Graeme
30-11-2002, 09:19 PM
I know there exists plenty of Fordophiles in Forumland and I'm sure that some of you have heard of Dick Johnson's SVO road car projects of the late 1980's.
His first forays into modified Falcons involved the XE model, with initial experiments in 1984 encompassing turbocharging the 4.1 injected engine with a view to persuading Ford to help develop a Falcon for Group A racing. The project did not expand beyond the one prototype car built by Dick Johnson.
Later, in 1986, Dick teamed with his longtime sponsor, Ross Palmer, to form their Special Vehicles Operation, and enlisted the engineering services of a motorsport expatriate, Peter Harden. They came up with an XF styling exercise incorporating a reworked 4.1 six without turbocharging, which had been vetoed by Ford on the basis of warranty concerns, and questions regarding unleaded fuels. The XF Johnson SVO Falcon featured pearlescent white paintwork and full body skirts, a modified grille and a rear boot wing. The interior was tastefully trimmed in grey cloth with Recaro seating. Production was figured to be 500 cars at around $35,000.00 retail each, but the project never proceded.
In 1989, Dick's organisation produced it's second SVO Falcon based on the EA model. The impetus was Ford's search for a performance car associate, a search that eventually ended up at Tickford's doorstep. This prototype EA SVO was painted bright red and again featured a complete body sill kit and boot spoiler, along with CSA specially cast alloy wheels reminiscent of the style used on Dick's 1989-1992 racing Sierras. The car was really a styling and handling exercise with no drivetrain alterations, running a standard 3.9 EFI engine.
Like the XF before it, the EA SVO became a one-off exercise when Ford declined to become more directly involved with production.
Besides, there was plenty of other valid competition at the time in the form of Peter Brock's EA Falcons and Mick Webb's own SVO cars.... both Webb and Johnson were using the SVO tag in 1989 without either having registered the name. To my knowledge, Dick Johnson still dabbled in playing with his own personal Sierra road cars, without ever hinting again of producing specialised cars for public sale.
His first forays into modified Falcons involved the XE model, with initial experiments in 1984 encompassing turbocharging the 4.1 injected engine with a view to persuading Ford to help develop a Falcon for Group A racing. The project did not expand beyond the one prototype car built by Dick Johnson.
Later, in 1986, Dick teamed with his longtime sponsor, Ross Palmer, to form their Special Vehicles Operation, and enlisted the engineering services of a motorsport expatriate, Peter Harden. They came up with an XF styling exercise incorporating a reworked 4.1 six without turbocharging, which had been vetoed by Ford on the basis of warranty concerns, and questions regarding unleaded fuels. The XF Johnson SVO Falcon featured pearlescent white paintwork and full body skirts, a modified grille and a rear boot wing. The interior was tastefully trimmed in grey cloth with Recaro seating. Production was figured to be 500 cars at around $35,000.00 retail each, but the project never proceded.
In 1989, Dick's organisation produced it's second SVO Falcon based on the EA model. The impetus was Ford's search for a performance car associate, a search that eventually ended up at Tickford's doorstep. This prototype EA SVO was painted bright red and again featured a complete body sill kit and boot spoiler, along with CSA specially cast alloy wheels reminiscent of the style used on Dick's 1989-1992 racing Sierras. The car was really a styling and handling exercise with no drivetrain alterations, running a standard 3.9 EFI engine.
Like the XF before it, the EA SVO became a one-off exercise when Ford declined to become more directly involved with production.
Besides, there was plenty of other valid competition at the time in the form of Peter Brock's EA Falcons and Mick Webb's own SVO cars.... both Webb and Johnson were using the SVO tag in 1989 without either having registered the name. To my knowledge, Dick Johnson still dabbled in playing with his own personal Sierra road cars, without ever hinting again of producing specialised cars for public sale.