Dana, Delphi and Ford SVT

[StanAE86]

Dana and Delphi:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186738,00.html

Ford SVT:

Ford doesn't see a way forward for SVT
Orlando Sentinel 03/02/06

Quietly, Ford Motor Co. has been dismantling SVT -- the Special Vehicle
Team -- and sources inside the company suggest that as of April 1, SVT,
as we've known it since 1992, will cease to exist.

SVT has had no dedicated products since 2004. A high-performance version
of the Sport Trac, called the Adrenalin, was shown at the New York Auto
Show in March 2005. At a preview for journalists, SVT director Hau
Thai-Tang said that the Adrenalin is going to turn the
performance-vehicle market upside down when it goes on sale as a 2007
model. Then, last month, the Adrenalin was canceled as part of Ford's
Way Forward restructuring campaign. The Ford GT supercar, which was
developed largely by SVT engineers but was not called an SVT model, will
end production later this year.

A new Shelby Cobra GT 500 Mustang is due later this year as a 2007
model. But it will be offered to all 3,900 Ford dealers, instead of
SVT's network of roughly 600 dealers.

SVT was founded in 1991 by Robert Rewey, Ford's vice president for
marketing and sales, and Neil Ressler, Ford's chief technical officer.
The idea was that SVT would consist of a small group of engineers,
designers and marketing professionals who would work inside Ford to
build and sell high-performance versions of existing products. SVT also
set up a separate dealer network, signing up Ford dealers that had an
interest in selling performance products.

In 1992, the first two SVT products were launched: The 1993 F-150
Lightning pickup, and the 1993 Mustang Cobra. In 1997, the SVT Contour
was introduced, and in 1999, the second-generation Lightning went on
sale. In late 2001, the '02 SVT Focus went on sale. By 2004, when
production of the Lightning, Mustang Cobra and SVT Focus ended, the
company had sold about 145,000 SVT products.

It's likely that Ford will continue to produce special-edition models of
several vehicles, but they will not be sold through SVT channels.