Kieron said:
I understand what your saying HSE, so i'll try to answer some of your post below -
Regarding taking Ford points of one another - the championship is a drivers championship, you can win it by not even winning a race, this almost happend when DJ was running the sole competitive Falcon back in the early 80's, he only won one race and that was due to Moffats Mazda failing iirc, I would also add that Fords total lack of Motorsport involvement in the 80's is directly responsible for the 'oldy' image the Falcon has had over the last few years.
Kieron [/B][/QUOTE]
Our problem in the early part of the season was that Ford had 3 or 4 race wins and were sixth in the championship. The teams were either not consistant or reliable. You won't win a title like that. We already had that insurance in place and it didn't help. There is a number that you need and like any insurance you can go over board.
Kieron said:
Now 'insurance in numbers' gives FoMoCo a much greater chance of a Falcon winning on race day, especially the prized Bathurst, look at HRT, first time they have won Bathurst for years, 3 other Holden teams have kept the Holden flag flying at Bathurst, the advertising says Holden Wins Bathurst again, rather than HRT
and/or HSV wins Bathurst.
Kieron [/QUOTE
Bathurst isn't a good example to use although arguable it is the race that will give you the biggest image boost in the market sector.
How many championship titles have HSV won and how many titles have other Holden teams won in the last ten years!
I am telling you now the other Holden teams make up a very small but very important part of Holdens domination image
Kieron said:
Fords target market at the moment is the younger market who will one day buy a Ford/Holden, I think from Fords point of view, they want to make sure these youngsters see a Falcon take as many race wins as possible, ie the public sees many Falcon wins on the Sunday rather than a handful of wins by one Falcon who map happen to win the Drivers Championship.
The Tickford wings - Ford are in fact trying to market Ford via the Falcon here hence the large Ford ovals on the FTR/GMS cars and the use of 'Falcon' wording on the Ford backed Falcons and the increased Falcon wording on the GMS car, don't forget the Lion on the HRT car isn't a HSV logo, its of course the equivelent of the Ford Oval, I don't even think HSV is mentionted on the HRT cars?
Now once they have got us hooked on the Brand, we will of course espire to buy the 'winged' performance version's, although in my case i've had to go thru a few Mustangs, Euro Capris, LTD's etc to get there
It would be good if David Flint or Geoff Polites popped in and set us straight here
Kieron [/B]
Hmmmmmmmmmmm
Good luck on that.
At one stage in the championship this year Ford as a group had outperformed Holden, but Holden held the first five spots on the championship ladder.
There is no manufactures title so as you point out it only takes one consistent driver and you have your champion. We could be looking at up to 15 ford supported falcons with no factory tag.
Ford are not back in motorsport until they reinstate the offical factory team. Everything else is window dressing. Last weeks Auto Action called for the very same.
There is a misconception that FTR is factory. It has been that way for 2 years and no attempt to inform the public seems to have worked. It is the young market that this misconception is more common.
The problem here is that Holden have a factory team, Ford don't. simple as that.
No arguement that Ford are trying to lift the image of Falcon.
You don't need to have Falcon pasted on the side of a car. Blind freddy can see that it is a Ford Falcon XR model on the track. That goes without saying.
The only reason that Falcon appears on the cars is that the teams don't carry enough sponsors to take the space!
However and I will say this again, when you introduce the word Tickford to a race product your marketing HAS to CHANGE.
You say ford want to get people first into Ford products and then move to the performance arena. It has been the sales of the HSV and SS type cars that have hurt Ford the most.
This is Holden thinking. "Perform on the race track, create an image of being a winner. Make people want to aspire to the very best. Then you have sales through associasion. I cant' afford that HSV this time but that is where I want to be so there is no point starting with a Forte is there"
If you don't think HSV is on the HRT cars you had better take another look. The racing lion is the emblem of HSV. The lion is the emblem of Holden.
We are talking about two issues.
I agree with part of what your saying. Lifting the image of falcon is important, but you don't do that at the expense of a brand name like Tickford. You don't go out and try and sell a Forte at the expense of an XR.
Now alot of this is going to be void when the next Falcon comes along.
Put simply YOU DO NOT HAVE A BRAND NAME LIKE TICKFORD ASSOCIATED WITH POOR PERFORMANCE. Regardless of anything else it is that simple. If that means dropping two teams from an already crowded field then so be it.