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Ford kills SVT - 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang to be performance division's swan song

Ford kills SVT - 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang to be performance division's swan song

Posted Mar 8th 2006 7:00AM

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Inside Line has the skinny on something that will bring tears to the eyes of many a high-performance enthusiast... the end of SVT as we know it is close at hand. Stephen Cole Smith of Inside Line predicted such a fate for Ford's in-house skunkworks, and on on April 1, 2006 he'll be proven right.

According to Cole, as of this moment SVT's PR/marketing staff, engineering staff, dealer network, press fleet and events trailer (all exclusively dedicated to the division) have been dismantled. The 2007 Shelby Cobra-badged Mustang will be the last vehicle to be developed, start to finish, by the SVT program. If anything, Cole says, we might get a vehicle with an SVT-tuned suspension. Maybe.

RIP SVT

(Thanks to Hank for the tip)

Category: Motorsports, Performance

Tags: Blue Oval, BlueOval, Cobra, Ford, Mustang, Special Vehicles Team, SpecialVehiclesTeam, SVT

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44 Comments

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DDOUGLASINC

FORD IS NOT STOPING SVT IT IS ALL A LIE!!!!!
I KNOW I WORK FOR FORD MOTER CO.

May 20 2006 at 6:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mustang kid

the 07 is sweet but it should be named the same as the old shelby gt 500

April 03 2006 at 5:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Thomas

I have a '98 Cobra convertible. That model came with leather seats, but in the south, jumping into leather seats with shorts on after the car sits top-down in the summer can cause pain. I wanted cloth seats. I called SVT and they provided me the codes to order the car the way I wanted. As far as I know, it's the only '98 Cobra with cloth.

In chatting with the SVT guy, I mentioned that I had driven Mustangs since '66 and was one of many to petition Ford to not sell what became the Probe as a Mustang. A few weeks later, I got my letter back with a big "thanks" note on it from Team Mustang.

SVT was a small company within the big company and gave small company service. Ford can build all the performance cars they want, but they can never replicate that personal service again. Try getting an option override out of the Ford bureacracy!

March 24 2006 at 9:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mitch Simmons

Ford dealerships are now charging $20,000+ over
MSRP for the 07 Cobra. You can add price gouging
to the long list of reasons why Ford is losing money.
I think I will wait for the 08 Challenger.

March 23 2006 at 10:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jim

Killing SVT makes no sense, not surprising given all the stupid decisions Ford has been making lately. Even if they only broke even it's worth keeping them around. Over the last 13 years SVT has built a reputation of admiration and respect among enthusiasts, people who like to spread their enthusiasm around, how can you put a price on that? Any SVT vehicle automatically commands a higher resale value, why through all this away?
As the owner of two SVT products and a stock holder I am truly pissed!

March 14 2006 at 10:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Barber

For those of you who think this is an April Fools joke, you are most likely wrong. If it is a joke, than this would be one of the WORST decisions Ford has ever made...

March 12 2006 at 1:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dundonrl

I'm glad that I had the chance to own 2 of SVT's wonderful products, a 97 Pacific Green Cobra coupe and currently a 03 Silver Metallic Cobra Coupe. I don't plan on getting rid of the Terminator anytime soon(maybe when they pry it from my cold dead hands)

March 10 2006 at 2:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

I was speaking with an SVT rep yesterday and this is no april fools joke .. they even answer the phone "Ford Performance" rather than the "Ford SVT" like they used to. As the owner of two of their products it truely saddens me to see this happen but then .. they will be merged into Ford Performance so perhaps all is not lost ...

Cheers, RDJ
AL-Taqqadum Iraq

March 10 2006 at 6:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

This is just too unbelievable for words to describe. I can't believe they would let this division die. It has to be worth having around for marketing alone. I cant remember when Ford got more free advertising then when the GT500 was unveiled.

March 09 2006 at 10:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Slavi

the only SVT im going to miss would have to be the lightning, but hey what can you say? drive it like a Ford :)

March 08 2006 at 11:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply