[Its About the DRIVE]

Thank you Ford17, well done - I think your link provides absolute clarity. For me the confusion (with some) seems to occur at the time of the separation of the Prodrive business. As the article says Ford took over the FPV brand and allowed it to all but disappear, the Engineering business was purchased through a Management Buyout headed by Bernie Quinn and the race team was purchased by Rusty French and Rod Nash ... that was all pretty clear and straight forward.

For me, the confusion comes about (for some people) with the Tickford name and the race teams moved into the aftermarket world! They in recent times have offered Mustang and Ranger kits ... that appeared to be pretty underwhelming in their respective markets. While they tried, there was absolutely no support/endorsement from Ford ... to the contrary Ford were quite open in their disapproval in Dealer land.

On the otherhand the Premcar business has gone from strength to strength. A read of the Whichcar story (link provided by Ford17) clearly shows and details their work. I did see recently their workforce had grown to about 185 people where in 2012 when the buyout took place they had 12 staff. I think this clearly shows how clever these guys really are - what I did learn, they built a helicopter in that passage of time ... we should be singing their praise!

For me, one of the biggest losses with the closure of the local car manufacturing industry is the potential intellectual losses from both Holden and Ford ... in this space. Out of the ashes Premcar grew bigger and stronger when everything else was heading south. The reality is, Premcar have been a stellar performer in recent years - I note their Holy Grail program. What I've seen/read is the folks who paid the big coin can not say enough good about their 'new car' You wont read media reports by motoring journalists, almost all 'as one' say it's the best Falcon ever built. Tell me when you ever/ever saw Josh Dowling show a level of excitement/love of a new car - he's a very tough marker and came close to raving about it?

To be fair and balanced, I think (while this is a Ford site) it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the great work by the team @ Walkinshaw ... for they too have preformed similar impressive feats since the closing of the Holden/HSV business. Their truck conversion business, their work with the VW on Amarok and their caravan building business. For they too (in my eyes) have done a ripper job and should also be congratulated.

I'm more than a little over some peoples lack of respect of these two great Aussie companies (employing Aussies) ... what I do know is it's far too easy to be critical when you have the safety of being anonymous behind a keyboard. I'd like to think we are smart/wise enough to identify the great work done here in Australia by Australians.

Rant over ... I do feel better about that. I feel too often the noise gets all the attention and sadly often the real facts are missed. In most cases the noise represents the minority while the majority of us are silent. I hope that might add a little balance to the discussion and be respectful to those who are generally too busy to monitor such traffic.