Ford has issued preview images of the last ever Ford Falcon road car.
And while not confirmed as yet, the expectation is its new look previews what Mark Winterbottom and his fellow Ford drivers will be racing for the next couple of years in the V8 Supercars Championship.
This last Falcon will go on-sale in November, with production scheduled to cease in October 2016 as part of the blue oval’s wind-up of local manufacturing.
While Ford has issued photos of both the XR6 and XR8, it’s the reborn V8 – which hasn’t been built since 2010 – which is of interest to racing fans.
The XR8 features the new Falcon’s trapezoidal grille done in mesh honeycomb and both XRs get their own slim headlight design with ‘hockey-stick’ style LEDs.
But the V8 alone comes with a new extended version of the traditional bonnet power dome.
At the rear there is a wider stance and the bootlid has been re-sculpted.
However, the adaptation of the new Falcon – for which Ford has yet to confirm a two-letter code (the current car is the FG Series II) – to a V8 Supercar is expected to be eased by the fact the fundamental bodyshape is not new.
The New Generation V8 Supercar is also designed so that different body panels can be placed over the same spaceframe chassis and existing mechanicals.
The development and design work to make that happen would be undertaken by Ford Performance Racing in conjunction with V8 Supercars.
“The glasshouse of the new Falcon is the same as the existing one,” FPR co-owner Rod Nash told v8supercars.com.au recently. “So it’s all doable.”
Nash, who is in negotiation for a contract extension with Ford, said the factory team will race either the FG II or the new Falcon model in 2015, while the imported Mustang would be of interest in the future if the category’s technical regulations are changed to allow coupes.
V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton is currently preparing a white paper on the future of the category that considers issues such as allowing two-door bodyshapes.
