SVT being scalled back, not dead

I heard about it yesterday, thats awsome.

Despite Mark Fields statement to the press, SVT as we knew it is still dead. Putting an "SVT" badge on a vehicle (the wheels in the case of the GT500) means nothing more these days than getting an "XLT" badge on the back of your Explorer. It's a badge that does not mean what it used to mean when SVE/T was physically present.

SVT engineering has been dispersed, SVT marketing is dead - but Ford still understands the power of the brand. The Shelby Mustang will continue to be engineered by the Mustang group (like any other special model), and the upcoming F150 will be engineering by the truck group.

And that's exactly the way it needs to be. SVE/T "engineering" has been a disaster over the past 13 years. As the cars got more and more complicated - further away from their siblings - their engineering quality because progressively worse and worse. Testing time was rushed or squeezed down to the bare minimum in order to get models out the door and make assembly line schedules. Durability testing was clearly cut to almost nil (overheating Cobras were the rule for their entire run - getting progressively worse until the last bunch couldn't be driven hard in hot climates for an extended period of time). Bushings fell apart, transmissions lost synchros. And the Ford GT was the absolute worse debacle of the bunch ($19,000 dollars of fixes per vehicle, including the crankshaft "diaper").

So while a lot of Ford-heads will make a loud noise this week when they see Mark Fields statement... forget about it. Those of us who have driven our SVTs into premature failure will be glad to know that Mustang and F-150 engineering is handling all of the development and all of the testing. Perhaps - BIG PERHAPS - future enthusiast versions of those cars will be able to be driven hard in hot southwestern climates (just getting home at night would be nice), much less at the roadrace track on track days (even SVT's own Ford GT couldn't survive it's own weak-kneed track events).

But, then, there is another problem: Ford product development has all but forgotten true enthusiasts - people who like to turn their cars rather than just drive them in a straight line. The Mustang Cobra was chopped from the product plans last November by Fields personally, and the upcoming "sporty" F-150 with the SVT logo on the wheels won't be anything like the Lightning prototype from 3 years ago. So this is the next problem with Ford. And it's yet another problem that neither Mark Fields nor Bill Ford Himself has an answer for.

well it will be interesting to see what they come up with in the next few years.

I'm not even gonna comment. I guess owning a BM Trouble-U gives people the right to become snooty and be a troll in Mustang forums, badmouthing every new thing that comes out.

I'm not even gonna comment. I guess owning a BM Trouble-U gives people the right to become snooty and be a troll in Mustang forums, badmouthing every new thing that comes out.

Go ahead and remain a mindless sheep propelled by blind brand loyalty. Ford would love to have your money.

Ford has a bad habit of not learning enough from the past. The SVO is another example that directly influenced the SVT program. However he situation was the reverse back then. Ford's Special Vehicles Operations had a great car when it was ready for production and it only got better after mid-1985. The problem was poor design budgeting and most of all MARKETING. The car cost 40% more than a Mustang GT and worse yet, dealer's weren't making much effort to sell them. They used the enthusiast-oriented SVO to make sells on cheaper GTs. With the disbanding of the SVO team in the late '80s, SVT was formed in '93. With lessons learned from the SVO experience, marketing was taken care of. However, like 01L2Cobra said, marketing replaced quality control. Now Ford has dropped the quality part altogether and is just using the name.

This whole dissolution of SVT has been in the back of my mind for a while, as well as the recent big plant shutdown and the worsening cluelessness among Ford general management. I'm also unimpressed with the new Mustang. If Ford can't offer something attractive in the next few years, I simply won't consider them an option.

I'm not even gonna comment. I guess owning a BM Trouble-U gives people the right to become snooty and be a troll in Mustang forums, badmouthing every new thing that comes out.
Reread the 4th paragraph. I think this could end up being a good thing if it is done right. The errors of the past such as the cooling issues on all the previous Cobras could now be solved since the division that designs the base car would now be responsible for the SVT product. This means that any future “SVT” would be planned from the inception rather than by a separate division with a limited developmental budget having to reinvent the wheel.