Spurned team doing some Ford thinking

Craig Lowndes' Team Vodafone is considering the extraordinary step of not calling its cars Fords in next year's V8 Supercar series despite them being predominantly Falcons.

As the fallout from Ford stripping its sponsorship from the championship-chasing outfit continues, Team Vodafone is believed to be working on ways it can cut Ford out of the naming rights equation entirely.

Team boss Roland Dane has already been in talks with Holden and Toyota with a view to one of them backing his team from 2010.

But while Team Vodafone is certain to run Falcons next year - locked in by Lowndes' contract with Ford and the fact they have already two nearly complete race cars built for 2009 - they will try not to refer to them as Fords.

"Our FG (Falcon) race cars are further along than anyone else's for next year. But at the end of the days it's a chassis, it's a set of body panels. We've done all the engineering underneath," Dane said.

After Ford's cost-cutting this week which resulted in his team losing sponsorship from the carmaker from next year, Dane has been busy this weekend exploring options elsewhere.

Dane spoke at length with Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara.

He has also admitted to regular talks with Toyota as to whether it would enter the sport as a third manufacturer.

That possibility is growing by the day.

Adding a cashed-up newcomer is gathering support along the grid and higher up the motorsport food chain as Holden and Ford reel from the world economic slowdown, skyrocketing fuel prices and the effect on big car sales.

Even though Toyota builds front-wheel-drive cars as opposed to the rear-wheel-drive Commodores and Falcons, the current V8 Supercar operation manual allows any Australian-made five-litre car, of which at least 25,000 are manufactured, to compete.