An appropriate Tow Vehicle

[Dave S]

Hey Bill,
what fuel consumption do you get when towing with the turbo ute?
I'm looking for a new tow car, My problem is I'm 500km from the nearest race track.
So I need a car that tows well if you know what I mean. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif[/img]

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

An appropriate or Inappropriate ?? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

One of our club members has fitted her car seen below, with a towbar for trailer towing.... (oh, and its supercharged!)

[Chris P.]

Ahem.... cough, cough... did you say..... HER car? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[Ross Nicol]

Geez imagine showing up to the tip with trailer full of rubbish, but then ladies don't do rubbish do they! I am impressed though.Viper would score low on race car tow vehicle appropriateness ( did I just create a new word? ) though, mainly because you'd have to leave your wets at home, and you know what the weather does when you don't take your wet wheels & tyres don't you?

Ross

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Hi Chris/Ross

Yep! - I said HER! and she has a Roush 427 Cobra Daytona Coupe too....

One seriously fast lady who is going to be 'having a go' with our club on the hills/circuits during this coming competition season....

Has a couple of Hayabusa's too I think...

Definately a dedicated 'petrol head' - [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Andrew E]

Hi Ross & Tim,

I am going to lower the standard of towing vehicles. Mine is a refigeratioed Mercedes Sprinter 4 cyl. One advantage is fuel consumption 10 ltre 100 kms loaded or unloaded dosn't seem to change much. Perhaps the important thing is not the tow vehicle but whats being towed? No revision through the cabin but good revision through rear mounted camera and side mirrors.

[Andrew E]

photo below

[Russ Noble]

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps the important thing is not the tow vehicle but whats being towed?

[/ QUOTE ]

Got to agree with that! The important thing is not how you get it there but more importantly does it beat the crap out of everyone else once it is there. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif[/img] Of course, doing that AND having a poncey tow vehicle is all good for the image. Hope to see you guys with the pretty tow cars at the sharp end of the field!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif[/img]

Regards

[Ron Earp]

Good thread Ross and nice tow truck. We don't get those in the US, but I wish we did. There is a turbo inline six for those? That is really cool, another neat motor we don't get in the US.

I'll post some pictures of mine with my 20ft enclosed race trailer too. 451hp and 552 ft/lb torque - at the wheels with the latest tuning and we're getting some low/mid 12s with it.

I wonder why Ford/GM won't bring those things up to the US? Is there also a Ford sedan on that platform?

Very nice RF Andrew, wish I had one! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] How is the Audi transaxle holding up?

[Andrew E]

Russ,
I've just blown any aspirations of owning a pony tow vehicle and purchased a quick clubman [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banana.gif[/img].
Ross,
you may remember the clubman lining up next to your GT40 at the Geelong speed trials a few years back. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/1poke.gif[/img]
Ron.
The audi gearbox is holding up well given I only driven the car 50 kms. Good feel the the gearchange and the ratios on the 6 speed seem to suit the car. Hopefully off to the engineer and the registration process will commence. I sincerely hope over the next week or so as the RF picture becomes clearer some sort of co operative rescue can be tabled to assist those at risk.

Andrew

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Another of the Viper tow hitch!

I hope the bolts are strong!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Bill Hara]

Hey Ron
Yeah there is a sedan version here with the in-line 6 turbo. Mine is 320 hp, new model is 330hp and there is an upspec version with 360hp. The aftermarket tuners have gone crazy and are regularly advertising 500-550hp with flash tune kits, intercoolers and exhaust upgrades. These cars are getting into the 10 sec bracket at the strip.
My stocky is rated at 14.3 sec 1/4 mile, the sedan at 14.0, the upspec at 13.8.
Tim's GM is a V8, rated at 380hp and there is a Ford V8 equivalent with 390hp, all are factory prepped cars.
Dave S, the ute is really good on long drives, without towing I can get about 650km per tank on country drives, 500km a tank in stop start city driving. Problem with stop start and a turbo is that I am always sideways with it and my rear tyres are evidence of that. When towing (about 10 cars so far) I am getting around the 500 - 550km per tank. It's hard to say because I haven't towed for a full tank and whilst the towing was country driving, the remaining tank was done partial city/country.....
Ross, as far as stripes on the ute are concerned, the only stripes I like are the FPV ones.

Cheers

Bill.

[Pete.]

Very nice Bill, I think I might trade the Jag on one.
For some reason I thought the Typhoon was super charged rather than Turbo?

[Bill Hara]

Pete
The Typhoon is definitely a turbo car, higher boost and tweaked internals, larger intercooler. It is also a great car to drive, especially with the 6 speed "auto" which is sacreligeous I know......
Take one for a test drive and gives us a report [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Bill.

[Pete.]

Bill, I did just that yesterday courtesy of Denmac Ford at Ipswich. Thank you Adam. I drove both the FPV Turbo 6 and the GTP V8. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif[/img]The 6 develops 270kW/362HP and the V8 puts out 290kW/389HP. Interestingly the 6 develops 550Nm of torque compared with 520Nm from the V8. That's 405 and 383 ft lbs respectively.
Both cars had excellent driving positions fully adjustable
and the seats were comfortable and held you in position.
Both cars had the automatic sequential 6 speed box which was excellent with both up and down changes crisp and positive. I could not detect from the seat of my pants any noticeable difference between the two cars in terms of acceleration, Adam, the salesman, did say the Turbo was quicker to 100k and the V8 faster in outright top speed.
There was a detectable bit of turbo lag under hard acceleration from the 6. As we were restricted to speed limits it is a bit hard to comment on handling other than to say the cars felt stable and had very little body roll for big sedans and excellent stoppers, thanks to 6 pot Brembos and BIG ventilated discs.
There is an extensive range of colour and stripe combinations available as well as lots of options. Almost confusing. But if you go to FPV's excellent website,you can add and subtract the options and try the different paint combinations until you have your personalised ride.
Which car? The v8 is about $A10,000. more than the six.
And as stated earlier as far as Grunt handling and stopping goes there is little to chose between both Models.
If you want the sound of a V8 and the BOSS emblem and that's worth $10,000. Go for it. I reckon both models will have their own cult following. Me I'm a V8 man and I didn't like the Turbo lag.
But I have asked for a quote on both. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif[/img]

[Howard Jones]

Tim... do you haul your GT40 on that trailer?

[Bill Hara]

Pete

Buy the F6, spend half of the $10000 savings on some after market bits and you'll have a road car capable of shading almost any road car (other than the 40) on road or track [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Bill.

[TimOz40]

Howard,
No, we made that trailer specifically for towing our Lotus7 clubman. I have had a Lotus Elise on it, but would not put a GT40 on. I think a car weighing 1000kg or so is best towed on a tandem axle trailer.

[ChrisL]

April 2006 Motor magazine awarded the best Aus built performance car to the FPV F6 Typhoon (with the sequential box). Second was the Ford XR6 Turbo (manual). Third was the Ford XR6 Turbo (auto). A clean sweep for the Falcon 6 Turbos. Just a few years ago it would have been sacrilegious to suggest that an inline 6 Falcon could be better than a V8 Falcon. But give credit where credit is due and it would definitely be my choice.

Other cars included…
HSV Clubsport DTS (A Holden Commodore derivative)
HSV GTO Coupe (Same car as the GTO in the US)
Holden Commodore SS
Ford Falcon XR8
Ford Falcon GT.

They were awarded points on acceleration times, lap times around Winton Racetrack (data logger used to determine track speeds), fun factor in a legal squirt through some winding roads, comfort and fuel economy.

The final word from one of the testers was that although some of the other cars were better in some areas, they were generally one-trick ponies. The Typhoon however consistently came in first or second in each category.