Ford’s new FG Falcon will take to the track in race trim for the first time at this weekend’s Sandown V8 Supercar round, before a rumoured race debut at this year’s Bathurst 1000.
Ford has taken the covers off the V8 supercar version of its new FG Falcon.
The car will make its first public track appearance at this weekend’s Sandown round of the V8 Supercar championship in Melbourne, but isn’t likely to race until at least this year’s Bathurst 1000.
Ford hasn’t specified a date for the car’s track debut, but is expecting to have the car homologated by the end of June.
Ford motorsport manager Ray Price says the company hadn’t planned to race the FG Falcon at all this year, but says it may be possible that some cars will appear on the track before the end of the season.
“We hadn’t planned to race the car this year. We just wanted to get the homologation finished early so that the teams had plenty of time and didn’t have to build new cars over Christmas. But there is a chance there will be some out there [racing] this year,” he says.
The car is unlikely to make its debut with a championship contender this year, but some of the teams may run an FG as their second car at Bathurst.
Based on the Falcon XR8 road car, the new race car was jointly designed and built by leading Ford teams Ford Performance Racing, Triple 8 and Stone Brothers Racing.
It is the first time Ford teams have collaborated on the design of Ford’s V8 Supercar.
But don’t expect the co-operation to yield better lap times.
Under the rules of Operation Blueprint, the Ford and Holden race cars have to comply to a strict set of design guidelines that ensure the performance of the two cars are as close as possible.
Those guidelines control the car’s length, width, height, weight, wheelbase, wheel track, suspension mounting points, front bumper and rear wing positions, plus a number of secondary mounting point positions. They even specify the amount of downforce each car can produce.
“With the Blueprint rules, we have to build the race car to a strict set of specifications, so we have concentrated instead on things like safety, damageability and repairability,” Price says.
“We want to make sure that if a car is damaged, it can be fixed in the shortest possible time at the lowest possible cost. That is where we can get a competitive advantage on the track,” he says.
As part of that development work, the new cars will have their side sheetmetal pop-riveted to the frame of the car, rather than welded, allowing for quicker repairs.
On the safety front, the driver’s seat has been moved as far inboard as possible, creating a noticeable gap between the seat and driver door.
To accommodate the change, part of the transmission tunnel has been used for the driver's seat and seat belt mounting points. The steering column and pedal box have also been moved further inboard.
The roll cage has also been strengthened at the driver's door.
The FG has been in development for more than 18 months, with each of the three teams taking responsibility for a specific aspect of the design program.
Ford Performance Racing was responsible for the upfront design and build of the shell, Triple 8 led the aerodynamic package development and the homologation process, and Stone Brothers worked on fitting the car’s mechanical components into the shell.
“They all brought specific expertise to the project, but a lot of the design work also overlapped,” Price says.
The prototype car will do a number of preview laps at Sandown, with Craig Lowndes at the wheel and television personality – and part-time V8 driver - Grant Denyer riding as passenger.
Richard Blackburn, June 6, 2008
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