FPV Open Days

[DFB FGXR6]

The FPV Open Day was something I always looked forward to attending, often held in March each year. As a young Ford nut, this was almost the Holy Grail, only bettered by visiting the Broadmeadows assembly plant across the road, something I was fortunate enough to do at the height of the BA Falcon days.







The Tickford / FPV facility was situated on Glenbarry road in Campbellfield and as mentioned, literally across the road from the Ford assembly plant. The business was spread across two sites, the main facility housed the workshop, storage and office spaces. The building on the other side of the road was dedicated to engine building, inventory storage and was even used for converting Mustang Cobra's into RHD for the Australian market. Later, the FPR race workshop opened alongside the engine facility.





These open days allowed fans of the brand to attend and access the factories where the cars were made. Often, FPV staff and the current race drivers would be circulating to talk and answer questions. The events were open to all comers, including the various car clubs.



The open days continued for many years, ending when Ford bought out Pro-Drive's stake in the business and moved the operations in house at either Geelong or Broadmeadows.

On a personal note, I first attended the FPV open day in the early 2000's at a very impressionable age. Going to these days only cemented my passion for the brand. I remember looking at all these cars and wishing I had one myself or that my dad was into cars as much as I was.

It only dawned on me a few years ago that I ended up joining the party, going on to own some really cool Fords of my own, in the process becoming the person I aspired to be. And that was the whole point of these customer days, they were brand building exercises. I wonder how many other young boys went on to buy high-performance Ford's after being infected by the bug at these days like I did?

The following posts will feature the photo's I took on those open days. Many here may recognise the cars, cars from a bygone era.

[DFB FGXR6]

These images are from the 2005 event -

















































































The red Ford GT that was there on the day was absolutely stunning, they look great in photos and look even better in person! They are also smaller than you would expect.

[Bill M]

Great days, great photos. Thank you.

[Syndrome]

The great Geoff Polities days. It all went to poo after he was moved overseas.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Awesome photos and write-up. Thanks for sharing.

[DJM83]

I believe Whoosha on here, owns the AU in the 4th pic.
I went to the 2007 open day with my ED Fairmont with XR front. Had it on display, wished id went to more.
I still have this hanging in my shed



Briliiant write up mate. Love the pics

[genebaby]

Good times back then for sure.

[FPV8U]

Many great memories from those days, was always an enjoyable day out.

[Bossxr8]

I think i went to every one of them.

[DFB FGXR6]

Next in line are images from the 2006 open day -



























The FPV open day was the ONLY place I would ever see T1 and T2 T-Series -



















I just wish I could see the number plate for this TS50, I have a strong feeling this is the one I would go on to buy 6 years later.

[DFB FGXR6]

2006 Continued....................................



Box fresh Brembo's, yum!







Fairly sure these Territory's were South Africa bound -







Sunroof installation line. This is where all factory optioned sunroofs were installed, Ford did not stamp specific roof panels for this so were cut-shut at FPV. Every LTD from this era would go through the FPV workshop.

[mad2]

great write up DFB .. with great pics.


many thanks for the Turbo horns mounting pic . . . . ... Linz had asked the question ages ago & it had no pic when i found it

[FTE217]

Brings tears to my eyes !!!!
Great times - I recognise so many of them like it was yesterday.
Happy i took the Sprint out for a quick burst this arvo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Late braker]

The good old days. When we had a car industry…

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Late braker

The good old days. When we had a car industry…

Dont know what you've got until its gone, i wished i went to a few more open days.

Would be awesome to see the current Tickford embrace the history and have something like this. Not sure what kind of space they have down there.

[DFB FGXR6]

Next, these are from the 2007 open day, only a few photo's from that year.

Someone had good taste, Force 8 in Ego with the Regency Red interior.





Got to be intrigued by this one, pretty rare for a customer to order a Falcon XT with a sunroof.

















The lack of engines stored on this day was a bit unusual, I guess many were holding off for the FG.

[JTFG]

They were good times. Who knew it would come to an end

[DFB FGXR6]

I could be wrong here, but from memory the open day was skipped for 2008 in the lead up to the FG Falcon. The next images are from the 2009 event -













Would have loved to hear this thing!





Get him boys!

































This is how I would have ordered a FPV at the time if I wasn't 22 years old and poor, GT-P in Sensation.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Next, these are from the 2007 open day, only a few photo's from that year.

Someone had good taste, Force 8 in Ego with the Regency Red interior.

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Got to be intrigued by this one, pretty rare for a customer to order a Falcon XT with a sunroof.

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The lack of engines stored on this day was a bit unusual, I guess many were holding off for the FG.

Dont happen to have any pics of the cars outside on display?

Love the pics though.

Edit- any more i mean.

[DFB FGXR6]

2009 continued...................

This camouflaged vehicle hiding behind a locked date caught my attention on the day. This would have been the updated PK Ranger.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Dont happen to have any pics of the cars outside on display?

Love the pics though.

Edit- any more i mean.

No sadly, didn't take many that day it would seem.

[SSVPom]

I only went to one of these days, in 2007 - I didn’t take many photos but have got some similar to yours DFB!

[FPV0002]

Makes me sad we have lost all of this. Thanks for the photos and some memories! Love it!

[DFB FGXR6]

The final year I attended, and I can't remember if this was the last ever, was the 2011 event. The rainy weather really summed up the mood of the day, we all knew there were changes on the horizon despite nothing being public at that point.

By this stage, FPV were building Miami V8 engines in the same space were the 5.4's were assembled.





I think we as Australian Ford fans should be incredibly proud of what that engine represented. Locally, this was a moment where Ford held the upper hand in the engine department over Holden and HSV. Of course, HSV would go on to wilder things, but FPV offered the supercharged V8 as standard on their models. The Ford fans asked for more power, and FPV delivered.

Globally, this was the world first supercharged variant of the then new Coyote 5.0 V8 platform. FPV were working on this engine before the 5.0 Coyote was made public for the then current Mustang. To put that into context, at factory level, it would take Ford USA until the 2020 GT500 to supercharge the Coyote in 5.2 form. And yet, we had one ten years earlier! Sure, it never reached its full potential, but that was not the engines fault, rather the car it bolted into. I love this engine, the way it pulls like a freight train from anywhere in the rev range is truly impressive. Mine may not have been assembled at FPV, but it's no less special and I feel privileged to own one.

Rare Boss 302 BF MK II GT in an FG colour, Dash -





HAVOC body kit on this AU, not sure what model grade it's based on though, most likely a Fairmont going from the chrome headlight bezels and V8 engine.







From memory, this was a forum members car, the only production T3 TL50 made -







Likewise, I'm pretty sure this belonged to a forum member. I would actually catch up with this gentleman a few years later, I don't remember his name, but he was lovely to speak with about his beautiful car and mine too.





Congo Green XR8, a subtle colour combo for an XR.

















Always loved Octane, looking great on this BF MK II GT-P -





These cars were animals! Had a chance to ride in one and loved the mad induction note that 5 cylinder engine had -





New SZ Territory made an appearance too -

[DFB FGXR6]

2011 Continued........................





















Fun Fact - FPV (and later, Ford) did not have a separate bumper for the GS cars which were XR based. They simply cut the black bumper on this jig and then installed a plastic trim insert to finish them off.







Now, I mentioned the sombre mood of the day, that really hit home when I went over the road to the Broadmeadows factory for some photography.













Cars parked on grass for as far as your eye can see. This was clearly not going to be sustainable, and this was just the tip of the iceberg, the huge parking/holding bay out back was the same, brand-new cars without a place to be. Most of these cars would have ended up being dumped into rental fleets.

From that moment on, I knew it was only a matter of time before the Detroit said enough! To be frank, I think at the time, the decision had already been made, it just took another two years before the public would find out.

I was nice to see despite the challanges, Ford were still proud of what they were making...............



Of course, I captured a few of the XR6 in front of head office................

[DJM83]

Focus RS.
Had a chance to drive a few whilst i was living in QLD (i had an XR5T)
It copped a hard time pricing wise IIRC. But amazing drive, even wilder with a few mods on board.


Those rainy pics really sum up what was happening at the time sadly.
Ive never been in a Blown 5L, id love to one day. Amazing that it was developed in OZ

[stock1991]

What is that blue called, in the outside pics, that blue is obviously popular. Is that the famous shockwave paint?

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by stock1991

What is that blue called, in the outside pics, that blue is obviously popular. Is that the famous shockwave paint?

Nitro Blue, very popular on XR's.

Keep in mind, NONE of those cars were dealer or customer orders, they were making cars to keep the line running. So, the colours on these vehicles were just random or of popular choices.

The cost to idle an assembly plant is astronomically expensive, hence they preferred to at least make cars rather than burn cash standing down employees, not to mention the implications it would cause with their supplier base contracts.

[GXA]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

The final year I attended, and I can't remember if this was the last ever, was the 2011 event. The rainy weather really summed up the mood of the day, we all knew there were changes on the horizon despite nothing being public at that point.

By this stage, FPV were building Miami V8 engines in the same space were the 5.4's were assembled.

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That's mine....still got it...

[bangm001]

Wow mate thankyou for spending the time getting all of this together for us to enjoy!

Amazing stuff right there.

To be honest its the little things these companies did back then like sending out kids brochures of their fpv models etc (i was a driving teenager when the BA came out). Holden and HSV did it too.
I'm sure something as simple as this, plus things like an open day planted alot of seeds in all of us. I remember having the brochures in our rooms, or pics from the brochures etc cut out and displayed somewhere. All the time looking at those photos for me is probably what made me a fan. Probably why i also like some of the HSV GTS/GTO coupes etc also.

There wouldn't be any more pics from that rapid yellow BA typhoon from the 2005 FPV day by any chance? Also what month was the 2005 fpv day?