Special Vehicle Team

Infobox Organization2
name= Special Vehicle Team


size=250px
caption= Ford Motor Co. SVT Logo


msize=
mcaption=
type= Automotive
headquarters=Ford Motor Company
location=Dearborn, Michigan
president= John Plant
director= Janine Bay
executive= Robert Burnham
formation= 1993
defunct= April 1, 2006
website= www.svt.ford.com:"See also Special Vehicle Operations"Special Vehicles Team, also known as SVT, is an arm of Ford Motor Company responsible for the development of the company's highest-performance vehicles, much like Mercedes-AMG, BMW M, Chrysler's SRT division and GM's Performance Division. SVT is the successor to the SVO division.

Information

The group mainly produces specially tuned versions of Ford production vehicles such as the Lightning, which is based on the F-150 pickup, and the Mustang Cobra, which was based on the Mustang. However, they do occasionally develop models independently of the rest of the company, namely the GT supercar (developed in conjunction with Saleen). SVT was founded in 1993 by John Plant of Ford Marketing, Janine Bay of Ford Mustang Program Management, and Robert Burnham of Ford Truck Program Management. Originally known as Special Vehicle Operations, SVO developed the 1984-1986 2.3 liter turbo-charged 4 cylinder Mustang SVO, as well as marketed performance parts through dealer networks (now known as Ford Racing Performance Parts, or FRPP).

The GT supercar and the Shelby Cobra GT500 are the division's only offerings available for purchase as of June 2008. The Lightning pickup model is on temporary hiatus. The Explorer Sport Trac Adenalin was announced for official production, but was later scrapped. The only other recent model, the SVT Focus, is out of production and no replacement has been announced. Currently SVT is rumored to be designing a high performance version of the F-150 known as the Raptor. Motor Trend reports that the Raptor will not be the successor to the Lightning but will instead be a 4-wheel drive and make use of the upcoming 5.8 liter Boss engine.

VT vehicles

SVT is also credited for the following vehicles:
* 2005–2006 Ford GT
* 2007 Shelby Cobra GT500

ee also

* Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV), Ford Australia's performance car division

External links

References

*

Main

* [http://www.svtenthusiast.com SVTEnthusiast.com] SVT Owners and Enthusiasts online community
* [http://www.svtoa.ca www.svtoa.ca] SVT Of Alberta
* [http://www.contour.org Contour.org] Contour Enthusiasts Group
* [http://www.svtoa.com SVTOA.com] SVT Owners Association
* [http://www.svtregistry.com SVTregistry.com] Official SVT Owner Registry
* [http://www.austinsvt.com AustinSVT.com] Austin & Central Texas SVT Owners website
* [http://www.svtperformance.com SVTPerformance] The leading source for all SVT vehicles!