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U.S.A.:Ford to drop SVT Focus, suspend performance lineup

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#1 ·
By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News

DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. is killing its high performance SVT Focus coupe next year and suspending production of the entire Special Vehicle Team lineup for the 2005 model year, the company said Friday.

"It will hurt us," said Dean Sellers, general manager of Dean Sellers Ford in Troy. "But it won't be devastating."

Ford's next scheduled model year for SVT products will be 2006. But its lineup - the Mustang Cobra and F-150 Lightning - will be based on new platforms and offer increased levels of performance.

John Coletti, SVT's chief engineer, said the 2006 Lightning will be powered by an engine similar to the one featured in the 500-horsepower Ford GT, which debuts next year.

Other possibilities include supercharged versions of the Mercury Marauder and Lincoln Navigator, a Mustang with a V-10 and a turbocharged Focus.

In 2005, Ford plans to introduce the Focus ST, which stands for street tuned. It offers slightly less horsepower than the SVT Focus -- 155 compared with 170. But it will have more torque and likely cost less.

Angelo Giordimaina, general sales manager of McLaughlin Ford in Royal Oak, said lease and insurance rates on the SVT Focus were alienating some buyers.

Since its introduction as a 2002 model, about 4,500 units a year have been sold. Tom Scarpello, SVT marketing and sales manager, hinted Ford expected more.

"Did it meet all its objectives? No," Scarpello said. "But the majority of them."

Since the first Cobra debuted in 1993, Ford has sold more than 135,000 SVT products.
 
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#3 ·
Thats good news for us that allready own a SVT Cobra you wait and see the tech and mod sections will light up and aftermaket products will all so. The cars will be in demand and drive the value or hold the value up. I saw it happen I was into the 300 zx twin turbo seen and because they quit buildin them my 91 with over 120,000 miles still had a street value of $8,000 selling all day long on Ebay. You wait and see if this is true but I hear they are going to crank up it up again in 2006 or 2007. You know my friend owns one of the biggest ford lincon mercury dealerships in the southeast and he stil has a over 8 2003 Cobras tat haven't sold plus the aniversiary softop I don't think the mach's are moving either. People don't know what they are missing. To change the subject has anyone seen the new Hotrod Mag. the Subura whats that fast car they have wx something you know the blue hot rod they make out did the cobra in a quarter mle run they have better gearing thats why and also they don't count for the reaction times in the Mag test the driver of the cobra could of had a slower reaction time which is very important in a drag race.
 
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