FG II GT: Fast Ford Falcons

By the time FPV had reached the end of the Series 1 FG-based product, it had also kind of reached the end of the development road for the 5.4-litre DOHC atmo V8. So what did it do?

Instead of rolling the arm and coming up with some half-arsed update, it got serious with its partner company Prodrive and came up with something really special. And that thing was the FPV GT. Okay, so nobody spent too much time on the name. But plenty of hours and cubic dollars went into the lump that filled the engine bay.

Taking the new Coyote V8 (as seen in the Mustang GT), the brains trust at Prodrive came up with a great solution to the move from 5.4 to 5.0 litres: supercharge the bugger. Before 2009, when all this was going on, nobody, not even the Yanks, had gone into production with a blown Coyote.

This local home-brew was not only the first of its kind anywhere in the world, but it was also a cracker of a thing. And it was all the intellectual property of FPV in downtown Melbourne. Had Henry Ford himself wanted one, he would have had to pay for it in Aussie dollars, just like anybody else.

Interestingly, FPV came up with two specifications for the engine it called Miami (it was all glamour). There was a 315kW tune for the GS, and 335kW for the GT. Thing is, we reckon that just as they had been with the Phase III GT-HO of almost three decades earlier, the blokes in the suits were being a bit coy with the actual numbers.

Independent testing (by me) at the time suggested there was probably closer to 350kW or even 360kW at the crank of these buggers. Suddenly, the FPV GT went from a 5.4-litre car with a 14.1 second quarter mile time to a 5.0-litre with the ability to haul across the same stretch of hotmix in closer to 13 seconds neat.

Traction, as always, was the problem, and FPV attempted to address that (with limited success it should be said) with the R-Spec model in 2012.

And just to ice that cake, there was a final iteration of the GT dubbed the GT F (F for Final), which boasted 351kW and gave FPV (or Ford Australia, more correctly) licence to revive the old 351 badge. There were still issues, mainly with power-down, driving position and an interior that was already dated. (And those basket-weave seats in the GS that looked like lawn furniture. What were they thinking?) But small improvements were made. Not enough, however, to suggest you should choose one iteration over the other.

Those GT F editions were quickly snapped up and stuck into collections all over the country, but any FG Series 2 onward GT (or, hell, GS) is a worthy addition to your driveway.

And, we say, a more than worthy occupant of the number five spot in this discussion.

IN DETAIL
Engine: 4951cc V8, DOHC, 32v, s/c
Outputs: 335kW/570Nm
Weight: 1862kg
Price: $71,290

What's our fave Falcon? Check out MOTOR's take on the top 10 Fast Ford Falcons ever made here.