Mustang SVO at January Cars and Coffee

We’ve been a fan of the Mustang SVO all the way back: we personally witnessed Ford race them in the 24 hour endurance races in 1982 and 1983 at Nelson Ledges (read our extensive write-up here, with unique pictures from the events), and soon thereafter we bought our own off the lot. We had an event coming up in two weeks at Watkins Glen, needed a better ride than our miserable 1983 Mustang GT, and bought the SVO. At 17 thousand US dollars, it was a lot more expensive than our GT, but was track-ready with big 5-bolt disc brakes all around, good sprint rates, and adjustable Konis straight from the factory. As well as better aerodynamics, improved ergonomics, and seats with large bolsters for excellent support. It had far better brakes for track work, and didn’t require a complete rebuild before, during, and after each day of the event – as the lowly GT did with its tiny brakes. And it was faster than any V-8 Mustang thru the 1986 model year, and easily out-handled them. It was a truly modern car, and well ahead of its time. We’ve been looking for a good example to add to our collection.

So we always watch carefully for SVOs on the road and in shows. This example was being shown at the January 2013 Cars and Coffee. It was very clean and well-preserved – although unfortunately not 100% stock.

The SVO had several styling changes over pedestrian Mustangs, including the signature – and very functional – biplane rear spoiler (originally designed by Ford aerodynamicists for the Probe series of research cars). Funny story: we once had an old couple follow us into a parking lot when we were driving our original SVO in 1985 - they asked what the spoiler was and had thought it was some sort of picnic table.

Also note the side sail panel – functional, clean. The SVO engineers and stylists used the motto “form follows function” and the entire car means just that. Everything had to be functional, and function was far more important than styling.

The Mustang engine was a 200 horsepower (this in the days of 220 horsepower Corvettes!) iron and block and head  2.3 liter port fuel-injected inline 4 with vane-type airflow measurement (state-of-the-art then, before mass air became available) turbocharger and air-to-air intercooler. With architectural roots going back to the famed 2 liter 4 cylinder from Ford of Europe, and a special stronger block and internals unique to the SVO, this was a very well-built engine. If the SVO had stayed in production – meaning if Ford dealers knew how to sell it – then we would have seen a factory DOHC aluminum head in the 1987 model year. Prototypes had been built and tested!

This is an interesting car… the owner bought it just recently – with 5000 miles on it. Five Thousand. It came as shown here, with a couple of minor changes under the hood as shown. One that is difficult to see is the aluminum head. The owner hasn’t pulled the valve cover yet to see if the head also has a roller cam, but it’s likely.

The factory airbox is missing: it’s normally on the left fenderwall and draws cold air from inside the fenderwell. This example has an aftermarket filter to suck hot air from the engine compartment.

The intercooler was effective, although at certain speeds the aerodynamics sucked in air from the hood scoop and at other speeds it flowed in reverse. The improved version of this same engine used in the 1987-1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe used a larger and more effective intercooler. That part is a bolt-on mod for SVOs, and is a popular update. You’ll notice that this car is missing the front “Y” bracket.

The SVO front end was designed for aerodynamics. Government regulations didn’t allow Ford to use the intended ”aero” headlamps on the 1984 and early 1985 models… the late 1985 and 1986 models were the first to use them. The hood, fenders, and front cap were unique to the SVO, as was the entire driveline and the interior.

The 16×7 (the largest wheels available on any Mustang then) wheels were also designed for aerodynamics. 16″ inch wheels were exotic stuff back then, only the Corvette used them among American cars. That would change a year later, but was state-of-the-art then. The SVO also used state-of -the-art Goodyear tires, first sourced solely from Europe and later from America (this in contrast to the miserable Michelin TRX tires used on the Mustang GT).

The back of the SVO received unique badging and taillights. Similar taillights - but not identical – were seen several years later on the 1993 SVT Cobra Mustang.  The SVO lights were handsome, functional, and restrained. As was the entire car - it was a Mustang for more mature and sophisticated owners.

USA Today rates the Mustang SVO as one of the Top Ten Ugly Cars

And 4 of the top ten are Ford Motor Company products. While we might agree on the obese MKT, we take strong issue with the idea that the SVO was ugly at all, much less a top ten.

Mustang SVO owners and enthusiasts: time to stand up for our favorite Mustang. Go to the USA Today article and make your comments heard:  http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/02/top-10-ugly-cars-ford-mustang-taurus-accord-lincoln-mkt/1

We ask our readers: is this an ugly machine? Was Ford’s “Form follows Function” methodology ahead of its time or did it just not work?

Our opinion (as an original Mustang owner): this is the best looking Mustang from the Fox years. And the machines does indeed speak for itself.

Ford Mustang SVO Commercials

For the sake of posterity, and fans of the car (we were an orignial owner oursleves!), here are two nicely preserved commercials form Ford:

Car Lust blog covers the Mustang SVO

One of my regular reads, Car Lust, covered the Mustang SVO in a long review a few days ago that I somehow missed. It was a good article, covering all the basics of the car. But it wasn’t written by somebody who actually owned one – someone who was there at the time, spent the money, and put the miles on the car (in my case, on both the street and on roadrace tracks). So while the article was well-intentioned, the writer didn’t have the necessary perspective of having been there and done that. 

I shouldn’t even mention the comments to that article, where a couple of armchair quarterbacks commented on the SVO from the perspective of today - not the period perspective that led to the creation of the car by Ford in the early 80s, or the ownership experiences some of us had back then. And never mind the straight-liners, with their tired old claim that the V-8 GTs of that age were “faster” than the SVO. Couldn’t be more wrong, and all too typical of people who live their lives 14 seconds or less at a time (no doubt their driving lives parallel their sex lives). These were the same people who were duped by Ford into believing the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” marketing propaganda that led to essentially the same car being sold for 15 model years (Ford has only done worse with the Model T, the E-series van, and the Crown ‘Vic).

The FOX-platform Mustangs were inherently bedeviled with deficiencies and issues (thru the model year ’93). The SVO was a serious engineering attempt to fix them. Braking was improved by an order of magnitude, with large 5-lug 4-wheel discs replacing tiny 4-lug front discs and antiquated rear drums. Handling was considerably improved by using a lighter engine and improving the weight balance. The drivers “workplace” was improved by placing the shifter in the right place, and providing bolstering in the drivers seat. Attention was given to things like a baffled fuel tank, brake pad material, suspension bushings, engine cooling, pedal placement, and aerodynamics which together resulted in far better dynamics on the street and track. The interior was improved with up-market materials. The budget was limited, Ford wanted a new dashboard but couldn’t justify it just for this. Nevertheless it was a complete package of improvements, not piecemeal or a series of band-aids. The car was much better than a GT in it’s first iteration, and improved even more in it’s second.

Ford leads the way. Top: Ford's 24-hour endurance racer. Bottom: my own SVO at the 'Glen.

I was an original owner of an SVO: I bought it new, paid the big sticker price, and broke it in with a track event immediately after purchase. And I can say from putting hundreds of thousands of miles on 12 FOX Mustangs (all purchased new, all used for auto-x and track), that the SVO was far superior to the rest of them.

Back in those days I was regularly doing track events at Nelson Ledges, Watkins Glen, and other tracks in that general part of the country. Every Mustang of that age – except the SVO – required new front rotors with every track weekend at the Glen, with calipers and bearings at least every other event. After the sessions on Saturday, I’d be forced to spend my dinner time swapping parts to get ready for the Sunday sessions. And late Sunday I’d be driving home with very marginal brakes, beat to pieces because the inferior engineering of the Mustang couldn’t hold up. Miserable.

I’d had more than enough of this lousy situation, and buying the SVO solved the issue once and for all. I could enjoy driving the car down to the “Glen, where just a touch of gas while rocketing down route 14 next to Seneca Lake got me past anything in the way, without even shifting. I could actually enjoy a track weekend without bringing along a replacement set of brake pads, rotors, calipers, and bearings. And this wasn’t just putt-putting around the track in a car club lead-and-follow: this was wide open, flat out, anything the car could do with the only limit being driver experience. At the ‘Glen this meant foot to the floor thru turns 2, 3, 4 and down the back straight.  And note that the back straight in those days didn’t suffer from the restricting jog it has now – you either had the brakes to slow down enough to make the right turn down to the boot, or you crashed, or you just drove slow. This type of event separates the men from the boys: my previous (and since) FOX-bodied Mustang GTs fell on their faces while the SVO stood up to one of the toughest tracks in the country.

But there is more to my praise of the SVO than just that: I also worked as a pit marshall at these same tracks during SCCA and IMSA race weekends. I was there for two 24-hour endurance race weekends at Nelson Ledges when Ford brought development prototypes of the SVO to the track for real-world testing by competing in the race! I spent both years as a pit marshall responsible for their section of the pits, so I got to see the cars in intimate detail and spend some considerable time with the Ford engineers. The SVO engineering team was made up of real enthusiasts and they were as sick of the problems as I was and more – many of them held SCCA licenses and wanted to campaign their own products. So the SVO was born in battle in endurance racing… and did very very well. Other Ford engineers who brought GTs  to the event broke all the usual parts, garked their fluids out on the track, and lost their brakes repeatedly. I would have hated to have been one of them.

So understanding how and why the SVO was built, and then testing it myself in the environment it was meant to be driven in, makes the difference.

I’ve written up the entire story of those two events – with photos. To my knowledge, this is the only insider write-up of the SVO team at those two events.

DrivingEnthusiast network references:

• SVO blog: http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?cat=931   
• SVO blog RSS feed: http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?feed=rss2&cat=931