Ford Australia’s Broadmeadows factory on Sydney Road in Melbourne’s northern industrial precinct will make cars again.
Blue bloods who lament the demise of the Falcon and Territory in late 2016 will see the high-performance Mustang R-Spec built by Herrod Performance in a section of the old Ford heartland.
Revealed over the Bathurst 1000 weekend and driven around Mount Panorama by Australian Touring Car Championship legend Dick Johnson, the Mustang R-Spec is part of a multi-million dollar project between Ford Australia and Rob Herrod.
It’s expected 500 Mutang R-Specs, featuring Ford’s 500kW Coyote V8 with supercharger, will be built by as many as 30 recruited assembly line staff, and delivered to showrooms in 2020.
“We’re starting production in late January and will be running through to June next year,” Herrod reveals to Carsales.
He promises to “ramp up to six cars a day” and describes the business partnership to use the defunct Broadmeadows facilities as “a low-risk solution”.
“I don’t have to build a whole new facility; it is already there,” he says.
Each car gets a unique “build book” documenting its manufacturing process and Herrod says “There will be six works stations and a team of about eight people to build a car over two weeks.”
“This is the highlight of my career,” he adds.
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