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Should Ford bring back the SVT program

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Excerpt from "Team spiritless: Ford\'s SVT concept is history" by Steven Cole Smith for Edmunds. 03/06/2006 "...It appears that the balls-out effort to build the Ford GT by the company\'s 100th anniversary took its toll on the SVT staff, slowing development of more mainstream future products, such as the next-generation Lightning, an updated SVT Focus and an SVT version of the Fusion. The Ford executives who oversaw SVT, group vice presidents Steve Lyons and Phil Martens, didn\'t give SVT the resources it needed to rebuild. Martens is gone; he\'s running Plastech, a company that supplies spoilers and scuff plates and other bits and pieces to the manufacturers. And Lyons retired March 1 to move to Arizona and run a Ford dealership. Reportedly Lyon\'s replacement, Cisco Codina, likes SVT, but it\'s too late. Why Because SVT\'s top executives are gone, too. John Coletti, the bulldog engineer who was the heart and soul of SVT, retired at the end of 2004. Tom Scarpello, Coletti\'s counterpart on the marketing side, moved to Jaguar. Chris Theodore, a Ford vice president who spearheaded the Ford GT, is gone. This leaves the talented, personable Hau Thai-Tang to run SVT. Essentially, he\'s a captain without a ship. It\'s painful to see what has happened to SVT, especially when you look at the success of Chrysler\'s SRT program, which in many ways mirrors what SVT was. In the grand scheme of Ford\'s problems, botching SVT is a small one. But to enthusiasts, it speaks volumes..." Now that the Ford GT is complete, do you think there is room now to bring back the SVT program

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Contour Enthusiasts Groupmember Chris Vela. http://www.contour.org

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Full article at http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Columns/articleId=109512
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