I never cared for the Lightning -- too big for my tastes. But it was very good at what Ford designed it to do.

I'd rather see an SVT Ranger with a mod V8 -- maybe the Mustang GT engine warmed over a bit.

Well what I'd really like to see is a Falcon XR-6 in this country, but that seems unlikely.

 

Anyone else find this hilarous?
It went from:
"The next L will get the Ford GT engine!! Colleti said so!!"
to
"Well, they might not use the GT engine...but they are gunna make it lighter! But that doesnt mean it wont pack more then 400hp!"
to
"PLEASE SAVE THE L!!"

Ill send in my fax....

 

Yeah. Lighter. Sure. It's not very easy to take weight out of a car. What do you do? Remove sound deadening? Make it less crash safe? The new Lightning would have been over 5000 pounds, based on the weight of the F150. And its EPA city mileage would have probably been single digits. Not great publicity for a car company trying to fight new fuel economy standards.

 

It is "ironic" to say the least but who knows, maybe that's how things really did go down at Camp Ford. To make it more feasable/profitable maybe they had to keep scaling back....until we're left with nothing. Hey you can't make a truck much lighter than when it doesn't exist.

 

Actually, according to Matt (the SVT rep who called), that is basically how it went down. All previous information came from SVT itself. The "shelving" came from Ford........... and I would suspect, from the beancounters. Beancounters can only see numbers on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, for a halo vehicle like the Lightning, paper numbers don't really tell the whole story.

We appreciate anyone, and everyones support.

Here is some updated contact information:

SVT Phone # is 1-800-367-3788
SVT fax # is: 1-313-621-2500

John Coletti's email is: jcoletti@ford.com
Tom Scarpello's email is : tscarpel@ford.com

SVT snail mail:
Ford SVT
PO Box 490
Dearborn, MI 48121

Let's make them understand what a BAD business decision it is to drop the Gen 3 Lightning!

 

Please tell me thats Colletti's real email address.

 

It should be, as many have e-mailed him already.

Al, please keep it civil. Also, please do not be the cause of him not reading relevant e-mails. I'm sure you have alot of pent up anger at him.......... but can it wait for a while longer???

 

Update !!!!

According to this website, all of SVT is at risk.......... including the next SVT Mustang.

Please help.

http://www.modularfords.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=17520

 

if that's true, and FoMoCo is serious about killing SVT for good, then honestly, that company deserves what it will get in the future...

but for some reason, i'm not convinced that's the truth yet

 

Got this from John after emailing him. Hopefully, it means something.

"I was very pleased to hear from you and I want you to know that your feedback is very important to us. But rather than go into a lot of details, just let me say, "Keep the Faith"!"

 

OMG.. that is insane.. I seriously don't think that SVT will be dropped just because of the US being in a recession. I know that even though Ford's beancounters have a final say they are not that dumb to actually kill off their performance brand.

SVT is more than just it's perf. division.. it stands for a lot more and it would be silly to think that FORD would just let it cease production of their elite models. Sure the L might be dropped from the lineup but I don't think they will stop a SVT verion of the stang especially since the last one had all the hoopla surrinding the s/c and the 04 had a mystic paint job to go with it.

I just think that some people raised the panic button too quick. I think the L will return in a few years and that SV Twill be fine but will look depeleted since the products are few right now. As time goes on and variations come out for the Five HUndred, Focus, Cobra etc. etc. that everything will return back to normal.

 

Wow. THAT sounds awful familiar...

 

Bwahahaha, yes it does!!

Ahhh, one can only hope.

 

Maybe GM will aquire Ford. j/k .

I may not own any Ford product, but I'd still hate to see SVT go away - us gearheads all bleed the same color oil at the end of the day.

 

Insane indeed, but we're not in a recession. That aside, this is very alarming. I was planning on buying a Lightning or Cobra or SE Mustang of some sort at the end of next year. I will if SVT is killed. None of this makes sense considering all of the positive news we've been hearing about SVT over the last few months I've done my part and sent in a rather large, to the point, but nice email to Mr. Coletti.

As for the "Keep the faith" statement. That's just too close to the GM statements I've heard...