History

The following is a little history of the Tickford and FPV XR brands which are the basis of our club.

It is fitting that the wings are the symbol of the Tickford Engineering Company as it is a company long associated with the building of high performance cars. In England where it originated, it was heavily involved with developing such renowned high performance marques as the Aston Martin.

In 1991 Ford Australia selected Tickford as a joint-venture partner, resulting in Tickford Vehicle Engineering Pty Ltd (TVE) being established as the high performance car division of Ford in Australia (FTE) and this association continued until 2001 when the whole Tickford Group in UK, Germany, Australia and USA, was acquired by Prodrive, the British motor sport company and, in 2002, its Australian joint venture with Ford, Tickford Vehicle Engineering, was rebranded as Ford Performance Vehicles.

Then in 2002, the Ford Performance Vehicles company was formed as a joint venture between Ford Australia and Prodrive. The FPV brand name was created to replace the FTE name and a restructured range was developed based on the Ford BA Falcon which also seen the return of the GT nameplate to a Falcon-based product!

Ownership changed again in August 2012 when it was announced that Ford Australia was to purchase the assets of Ford Performance Vehicles and continue the engineering, manufacturing and marketing of the FPV brand in Australia. Ford subsequently retired the FPV brand. With the FPV brand retired as of 2014, the final GTF were produced in limited numbers.

Ford continued to make XR’s in 6 and or 8 cylinders until Oct 2016 when Ford Australia’s manufacturing shutdown. Limited edition XR Sprint vehicles have been produced to mark the end of an era and are the final swansong to the Ford manufacture of the Falcon in Australia.

In Motorsport the Falcon XR range has featured predominately in the New Zealand and Australian racing scene for many years, from the legendary XW/XY GTHO, the very sucessful BA (which won in excess of 20 Supercar races) through to the latest FG X Falcon which made its long awaited debut in the 2015 V8 Supercar Season.

With the advent of the V8 Supercar Series as we know it today many great drivers have made their mark driving for Ford and a number winning the Championship Series including Dick Johnson 1988 and 1989, Glen Seaton 1993 and again in 1997, John Bowe 1995, Marcos Ambrose 2003 and 2004, Russell Ingal 2005, Jamie Whincup 2008 and 2009, James Courtney in 2010 and Mark Winterbottom in 2015. However with the final production of the FG X based chassis happening in 2016, 2017 will probably be the last we will see this chassis used in the V8 Supercars, with rumours around that it will be replaced in 2017 and beyond potentially with a mustang based chassis??

So 2016 will be remembered as the end of the Ford Falcon Production of vehicles in Australia, however enthusiast’s in Australia and here in New Zealand will ensure the brand lives on and the vehicles are becoming more collectable every day and our club will continue to support its members who enjoy there vehicles.

Pro Drive Australia announced in October 2016 that they would be bringing back the Tickford name plate and using it for aftermarket performance kits for the successful Ford Ranger with an eye to modifying new generation Mustangs from 2017.