Ford's new Falcon a real flyer

The new Falcon will be powered by the 5-litre Coyote V8 engine - and may will be boosted. Photo / Supplied

Falcon derivatives from Ford's go-fast arm in Australia will soon be powered by the 5-litre Coyote V8 from the new Mustang - and it's likely to be boosted to outgun rival Holden Special Vehicles' 6.2-litre powerplant.

The Coyote will replace the current 5.4-litre Boss V8, forced into retirement from July by new emissions laws across the Tasman.

Ford confirmed that Ford Performance Vehicles would use the Coyote quad-cam engine.

It will be shipped to Australia from Ford's plant in Windsor, Canada, and modified to run a supercharger.

Australian website GoAuto says FPV has already developed a boosted version of the Coyote unit to compete with the 325kW/550Nm produced by the 6.2-litre Holden Special Vehicles V8.

The naturally aspirated Coyote V8 unveiled under the bonnet of the Mustang at Detroit produces 307kW/529Nm.

The boosted FPV example could be expected to develop more oomph than the outgoing 5.4-litre Boss unit's 315kW/551Nm..

The supercharging programme, however, puts Ford Australia at odds with its American parent, which is promoting direct-injection, variable camshaft timing, and turbocharging technology under its new EcoBoost banner.

But FPV would have had to wait two years for a suitable turbocharged version of the Coyote engine, a delay it couldn't afford against rival HSV in the competitive Downunder muscle car market.

Ford's director of research and advanced engineering, Dan Kapp, was asked whether a turbocharged version of the Coyote would be available.

"Ford does have the capability to add that technology to that engine," he said. "As a research team we are exploring what that means, but there are no production plans."

The naturally aspirated Coyote engine comes with two EcoBoost features - direct-injection and camshaft timing.

Ford advanced engineering design and development manager, Brett Hinds, said both supercharging and turbocharging had their advantages.

"In a true performance aspect, turbochargers do require a certain amount of time to spool up," he said.

"For all-out performance, a supercharger has an instantaneous response. It is more of a racer's approach to solving that problem.

"[But] superchargers are parasitically driven - they require work from the motor. In a situation such as a 400 horsepower supercharged engine, the engine itself would have to produce 450hp just to make 400hp from the supercharged engine. Turbochargers, on the other hand, are recovering energy out of the exhaust. So to make 400hp on an engine that is turbocharged only requires the engine to make 400hp."

The supercharged V8 Coyote engine will allow FPV engineers to tune output dependent on the model's needs. The potential performance benefits could lead to a new hero model for Ford - a return of the famous GT-HO nameplate.