| The Shelby Cobra GT500 Development Team |
Phil Martens
Ford Group Vice President, Product Creation
"SVT is recognized throughout the industry as a brand of high performance products that are foremost great performers but also affordable. SVT vehicles have been, and will continue to be, an important part of our overall product portfolio. The Shelby Cobra GT500 and Sport Trac Adrenalin were developed with SVT core values in mind and hint at future possibilities.
"We have a very clear view of what we want to do. We absolutely have to retain our leadership in performance vehicles. It's part of Ford's performance culture. This includes looking beyond traditional SVT products for opportunities with unique performance enhancers like the Adrenalin's all-wheel-drive system - features that can help differentiate our products.
"We can draw heavily on experience learned from developing the Ford GT, as well as from our racing experience, to take SVT to the next level. By bringing SVT into the mainstream of product development, performance products will benefit from parallel development with the conventional model plan, rather than sequential development after the mainstream vehicle is launched."
Hau Thai-Tang
Director, Advanced Product Creation and SVT
"SVT is the longest-running, best-selling, most-successful domestic performance group in history. To continue that legacy, we will deliver new products that adhere to the SVT core values of performance, substance, exclusivity and value. Our goal is to make SVT the center of performance engineering excellence at Ford. We also will continue to strengthen our unique, personalized connection with our customers to help drive product decisions."
"That goal is evident in one of my first assignments at SVT: Overseeing the development of the Shelby Cobra GT500 and the Sport Trac Adrenalin, both of which establish new benchmarks in their segments. And I had thought being the chief engineer on the 2005 Mustang development team was a dream job!"
Like many SVT engineers, Thai-Tang uses skills developed during his Ford Racing engineering rotation to improve on production programs like the 2005 Mustang and other SVT products:
"I'd say the experience and skills that a Ford engineer gains as a member of a racing program can pay big dividends when it comes to working on a production-vehicle program. The high-pressure racing environment - like I experienced with the Newman-Haas CART racing team - teaches engineers to work in a disciplined manner and to supplement subjective driver's impressions with objective test data. Do it successfully, and the result is a car that's extremely satisfying to drive."
CARROLL SHELBY
Some things were just made to go together: Hot rodding and a '32 Ford; cruising and Detroit's Woodward Avenue; Carroll Shelby and the Ford Mustang.
"Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working with several manufacturers in the development of some great automobiles. But my energy and passion for performance products has always been at its peak when it involved a Ford Motor Company vehicle - and that's especially true now with the new GT500.
"This concept is a true throwback to the original GT500s. The look and personality really comes through - right down to the big-block-like power and performance. I couldn't be more proud to have another opportunity to recreate history.
"This is an exciting time for Mustang and Ford SVT fans. If we were designing the GT500 today from scratch, this is the way it would look and feel by today's standards."
Keith Rogman
Senior Designer, Mustang
"When we set out to design the 2005 Mustang, no one said to take the 1967 and put it on the copier. We knew it was necessary to cradle the car's heritage, to capture the essence of the brand, so the classic design was a starting place - not the target we wanted to hit."
Rogman's design efforts have been instrumental in shaping the new Mustang. He had sketched the Mustang GT concept, which is a precursor to the GT500. He also designed the Mustang GT-R concept, which made a dramatic debut at the 2004 New York Auto Show and inspired the Shelby concept's front-end styling. So he was the go-to guy when it came time to pen a new high-performance Shelby variant to Ford's successfully reborn muscle car.
"Much like the 2005 Mustang, we wanted to capture the essence of the '68 Shelby Mustang in the GT500. That car's design was a grand slam, so we didn't want to totally reinvent it - or screw up what is a magical brand to enthusiasts. Like with Mustang, we wanted people to look at it and say, 'That's a Shelby,' as if time had defined what that should look like."
Because Shelby's racing Mustangs had much the same look as his street versions - right down to the racing stripes - Rogman knew that the GT-R concept possessed just the right "aggressive race car" attitude that would work well for the GT500. "And when we blended it with traditional SVT styling cues, such as the round foglamps in the lower fascia, the air extractor on the hood and integrated rear decklid spoiler - we felt we had been true to the heritage of both of these strong Ford performance brands. Consequently, we think we've designed a performance Mustang that bridges both eras - one that will appeal to the Shelby Mustang fan and the SVT Cobra enthusiast as well."
When asked how to best describe the GT500s visual strengths, Rogman says, "It's the 'wow' factor. If it makes potential customers say, 'Wow, I want that, I've gotta have one!' - then we've succeeded
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