Did Ford do the right thing?

Spudz27 · 31-07-2009, 12:00 AM

I know this thread might not last long but... this 888 maybe moving to Holden **** got me thinking.

Why did ford pull it's funding from 888. The team had won 3 Bathursts, a drivers championship etc. Yet they pulled funding to keep funding teams that were not representing the Ford brand as well.

I will admit I do not know the circumstances behind everything and am not pretending to know, but it just makes me wonder why.

snappy · 31-07-2009, 12:28 AM

Well what ive read in the paper over the last couple of days , was that ford was scaleing back funding and the main reason 888 was not backed was because of the red vodafone car it is holdens colours and that the sponsers look did not reprissent the ford product

Spudz27 · 31-07-2009, 12:49 AM

if that be the case pretty petty considering 888's success. I always refer to them as 888 falcon. Never once have I gone "oh that is holdens colours" never. To me it is just vodafones colour scheme.

Mark s · 31-07-2009, 01:02 AM

Well in my opinion it was to be more than we can see.

Roland Dane from what I can imagine would have alot of demands from Ford. Reading from other forums, he was looking to buy HRT many years ago and Briggs was the only option. I think with 888 also having ties with Vaxhaul in the UK, Holden may have been the option to go for.

This is just my opinion. Maybe Ford expected certain things from it's sponsered teams and maybe Roland Dane and 888 were not one to meet the demands. Maybe they also made threats to move to Holden prior if demands were not meet.

Maybe Ford felt it was a waste to put further funds into a team that might walk away and thus put money into SBR (who have remained loyal) and the factory team in FPR.

Again these are just my views and many people have been quick to blame Ford and bash the company. I am sure there were reason behind the scenes, why Ford dropped sponsership.

Crap happens, lets get over it and enjoy our Fords.

To me the ultimate would be Holden getting sold off to some Indian/Chinese company and funded ceases due to no interest in motorsport.

Buzz Box · 31-07-2009, 01:08 AM

Well the question is as the most successful team with multiple wins they will be getting plenty of sponsorship dollars so from Fords perspective why would you support someone who is rolling in money when you have 10 other fords that are struggling that need the money.

Either way 888 would be driving Fords and advertising for them and they would get some support through shells etc but wouldn't you want 1-2-3 at every race as opposed to 1, 1, 1 kinda thing?

HSVKILLA · 31-07-2009, 06:37 AM

Well i heard comments quite a few times about how red the cars were from people that follow the v8's and others that only watch the enduros and some hated it,some even thought it was a holden(this was from people that don't watch or follow the v8s much)i personaly never thought to much about it but it makes a lot of sense to seperate yourself from team colours such as hrt,and trust me i even heard "awesome holden won bathurst,go holden"?????

: .So i can see why it was a lot to do with the colouring cause some of the public are just dumb s*&ts.

**Falcon Coupe** · 31-07-2009, 06:52 AM

http://fordforums.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=49