Ford reveals FG01 V8 Supercar
June 6, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Following our previous story on the FG01 V8 Supercar, Ford Australia has today finally unveiled its new ‘Nitro’ blue with white themed V8 Supercar. The car is scheduled for its first public appearance at Sandown in Melbourne this weekend.
The new weapon against Holden was built by major Ford V8 Supercar teams Ford Performance Racing (FPR) Triple 8 (T8) and Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) and it’s based on the recently launched FG Falcon XR8 sedan.
Ford says the car took over 18 months to build, during which time Ford focused on meeting specific design requirements as well as applying the Touring Car Entrants Group (TEGA) ‘Blueprint specifications’.
The TEGA specifications dictate many aspects of the car, including length, width, height, weight, wheelbase, wheel track, suspension mounting points, front bumper and rear wing positions, plus a number of secondary mounting point positions.
“Aside from the obvious lines and aesthetics that we’ve inherited from the FG Falcon XR8 road car, the adjustments to create a unique and functional V8 Supercar have come together into one extremely well rounded vehicle which we are very pleased with. said Ford Racing Manager, Ray Price.
Ford says the colour scheme was designed by a Ford employee specifically for the FG01 prototype.
“Developing FG01 was an intricate process and the design and build centred around meeting TEGA specifications alongside the goals of Ford and its major V8 Supercar teams, which were mainly related to cost reduction, reparability and safety.” Price. said
Ford spent considerable time and effort to ensure that the maximum amount of parts from the BF Falcon could carry over into the new FG chassis to assist with cost control and minimise redundant parts.
“Ford teams agreed that as a priority this V8 Supercar had to be less expensive to build as a new shell, and less expensive plus quicker to repair in the event of an accident,” said Ray Price.
The new Supercar also has safety in mind, the biggest improvement being moving the driver seat as far inboard as possible, for the largest gap between the seat and driver door.
“The overall functionality of our new racecar combined with its aggressive look will ensure the Ford teams are able to continue building competitive, race winning Ford V8 Supercars.
First to drive the new Falcon V8 Supercar will be Craig Lowndes and Channel Seven pit reporter Grant Denyer riding as passenger. But it all gets serious when the FG V8 Supercar and Ford’s traditional line-up of Falcon’s will hit the track this weekend at the Midas 400, Sandown Raceway June 7-9.
Print it: 
They should bring the v8’s to back to what they were. Pull them off the showroom floor, upgrade the brakes, put a roll cage in and go for it.
In what does does V8 supercar represent the Falcon I buy? Apart from the doors, roof and lights, it isn’t anything like the production Falcon.
At least F1 uses new technology that gets developed for road cars…the Supercars are behind about 15 years.
What ever happened to win on sunday sell on monday?
Group B rally cars….yeah 4 cylinders will never be fast…pfft!
I am glad there are forms like GT, WRC and Rallycross so I don’t have to suffer V8 Super-hippos trying to flob around a track like a pregnant whale.
As Andrew M has said on numerous occassions – if you want to watch cars that are closer to production cars then why don’t you watch Production Car racing – it’s still around.. you’ve got Evo Lancers V WRXs, XR8s/GTs V SSs/GTSs
along with a couple of European Luxury brands like BMW etc
i think the car looks hot u .i have alot of holden friends
how think the ve is look like shit and like the style of the new falcon these car wil sell crazy and the v8 super car would be hard to catch . i can,t wait untel the cars get relised on the road and on the track .
and kick holdens arse
as the farstest prodution car goes ive seen the graths
of both the new gen and the GT the g t beats it still
TT if you dont like V8’s dont watch it, we’d rather not have snobs like you in our sport.
BTW DTM has only 2 makes, and apart from the carbon fibre body shells, and engines the cars are identical. V8s at least still have road car based chassis’ and different mechanicals between the makes.
Not many road cars can achieve 650+ BHP from a 5 litre N/A v8 revving to 7500 RPM. The reason for the “low-tech” approach is cost containment, Our motorsport industry is not big enough to support huge development $$$ on high tech. Hence why the Nissan GT-R and turbo cars were banned, because to be competitive the other manufacturers would be forced to build high tech vehicles themselves and only allowing 1 or 2 teams any chance of winning, ala Formula 1.
Anyways, my thoughts on the FG01 is it looks alot like the BF but I’ll wait to see it on the track before final judgement cosidering the FG looks completely different in the flesh.
TT (& others bitching about V8 SUPERCARS), lol as for ur comments “” V8 Supercars is boring, low tech, motorsport where two nearly identical cheapo family car brands compete. YAWN!!”".
lol wow low tech, OK we r so sry, that V8 supercars dnt have traction control, we r so sry that V8 supercars dnt have abs, and stability control to help them corner, WE R SO sry, that real men drive a proper race Car like V8 supercar, i mean unlike FORMULA 1, V8 supercars rnt run by a PENTIUM 4 dual-core processor. For how many yrs have F1 fans been bithching about how boring F1 is, they sit their with their little hi tech gizmo’s racing around a track, barely passing other cars, and then wen a pitstop comes, bam, the guy that was comming 2nd suddenly is in the lead, Y BECAUSE HIS STRATEGY worked out.
See in F1, if a car got a scratch on it, or a tiny bit of damage, thats it, they will call it a day and park the car, (with exeption of a BLOWN tire, OR FRONT WING DAMAGE). and then their is V8 supercars, where a car can almost be WRITTEN-OFF, then repaired, and is sent back out to race, OH and not to mention that in V8 supercars, cars actually get overtaken on the track, and get within TENTHS, HUNDREDS, and THOUSANDS of second of each other.
THAT REAL RACING RIGHT THEIR.
V8Supercars is quite a spectacle, but bring back Group A.
This car will look amazing belting down Conrod Straight with it’s beltline that lowers towards the front; i.e. athlete stance (compared to VE V8SC’s sinderblock aesthetic).
Looks a bit wierd with no inlets like the current ve and bf.
Im a holden man and the hrt cars still always look the best..
bathurst this year is gunna be sweet.
Tander or Skaife will hopefully get pole for The race 2moro :)
But from the back i like the ford tailights, holden should have the ssv taillights.
Isn’t this car supposed to be on tele today?
I wont know cause typical channel 7 wont show us a telecast till 4.30 WA time…………Bloody Football takes precedent over V8s……..
Is it a race debut today or just a public debut?
Its just a public debut, like when the BA was driven around Bathurst in ‘02. It will be driven multiple times during the day so everyone will see it.
I agree, BM. I wish 10 kept the v8’s they where so much better. Now 10 has so little to show, they put NASCAR on the HD channel. If 10 had the v8’s i reckon the HD channel would be dedicated to 100% v8supercars on sunday… HEAVEN
Interesting story about the FG Demo Drive at Sandown –
Lowndes was the supposed to be the first to Drive the FG on its Demo Laps at Sandown.
However; an article on V8 Supercars website says that Lowndes couldn’t drive it because their is a clause in his 888 contract that says he must wear his Vodafone 888 Racing suit – Instead the All Ford Blue suit.. which is BS
I have Lowndes do other Promotional work for Ford [the XR Series] wearing a shirt without the Vodafone 888 Logo on it
Even so you would have thought as Ford would be supplying the cars to 888 – they would have agreed to Fords request
I mean at this stage the car doesn’t belong to 888 or FPR it belongs to Ford its a Protoype so surely Ford should be the one who decides who drives it –
Who ended up getting the First Drive? James Courtney.. why? because thats who Channel 7 wanted as Courtney had been on Channel 7s Dancing with the Stars.. and Who was in the Passenger seat.. Channel 7’s Grant Denyer
Further Proof that Channel Sevens running/ruining the show
All shit aside people about lowndes,
He was the fastest car today,
Fastest lap in race 1
Ford 1-2-3
Go Ford
ar thanks Blue Blood I haven’t seen it yet,not for another 25 mins………
MINNOW, im with ya on the CHANNEL 10 stuff, i mean 2007, and this yr were the First 2 yrs, in about 11 yrs that ive missed so Much V8 supercar racing, im used to turning to Channel 10 for my motorsport, i mean like 2 night right, they got MotoGp, then F1, and usually i would watch The V8’s before than, but now im just not used to Switching to channel seven. Most the time i miss the races cause i dnt see the Advert’s about them on Channel 10. And Channel 10 had been showing populating the V8’s for 10 yrs almost, if it wasnt for them V8’s wouldnt be so popular now.
AND as for the FG racing car, the First pik with the 3/4 front view looks OK, but the Head on front view looks weird, then the Side view looks acceptable, the 3/4 rear view looks a bit ackward (EXCEPT FOR THE SPOILER), and the BACK View looks wierd again, for some reason the spoiler looks too big, seriously that spoiler looks like it BELONGS ON A PLANE.
Ch 7 really has their fat grubby fingers on everything.
not as bad as channel 9’s coverage of nrl outside of qld/nsw.
in regards to ch 7’s v8 supercars, todays was worst coverage ever. it didnt start till 4, no qualifying, and i didn’t even get to see fg01
some people really have short memories regarding ch10’s telecast efforts.
at least ch7 has always showed qualifying. (i dont know what happened this weekend though) but seriously they miss showing one round and people are right on top of them.
i mean how many sessions did ch10 miss? (ill give you a hint…..more then they didnt miss)
and sundays telecast this weekend is the equivalent of a saturdays due to the main day being sunday.
and once again when did ch10 telecast saturdays happenings?
11-12PM ring any bells? and now you guys whinge that ch7 doesnt screen them till 4pm??
and dont also forget that ch10 didnt show saturdays races at all until their dying days unless it was bathurst for eg
is it just me or are the ads really long during the broadcast on channel 7. in the aust gran prix when channel ten showed the v8s this year they had 1 ad break during the whole race. compared to the channel 7 had about 4-5 5min ads. or they go to an ad when someone crashes then they come back and say “theres still a safety car lets have another ad break.”
This car looked much better and tougher on the track than in these photos
Mate, She’s a beuty cant wait to see her on the track =)
cheers chris