After receiving THOUSANDS of petitions of letters from enthusiasts of all vehicle makes and models, Ford has been convinced not to pull the plug on SVT, but to put more money into the project group. Announced today:
Also effective Dec. 1, Hau Thai-Tang will assume the responsibilities of
Director, Advanced Product Creation and Special Vehicle Team (SVT). In his
new role, Thai-Tang will be responsible for directing the operations of
Ford’s Special Vehicle Team and Advanced Product Creation team. Previous to
his new appointment, Thai-Tang was Chief Nameplate Engineer for the 2005
Ford Mustang and led the development and launch of the 2001 Mustang GT,
Mustang Cobra, and Bullitt Mustang GT models. He was the vehicle dynamics
supervisor and vehicle engineering manager for the 2000 LS, that won Motor
Trend magazine’s “Car of the Year” award. Thai-Tang’s Ford experience also
includes an assignment in Germany, as well as working with Ford Racing. He
joined Ford in 1988 as a Ford College Graduate trainee.
To further strengthen SVT’s role in the company, Thai-Tang will report
directly to Martens. John Coletti continues as director of the Special
Vehicle Team and will report to Thai-Tang.
“The appointment of Hau to this role further cements the importance of SVT
to Ford,” Martens said.
“As Mustang fans now know, Hau and his team did a fabulous job bringing the
all-new 2005 Mustang to life,” Martens added. “As a youngster, Hau dreamed
of one day owning a Mustang. Not only did his wildest dreams come true, but
Hau also brought to life the dreams of Mustang fans everywhere with the
rebirth of the original Pony Car.”
Now, SVT’s current lineup
SVT NEWS -
- Organization changes -
a) John Colletti is running the Ford Racing Products group and is still in charge of the FORD GT.
- Product Changes -
a) The LIGHTNING - The project is totally dead atleast for now. Here is what happened. The new motor they were building which is a 5.4L made about 600 EHP at the Flywheel as “pullied” from the factory. They kept blowing up lots of Auto Transmissions. So the transmission put the nail in the coffin (for now). They supposedly sunk a ton of money into the overall Lightning development (not just for performance) and the people upstairs looked at the total anticipated sales of the SVT products and came up with less than 1/10 of 1 % of product sales and killed off the Lightning.
b) The COBRA - Let me clarify first. When I refer to the COBRA in this post I am not talking about the Shelby COBRA Coupe. I am talking about the follow on to the TERMINATOR.
Here is what I know about the COBRA’s configuration -
- It will not use the V-10 and it will not use the 4.6L either. They decided to use the Engine Development from the new LIGHTNING and the COBRA will have a 5.4L (around 330 cubes) topped off with a Twin Screw Blower.
- The COBRA will retain a “manual transmission” (6 speed).
- The IRS Geometry has been re-designed from the Ground up and is also alot “Stronger”. The IRS will come completely pre-assembled as far as the way the overall COBRA will be assembled.
- The cost has been kept down to around $5,000 more than you paid for your 03 - so again it is a “No Frills” car except that most of the development money was put into the Integrated design of the Engine and the IRS.
- I was told it will be come out around the middle of 06 for the 2007 model year.
- The Car will have approximately 485-525bhp
give it a year to go on the used car lot and bam ! 
