Despite the relative lack of achiever of the Mustang SVO manikin of the mid-1980s , Ford EXEC were loosely pleased with the work of their Special Vehicle Operations unit , the in - business firm performance subdivision that had create that automobile and a slew of succeed raceway cars .
By the early 1990s , however , SVO had become a victim of its own success , with too much piece of work to do and too few people to do it . consequently , Ford reorganise and refocus its performance and contender activities .
SVO would go on running corporate racing programs and develop over - the - counter swiftness division , but the task of coming up with hot limited - edition street car passed to the newly created Special Vehicle Team ( SVT ) channelize by John Plant . At about the same time , a Special Vehicle Engineering staff ( SVE ) was form to indorse both SVT and SVO .
Ford SVT Image Gallery
As one press release say it , SVT ’s mission was " to employ the well - uncommitted resource from both inwardly and outside Ford [ Motor Company ] to search new ways of creating and market eminent - performance vehicles . The cross - functional team is tear with render restrict - edition , high - execution derivative cars and truck designed to delight serious drivers …. SVT ’s refined , understated ' form follows function ' philosophical system mull our passion for multi - dimensional performance . "
Sales and service would be handled " through a select mesh of specially trained and certified Ford dealers who are disposed to satisfy separate push partisan before , during and after the sale . "
SVT unveiled its first two issue at the 1992 Chicago Auto Show . Both were early 1993 models : the SVT Mustang Cobra and a hot - pole full - size pickup , the SVT F-150 Lightning . several model - twelvemonth yield was 4993 and 5276 .
Within a year , SVT had total a racing - only Mustang Cobra roentgen , which ascertain but 107 copies . While the 240 - horsepower 5.8 - liter V-8 Lightning proceed through 1995 and another 6287 units , SVT tune up up its railway locomotive to 300 horsepower for a new SN95 - base Cobra roentgen , of which just 250 were build for ' 95 .
Then , for the next two yr , nothing . Several factors were at oeuvre . First , Plant adjourn in March 1995 , and though his replacement , Tim Boyd , made no cock-a-hoop changes to planned projects , the squad ostensibly ran into engineering delays on its next Lightning , a supercharged stormer based on the redesign ' 94 F - Series .
SVT was also busy with its first sports sedan , a tuned reading of the Euro - panache Ford Contour , for which top cheek had high sales hopes . SVT might have been create to " polish the Ford oval , " but it was also anticipate to make money , or at least interrupt even .
But the independent job was some evident muttering in the bargainer ranks . As auto and Driver reported in August 1995 , each Ford store pay a $ 4000 annual fee to be an SVT agent , not to mention investment funds in special equipment and training . Yet some dealers had bailed , in part because SVT Mustangs could n’t vie on musculus with top - tycoon , regular - production General Motors rival .
" If these dealers lose interest , Ford loses interest , " C / D intoned , " and that could imply all the SVT employee and engineers go back to designing cupholders for the Crown Victoria . "
The practiced tidings was that the SVT Contour was a sales event success , along with other models from the SVT team . Keep reading to learn how SVT advance sales ( and managed to vindicate its own existence ) .
SVT Rises, and Falls
Ford beholder were concerned that the SVT group would n’t be capable to realize its keep . It was losing the reenforcement of the dealer , and if the squad could n’t at least give out even financially , Ford was potential to cut it loose .
Happily for Ford fans , that did n’t happen . The SVT Contour , appear on cue for 1998 , was a fair commercial-grade success with 11,445 cut-rate sale through poser - year 2000 , after which Ford canceled the Contour itself .
The Lightning became even more pop once it got a especially built 5.4 - cubic decimeter supercharged V-8 . The 360 - horsepower 1999 - 2000 variant attract 8966 purchaser ; even happy were the 11,107 ethnic music who bought the 380 - H.P. 2001 - 02 .
Meanwhile , the SVT Cobra became a lasting and , yes , profitable part of the Mustang line , a simoleons - and - butter mannikin to rival the Lightning in yearly cut-rate sale , monetary return , and publicity value . For 2002 , the team stepped into the youthful , fast - growing " variation compact " market with the SVT Focus .
By that point , SVT was under the enthusiastic command of John Coletti , who had led the 1994 SN95 Mustang computer program . assist him were principal technologist Mike Zevalkink , who ’d been powertrain manager for SN95 , and marketing and sales managing director Tom Scarpello .
When SVT punctuate its 10th birthday as part of Ford ’s 2003 centenary , it had build up over 100,000 vehicles , no mean feat for what remain a small part of a bad corporation . " Ten years and we ’re just picking up speed , " Coletti said at the time . " You have n’t insure half of what we can do . "
shortly after unveiling the 2003 - 2004 advance Mustang Cobra and a sweet little SVT Focus , SVT and Ford Racing ( née SVO ) were rolled into a young Ford Performance Group .
But then the landscape painting changed once again . give grave responsibilities in the development of the midengine Ford GT , SVT ’s speech of product to the showroom ground to a hitch .
Ford ’s next high - performance headliner , the 2006 Mustang Shelby GT500 envision peripheral SVT intimacy but , tellingly , was offered through all 3,900 Ford dealers , not just the old SVT - certify electronic internet .
For those smashing enough to notice , Ford ’s First State - accent of its SVT arm was discernible as early as 2004 , when the promised 500 - horsepower SVT Lightning cartridge was killed . Similarly , the Sport Trac Adrenalin shown in 2005 never came to pass .
observer speculate that the melody of preparing the midengine Ford GT in time for Ford ’s centennial had amuse the lowly SVT staff ’s attention from developing other cars . Perhaps more significantly , the administrator who oversaw and supported SVT had by former 2006 shift to other responsibilities . Among them , Coletti had retired and Scarpello had moved to Jaguar .
But SVT was n’t dead . If not quite the fully independent in - house tuner that created specialised performance Cartesian product for sale under the SVT banner , its spirit lived on in such entities as Ford Racing Performance Parts , which marketed speed equipment through dealers . In ' 06 , none other than 2005 Mustang cheif engineer Hau Thai - Tang was named the new head of SVT , and while its car - cat - catering dealer web may have been stuck in neutral , if you looked closely , the proud SVT insignia was in evidence here and there on the mighty Shelby GT500 .
