Turbo Territory in the making

[fpv_gtho]

Turbo Territory in the making
Paul Gover
15apr05

A GT-STYLE bonnet bulge will announce the arrival of the Ford Territory turbo. The pumped-up bonnet is essential because the turbocharged six-cylinder engine has a performance-boosting intercooler on top.

The bolder look will give the Territory the same instant impact as the born-again Falcon GT and distinguish it from regular models.

The turbo's name has still not been set, though Territory XR is an obvious choice.

Trial stampings of the bonnet have begun in Geelong. Engineers are also finalising everything from the engine plumbing and tuning to suspension settings and the brake package.

Ford is still refusing to comment on the car. Company president Tom Gorman says he will talk about it when he is ready.

Test runs indicate it will have a 220km/h top speed and will need considerably stiffer suspension than the regular six-pack models.





And it will have to be fitted with high-performance tyres, which will also mean a considerable upgrade in the running gear.

Production delays have pushed the turbo back from the original date in September, so it is likely to become a 2006 model.

Ford's engineering team has been at full stretch this year on a range of projects, including the all-new Focus.

The specialists at Ford Performance Vehicles have been sidetracked by work on the clutch in the troubled Typhoon turbo.

There is still no news on an FPV Territory and insiders say they haven't received the go-ahead for such a project.


Ready for take off
THE turbocharged tearaways from Ford Performance Vehicles should be ready to roll next month.

The Typhoon sedan will be relaunched to erase memories of its costly clutch troubles – and it will be joined by the Tornado ute.

FPV has one last test to clear before it can fast-track production of the Typhoon and Tornado and launch a promotional blitz.

FPV has back orders for the Typhoon and reports strong interest in the ute.

It hopes the newcomers will provide a much-needed boost to its sales.

Flying brick anyone?

Apparently Ford will only be giving it 220kw and boosting the low end torque further. The 240kw motor already makes peak torque from 2000rpm to 4500rpm

[Esperante]

Yay! It's the Amerikan way to overpower things!

[fpv_gtho]

I think Ford's chasing the Cayenne and X5 4.6 with this one, they benchmarked the Territory against them during development

[Esperante]

But wouldn't it be safer to say that this is more of a muscle car shot at making performance rather than the load it up with technology approach of Porshe and Bimmer? Can't say anything yet. Top speed is inconclusive.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

When they had the pictures of the Territory with a bonnet scoop, My first thought was turbo.

But aren't they trying to make a TurboDiesel version as well?

??? Of course a performance version to waste more fuel is not a problem.

[fpv_gtho]

The turbo diesel model is on the cards as well, but this particular pic CarsGuide have is just a chop. Wheels have actually gotten spy pics of a Territory with a bonnet bulge and scoops, the only indication it being turbo over tdi was the lower ride height and bigger wheels.

You'd imagine that Ford could cut costs and have both turbo engines use a top mount intercooler and get away with using the same bulged bonnet for both. Could work

[IBrake4Rainbows]

it would make sense; think of all the tradies wanting a sporty TDi!

[fpv_gtho]

You would think that considering the product, trying to market the tdi engine as more of a sports option than a workhorse option would yield more sales though. Save the workhorse tag for the high-ride version perhaps

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Hey; the Sporty Tourag at the moment is the V10 TDi!

Perhaps their planning on making like a Escalade EXT version; the 5 door Ute or something.

Or maybe.....Their going to leave commercials to their new Courier V6.

[fpv_gtho]

Well i just realized i made a typo in that last post.....

But yeah if they market the TDI as more sporty in the normal models than rugged etc, you'd imagine they could work their way around the whole mantra following diesels being noisy oil burners.

[SlickHolden]

In wheels they showed some pics of it. But to me the Bonnet scoop looked more like a WRX one looked allright to me.

[fpv_gtho]

That mightve been just one of the mules doing development on how the huge scoop compares to something like the bonnet bulge the Mazda6 MPS has with its hidden scoops

[SlickHolden]

It was lower and bigger wheels. They might be doing my chop now

[fpv_gtho]

Probably safe to say bigger brakes as well. Can you imagine the GT-P's 355mm/4 pot brembo's on the Tezza with a set of 18 rims? Bling bling

[Ride 440]

The "Tezza" looks too happy for any BlInG bLiNg