Craig Lowndes will open a new era in V8 Supercar racing this weekend.
When Ford’s favourite racer rolls down the pitlane at Sandown in the all-new FG Falcon, he will be unveiling the car that will take up the touring-car contest with Holden’s latest VE Commodore.
The FG is not set to race for some time, but this weekend’s roll-out is the culmination of months and months of work behind closed doors in a secret room at Ford Performance Racing’s headquarters in Melbourne.
The FG program will reach its peak when the first of the new generation V8 Supercar racers, currently known only as T2, goes into mass production at race teams around the country for a full-scale assault on the championship.
The build-up to the the unveiling of T2, and Lowndes’ hot laps at Sandown, has included the smartest brains on the blue side of the V8 Supercar pitlane and Carsguide has been given exclusive, behind-the-scenes access.
The project has seen rival Ford teams uniting in their common goal of race wins, including the big one at Bathurst, with Ford Performance Racing, Triple Eight Race Engineering and Stone Brothers Racing all providing input and expertise on the design and construction of the car.
The T2 tag came about because it is the second test car built by Ford Australia. It follows T1, the prototype for the BA Falcon racer, and will eventually be used for the official homologation testing, which begins next month.
To ensure there is parity between the Falcon and Holden’s Commodore, V8 Supercar rule-makers laid out a set of regulations — known as Project Blueprint — that require the two cars to use a number of matching parts, including the suspension and six-speed racing transmission.
The roll-out is a big milestone for Ford, but especially for Ford Racing chief Ray Price.
“It’s probably 18 months to two years from when you start initial design and concept,” says Price. “What you have to do is run with a mainstream program so that whatever happens the engineering is able to cater for the specification, which is Blueprint.”
Even though T2 is built from the bottom up — literally starting from the floorplan and adding to it — Price insists there is still plenty of FG road car left in the racer. Ford wants as much road car as possible to push its marketing and promotional point of view. But from a racing standpoint, using the road car is not ideal.
As Price says, it’s a fine line to walk.
“Road car to race car, there is still a significant amount in there,” he says.
“But if you just ran road car and put a roll cage in it, the repairability would be enormous — the cost, the time. What we’ve been able to do is cut that down. The primary elements of a road car are still there and there are a lot of structural bits of the road car that are still there.
“We integrated them into a later design so we can repair it and service it quickly, and overall the safety aspect is paramount. But at the same time we want to be able to turn it around and repair it quickly so we can get it back on the track.”
For Price, it’s all about using the resources available at Ford Australia to design and build the FG V8 Supercar quicker, smarter and more efficiently. To help cut costs Ford has used many of the parts from T1 in the latest T2. The engine, gearbox and suspension have all been removed from the BA to make the new car.
The company is also trying to centralise the building of the car’s basic chassis with Queensland-based engineering firm Pace Innovations, run by long-time V8 Supercar engineer Paul Ceprnich. Ford Performance Racing has had the T2 shell since January.
Lead engineer Phil Keed has overseen the project, but Price says the project has been a team effort with “quite a bit of cross-over”.
“The teams have been working together — specifically Triple Eight and FPR — in the design and development of the car,” he says. “From there we’ve had Stone Brothers Racing working as an interface; with packaging and stuff like that.
“The three teams have been involved in the process from the start. That’s been important because that’s allowed us to cater for the primary needs and make sure we’re in line with the category requirements.”
Ludo Lacroix, who has had stints in British Touring Cars and the German DTM touring car series, is responsible for FG’s aerodynamics.
“You need to know what you are doing and Ludo is clearly the guy for that,” says Price.
“When you take those two and combine them together you get a package that has been done by the teams, with the expertise of the teams and uses the tools within Ford.”
The one problem Ford does have with T2 is that it won’t ever race, which makes it a very expensive testing tool. Price won’t reveal just how much the car costs to build, but says Ford will get maximum bang for its buck.
“It has an expense, but that’s part and parcel of building a homologation vehicle,” he says.
“From that expense the vehicles will be built and we’ll utilise it for launch and events and as a show car. So it will have an ongoing life and that’s the beauty of getting the program right.”
While the FG road car is in the showrooms this month, don’t expect to see any more FG V8 Supercars this year. The car has to be approved by V8 Supercar officials before teams can start building race cars. Ford is hoping to have the car approved by July 1, so teams have enough time to build two in time for the 2009 season.
“We’re still calling 2009 our introduction year but anything can happen,” says Price. “We have racecars for 2008. We’re already leading the manufacturers championship and apart from the first few positions, we’re doing well in the driver’s championship. The last thing we want to do is dabble with the teams and the formula.”
That doesn’t mean an FG won’t hit the grid this year, says Price, but only if there is a team out of contention for the championship and there is an option to do it. It won’t be a priority, however.
- The Daily Telegraph
