 and TE50 fall under the standard Falcon warranty of three years or 105,000km, whichever comes first.

The TL50 comes with special treatment through a prestige plan which covers all service costs over the same period.

The AA rescue service is also part of the deal.