The Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) was established in 1991 to "polish the Ford oval" by creating low-volume,
factory-produced vehicles designed for those whose idea of driving is a high-powered, passionate experience – not just a
means of getting from point A to point B.
In a move to support this spirited enthusiasm, Ford Motor Company carefully integrated the wide array of talent in the
company into a small, cross-functional group of engineers, product planners and marketing people, housed together under one
roof with a common mission – to create vehicles specifically designed to meet the unique needs and desires of the
knowledgeable driving enthusiast.
The first 1993 Mustang SVT Cobra rolled off the lines in 1992. It expelled the surge and excitement that only the true
drivers can appreciate. For 1996, the Mustang SVT Cobra lost its 5.0L pushrod engine for the new technologically-advanced,
modular quad-cam 32 valve 4.6 litre 306 bhp V8 engine, each one of which is hand-built by one of twelve teams (each team
is comprised of two people) in the Romeo engine plant, prior to being mated to the rest of the car in the Dearborn Assembly
Plant in Michigan. The 96 Mustang Cobra also received the option for the Mystic color changing paint.
The names of the guys in the teams are:-
Gary Smith / Ron Anderson
Vaughn Herbert / Bob McIntyre
Ray Kohler / Doug Gageball ?
Mike Smitty / W. Kine
The aluminium cylinder heads were originally bolted onto aluminium blocks, but when Ford decided to increase the power output
from 306 bhp to 390 bhp by the addition of a supercharger, the aluminium blocks were replaced by stronger cast-iron units.
This engine is the basis for the engines being built by Sean Hyland in Canada to be used in the new MG sports car, which
after being bored out from 4.6 litre to 5.4 litre, plus fitment of a blower and nitrous injection, is reported to be good for
over 850 bhp.
Each SVT vehicle produced since the 1993 model year has been designed and developed with
the four SVT Hallmarks in mind: Performance, Substance, Exclusivity and Value. These hallmarks have driven the SVT
Mustang Cobra and Cobra R, the SVT F-150 Lightning, the SVT Contour and the SVT Focus.
Ford SVT: A near-death experience?, by Steven Cole Smith
02-03-2005
Hey! Just when we thought Ford's Special Vehicle Team was dormant for 2005 — gone, after all, is the SVT Mustang Cobra,
SVT Lightning F-150 and SVT Focus — we learn SVT has indeed been working on a product, and it's already on the market.
The 2005 SVT Power & Performance Calendar is yours for $12.95, plus $5.95 shipping and handling. The calendar, SVT says,
"makes each month a little SVT history lesson."
That's telling, because right now, we aren't sure what the future holds for SVT. Last October, word leaked that SVT had
shelved the next-generation Lightning pickup truck, which was expected in a year or so.
For now, Ford is putting all of SVT's eggs into one basket — the SVT Cobra Mustang, due in 2006 as a 2007 model.
''It's a business decision,'' said Alan Hall, SVT spokesman. The official line is the Lightning is ''postponed,''
but if it is revived, it will be 2008 or later before we see one.
This means SVT has gone from three vehicles in the 2004 model year — the Lightning, Cobra Mustang and SVT Focus — to none
in 2005, with little prospect of anything until 2006, except perhaps more calendars.
This is especially embarrassing for Ford, as it had already shown a concept version of the next-generation Lightning in
2003. The concept had a supercharged V8 engine with more than 500 horsepower, in answer to the Dodge Ram SRT-10 and its
Viper-derived V10 engine.
SVT's history dates back to 1991, when Bob Rewey, group vice president for Ford marketing and sales, and Neil Ressler,
chief technical officer, thought the company would benefit from an in-house skunkworks that would look at existing and
future products, and see if they might respond to some officially sanctioned hot-rodding. The products thus identified and
appropriately massaged could be sold at select dealers operating under the Ford umbrella — sort of how the M-models at BMW,
and the AMG models at Mercedes-Benz are marketed.
In 1992, the first SVT Cobra Mustang and SVT Lightning F-150 were introduced as '93 models. Shortly thereafter, the company
built 107 race-ready Cobra R Mustangs.
Suddenly, SVT becomes the place to work at Ford. Every engineer faced with a future of designing steering knuckles for the
Tempo applies. Few are selected. General Motors and Chrysler are very, very interested in what is going on at SVT, but can
it make money?
It can, and typically has. Not a lot, but enough to support itself, even without factoring in the halo effect for other
Ford products, the technology the SVT team helped develop that found its way to other mainstream products and the
publicity SVT generated in the buff books. The second-generation Lightning was the first pickup truck ever to dominate the
cover of Car and Driver magazine — I know, because I put it on there. SVT customers have typically been treated like valued
insiders, and they are among the most loyal devotees of any manufacturer.
Seemingly, SVT rocked along, with a few stumbles. One of them was a batch of Cobra engines that did not pump out the
advertised horsepower, but SVT did the right thing by admitting the problem, and reached out to customers who had bought
them. And the SVT Contour may not have been a big hit, but that's mostly because the Contour itself was not a big hit. Yet
one of the best used car values on the market now is an SVT Contour, if you can find one that hasn't been abused.
Some of the SVT staff was temporarily consumed with the development of the Ford GT — which probably wouldn't have had a
suitable, cost-effective engine had it not been for the work SVT had been doing on the power plant — but once the GT was
ready, we figured it was back to business as usual for SVT.
We were wrong. The SVT Focus was dropped ostensibly because the new Mazda-shared 2.3-liter four-cylinder generated
horsepower close enough to the SVT's 2.0-liter as to make the SVT model superfluous. Well, maybe. Then the Lightning and
Mustang were necessarily suspended due to the fact that both were moving to all-new platforms. Fine. It has happened before.
But then came word that Tom Scarpello, marketing and sales manager for SVT, was quietly dispatched to Jaguar. Scarpello
shared responsibility for future product planning and strategy with John Coletti, director of SVT programs, a little
bulldog of an engineer who was, more than anyone else, identified with fast Fords. In December, it was announced that
Coletti, 55, was retiring after 11 years at SVT, 33 years at Ford.
Also retiring: Chris Theodore, Ford's vice president of advanced product creation, and a staunch SVT champion. Ford
immediately named Hau Thai-Tang, chief engineer of the 2005 Ford Mustang, as Theodore's successor, and he is also taking
over SVT. Thai-Tang, however, does not get Theodore's vice president rank, even though it appears he has at least as much
responsibility. Does that suggest a reduction in importance of SVT? Not according to Thai-Tang, who has the enthusiasm,
credentials (he spent a year with the Newman/Hass CART team, and knows racing) and fresh outlook to make a difference.
Eventually.
Either way, SVT fans and owners — and, I imagine, dealers — are apoplectic. One SVT dealer has turned to Roush to fill the
performance Mustang slot that SVT once had. Dodge, which formed SRT (Street and Racing Technology) in the image of SVT
— its image aided by the presence of public relations director Todd Goyer, who held the same position at SVT — stands to
pick up some business from disconsolate Ford fans.
The man most identified with these changes is Phil Martens, group vice president for product creation. Martens is a smart
car guy with good instincts. He's understandably defensive when asked about SVT, saying essentially, but politely, that
there were internal problems that are none of my business. Other sources suggest that the SVT team was so overtaxed with
the GT project — think about how little time they had to produce a world-class sports car, and think about how they
succeeded — that other SVT projects fell behind. By the time a new Lightning would be ready, I was told, there would only
be a year or so of life left in that platform.
Martens says to expect SVT to take another long look at the Focus, and the Fusion may also be an SVT candidate. Fine. But I
wish SVT would expand its outlook. Who says SVT has to be about horsepower? How hard would it be to take a four-wheel-drive
F-150 and turn it into an exceptionally competent off-roader, and call that an SVT F-150?
It's a shame the company has botched its handling of a viable department like SVT, which — let's face it — at times has
been the only thing Ford has had to brag about these last 12 years. We'll get a look at the SVT Cobra Mustang at the New
York show, but I don't expect to hear a lot from them afterwards until next year. By then, I hope it's not too late.
