sport

Thanks fpv727, I would be interested in one of your wheels. The phoon has a different offset front and rear and I am not sure which one is the same as the Tornado as they were the same front and rear. I used to own a Bob Jane T-mart for 15 years so one of my old contacts who used to deal in OE wheels has a slightly marked new one he is going to work out a price on. I am not sure how to communicate just with you on this forum so tell me how to do that and let me know what you want for your wheel & tyre. In the meantime I have bought an aftermarket spare in 18" but still want the original spare to put away. Thanks, Sport

Hi guys, Some f#*!king scumbag stole the spare from my BF Tornado. I swapped my 19" alloy for a steel spare when I first got the car but changed it back when I realised it would not fit over the brembo if ever I has to use it. I've got 2 questions: Does anyone know if there is any steel rim like say a 17" territory wheel or a cheap new alloy 18" that would fit over 4 piston brembos that I could use as a spare and secondly, has anyone come up with a way of securing the spare in a ute if I was to buy an original spare. If you drive a Tornado, maybe have a quick look under your car to see if your spare is still there. Thanks, Sport.

Hi guys, I have not run at the drags before but am keen to have a crack soon. My car is a BF Tornado 6sp auto with a Nizpro stage 1 edit with 280rwkw. Tyres are std 245/33 19 Dunlop with Bilstein / Kings suspension. Will be changing rear bilsteins soon to V8 race ute spec with less compression and more rebound which is what the race utes use to get the power down and reduce axle tramp. I am doing that to improve the handling on bumpy corners but it may have the affect of improving my 1/4 mile time ? What could a drag novice like me expect to run ? Sport

My car is a Tornado ute and I am sure they don't have EBD. I think that is only on the sedans and even then I think I read that the BF series I Typhoon (sedan equivalent to my ute) didn't have it due to cost restraints and it was initially only fitted to the standard BF and Xr's. Also, my pedal drop is only when I come to rest under firm brakes and is not throught the steering. The shudder in the steering is a common problem that is easily fixed by the dealer by re positioning / tensioning the rack. Sport

Hi all, I posted this problem recently but I don't think I uploaded properly so if you have seen my previous post I apologise. I have an BF F6 Tornado with the 4 piston Brembos and whenever I apply firm to hard brake pressure, just as the car stops, the brake pedal drops under foot very slightly and I can hear a very faint click. I is not like an ABS problem and it happens on dry roads whereas ABS kickback normally only happens in the wet or under "extreme" dry braking where there is wheel lock up. I have taken it to my dealer and althought they can feel the problem, they are unable to say what it is. I have gone over every relavent nut and bolt in the front and rear of the car and there is no change. The car has had after market disc pads from new but I have only noticed this problem since about 12000kms and I took the car back to the place that supplied the disc pads and the checked it all over and bled the brakes ?? and still no change. Any ideas would be a great help. Sport

Hi all, I have a stage 1 Nizpro edit on my BF F6 and could not be happier with how it performs. My brief was for it all to appear standard so they have enlarged my injectors but not replaced the cat. It makes 280 rwkw but unless I am reading the printout wrongly, it shows max boost of 14 psi. The 14 psi section of the boost curve lines up with about 210 rwkw on the power curve but where the power initially paeks at 280 the boost has settled back to about 12 psi. So my question is, when you guys talk about power at a certain boost which part of the power and boost curves are you talking about. Regards, Sport.

Your absolutely right - the only reason I will run lower compression is because the ute has a leaf spring rear which has far greater bump resitance hence a lower figure is required than for a coil spring shocker. I am changing from existing Bilsteins (which are so much better than std FPV anyway) to re-rated Bilsteins so I will be able to let everyone know what difference a reduction in bump pressure makes on the same style shock. Then I will sell the existing Bilsteins so the changeover won't be much. Sport.

Try the Bilstein shocks first as even the V8 racing utes don't bother with tramp rods. We used to run tramp rods back in the 70's on our 351 XY Falcons but tecnology has moved on a bit since. I had a quote from quadrant today for rear Bilstein shocks: $213.00 each (640 pounds compression 2925 pounds rebound for a ute but the numbers will be closer together for a sedan as the sedan coil spring has less friction on compression than a ute leaf spring) Regards, Sport

Hi Macca, not sure if yours is a sedan or ute but utes normally have far worse axle tramp than sedans so if you can improve a ute a sedan "should be easier" following the same principles. I have lowered Kings and Bilsteins so I rang Bilstein and asked how the V8 ute racers overcome axle tramp and they do it quite simply by modifying the rear shocks by reducing the pressure on compresion (or bump) and incresing the pressure on rebound. This should also help your quarter mile times. The only down side would be if you carry heavy loads in the rear of your car. I have done heaps of suspension work on my Tornado and the handling is fantastic but I am going to rework the rear shocks to improve it further. Hope this helps. Sport

I have bf f6 ute (4 spot brembo) and the week I bougt my car I replaced the pads with std pads from "Race Brakes" (melbourne). These pads are only about $120 set for front and around town will stop you noticably quicker than brembo pads, will create no dust and will hardly wear your disc at all. Your discs will certainly last the life of the car. The only down side is these pad will be no good if you do a track day so if you do, just drop your Brembo pads back in or even something better again. Hope this helps.

A couple of things to consider with Tornado v Typhoon. What is your tax situation as a ute will not attract FBT but a sedan will. Secondly, the ute will cost you for example $5000 less to buy as has been said, BUT usually will sell for more when you upgrade. I trade up every 2-3 years and it only costs about $10 - $12K each time. good luck.

I fitted king springs all round with bilstein shocks to my Tornado with 30mm & 22mm whitelines and it fantastic. Bilsteins made a huge difference. One thing really puzzles me when I read this forum is the number of people that fit camber kits when they lower their utes ??? I have had a BA I XR6T a BF XR6T and now a BF F6 Tornado and they have all had camber kits standard from the factory so why get conned into paying for it again. (how do you tell ??? bolts from upper control arms will protrude about 10mm - 15mm past the nut on the inside of the shocker tower - simple as that) And yes I can get the necessary range of camber & castor adjustment. Good luck.

I know from the picture it is a NSW ute but if you want to buy my BF 6sp auto XR6 which I traded (on BF Tornado) in melbourne, it was still available at New Oak Ford for $36K so I reckon $33 would buy it. It has only done 13000km and was the best new ford I have ever bought (and I have had plenty) Only reason I bought it instead of the Tornado in the first place was because I could not get a 6sp auto Tornado when BF first came out. It didn't even have a scratch on the spoiler when I traded it so it would suit a new buyer. Sport.

I have had BA I auto, BFXR 6sp auto, and now BF F6 6sp auto. I understand that some people just want a manual but definitely don't buy a manual in any model until you drive the F6 in 6sp auto. You will do better times in the auto if that's you thing. My Tornado is the best thing I have ever owned and one of the best things I have ever driven & I have driven all sorts of cars from porsches to maseratis, which are fun but what the F6 6sp auto has is just sustained pulling power and I can only dream about how it would be with a stage 2 Nizpro. Please consider. Sport

Hi LTS60, You mentioned you didn't get the camber kit from Pedders. Before you decide to, have a good look as I am on my 5th XR / Tornado ute now and the have al had a kit fitted standard. How you tell if you have a kit is simply look at the 4 upper control arm mounting bolts on the inside of the spring tower and if you can see about 10 -12mm of thread protruding past the nut, then your car has a kit. Standard cars only have a few mm protruding. Hope this helps & saves you a few bucks. Sport.

I have lowered both my BF XR6T ute and now my BF Tornado (using the lowered gear out of my XR6T) Both the XR & the Tornado were the same height standard (which surprised me as I thought a std Tornado would be lower than the XR but not so) & they are obviously the same height lowered as I just tranferred the XR gear. The heights are as follows: Std front = 365 (cenrte of wheel to gaurd) Low front = 340 Std Rear = 395 Low Rear = 365 The springs are Kings and the rear "inverted eye leaf" super low was initially 350 - 355 when I first installed the so I had them taken out & set a bit higher (365) The only thing I notice with this set up is that the King coils on the front are a bit stiffer than standard from a body roll point of view and the rear is a bit softer than standard so I can feel the rear roll more than the front. I am going to fit a 27mm bar to the front & 20mm to the rear (any comments re bars on utes welcome) Also, when you fit the softer riding king leaf to the back of the utes it really exposes the inadequacies of the std rear shocks so I fitted Bilstein... Brilliant.

Sure are some good deals around for the seasoned negotiator who understands the way the car dealers think. I just bought Tornado in ego, 19" wheels & 6sp auto for $51000 drive away & traded BF XR6T 6sp auto for $34500 which was ok given I only paid $39500 for it 10 months ago. Only reason I didn't buy Tornado in the first place was I couldn't get auto so bought XR6T. In the end I am $2000 better off having bought Tornado now at the runout price than I would have been when they came out even factoring in the loss on the trade in. The BF XR6T in auto was a great ride but the auto Tornado is "awsome" Just curious and have read some threads on the subject but am just wondering if fitting 27mm & 20mm Whiteline to front & rear of ute will cause understeer in wet or greasy conditions. Would love to flatten out a little but not if compromises certain situations - have already lowered 25mm front & 35mm rear. Thanks Sport.

With Ford running BF series 1 out at the moment and the intro of VE Bommodore, you can do a good deal. Eg Torado, Ego, 6sp auto & 19" (no premium sound, hard cover or leather all of which I didn't want anyway) $51500 drive away.

I can answer many of your concerns as I am on my 5th Xr now (BF Tornado) Don't spray with wet lube as it will attract dirt and cause "inter leaf wear" but can spray with dry Moly spray. If you have Kings, the noise is most likely coming from the small metal strap that is wrapped around the spring pack. If you have a close look you will see where it has been rubbing on the edge of the spring leaves. What I have done on last two utes is to have the springs taken back out (would be easier to do it prior to installing) get the metal band opened up and have a teflon or eurethane sleeve fitted over the metal strap and then close the strap back up and they stay quiet for a long time (upto 35k - 40k which is when I trade them in) Hope this helps. Sport

The Ferodo 2500 sound great. Do they wear the rotors excessively and do they create brake dust or metal dust ??

I may be able to help with the Brembo pad / disc issue having used these brakes for some years now. Yes you can buy Brembo pads cheaper that ford spares and yes the pads and discs will both last about 35K and require replacement. I have just bought another Tornado and if you check with 2 of the best performance brake suppliers in the country (Race Brakes or Cebco in Melbourne) they will confirm these wear rates. The solution is to do what I have done and that is to change your pads the day you pick your car up with "Race Brakes" pad number HB193 RB24 (4 pot). These will cost you $120 a set and will give you a very slight increase in braking performance and your discs will possibly outlast your car. Anyone who still wants a set of brand new "Brembo" 4 pot pads, I have a set that have done 71Km from new. Make me an offer.

I have a BF 6sp auto and it works differently the my last 4 sp auto. As a result, I hit 1st gear at about 70km/h and bounced off the rev limiter twice. Since then I get a slight vibration under hard acceleration. Could this be a slightly bent rod. My turbo is "stock as a rock". Sport.