Ford's new Birds of Prey

While the theme over at Holden, Toyota and Mitsubishi was all-wheel drive, the Blue Oval pooled its resources readying a line-up of performance machines for the Sydney Motor show.

Granted, the R7 made an appearance, but one would have to assume that it was not to gauge public reaction.

Showcased earlier in 2002, at the Melbourne Motor Show in March, the R7 is indeed headed to production and is a likely candidate to kick-start Ford Australia's export plans.

But more than anything else, power was the theme linking the exciting models on display at the FoMoCo exhibit, with the Ford GT and Pursuit Utes sitting atop the food chain.

• Falcon GT: 4 door muscle car

• Focus ST170: 3 door performance hatch

• Falcon XR8: 4 door performance sedan

But let's not forget the importance of Ford's new XR8 model either, which will not only poo all over the VY SS, but will compete with HSV's Clubsport and Maloo models.

Also of importance to Ford is the newly formed Ford Performance Vehicles group, which just happens to be the only company assembling V8 engines in Australia.

Initially, the production facility will build the Boss 260 for the Falcon XR8 and Boss 290 for the GT, GT-P and Pursuit models. Notice the word initially was used? Let's just say that the Blue Oval has other things in store for its hi-tech Vee-Eights...

Of course, Ford also showed off some amazing displays, with Falcons cut in half, showing off the sophisticated internals of the new BA, plus the new PG Courier also popped in.

The BA Falcon racecar, first seen at Bathurst, also made an appearance. With perhaps one of the fatest rear wings in the history of motorsport (it's the widest part of the car), the new Falcon V8 Supercar makes quite an impression.

The Focus range drew a lot of attention too, with the ST170 looking like a serious hot-hatch contender. With the current 2.0-litre king - Renault's Clio Sport - offering amazing handling and acceleration, the new ST170 Focus and Peugeot 206 GTi 180 are sure to give the Renault a fright. Let's just hope the pricing is competitive.

Like Holden, Ford offered a customisation system for its large cars and utilities. At the top of the re-vamped options list is the latest in digital technology with the new Rear Entertainment Xtreme (REX) in-car entertainment system.

Costing $3165 (RRP), it features a roof-mounted 17.3cm anti-glare screen and plays DVDs, CDs, VCDs and CD-Rs through the vehicle audio system, or via groovy infrared headphones.

The Sydney Motor Show also signals the release of a rather spiffy body-kit for the BA sedan range, designed in-house by Ford's Design Studio. Costing $2185 (RRP), the price tag includes an exterior body styling kit (front, rear & side skirts) and a high-arched spoiler.

But Falcon Ute buyers aren't left out either - they now have the option of a colour-coded hard tonneau for their Style Side Box XL or XLS.

Fully lockable, the $1695 (RRP) hard tonneau was previously only available on the high performance XR8 Pursuit 250 Ute and can be dressed up with a hard tonneau spoiler for an additional $585. Nice.

At the end of the day, the Ford exhibit didn't offer anything dramatically new or radical. Even so, the plan of attack at Ford seems to be working well, and we'll know early next year if the new BA, with its flagship GT model, can take a chunk out of Holden's sales dominance.