Here in America, Ford’s performance car interests are looked after by the Special Vehicles Team, or SVT. In Australia, where Ford also builds and sells cars, there is not SVT. Rather there is Ford Performance Vehicles, better known as FPV, which takes common Ford cars and turns them into performance beasts.

So this bit of news caught us a bit off guard. Carscoop reports that Ford Australia will now be buying a majority stake in FPV vehicles from its partner, ProDrive, meaning FPV is now fully engulfed into the FoMoCo fold.

Ford Performance Vehicles, as it turns out, was initially founded as a joint venture between Ford Australia and Tickford Vehicle Engineering way back in 1991. In 2002, British motorsports company ProDrive bought Tickford, at which point Ford Performance Vehicles was born out of a partnership between Ford Australia and ProDrive. Ford Australia was given a 49% stake, while ProDrive had the remaining 51%.

ProDrive recently decided to exit the performance car market however, and Ford Australia has agreed to step in and carry on the FPV legacy after 2012. That is welcome news for Ford fans in the Land Down Under, a brief respite from other unwelcome stories like Ford ending manufacturing in Aussie, and perhaps ending production of the beloved Falcon as well.

So FPV will love on…but for how long? What else do they have planned?