Time creeps up on every organization. Some are able to take the lead and bring home the checkered flag; others fall victim to the ebb & flow of modernization and the next best thing. Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) will be formally disbanded effective April 1, 2006. Not watershed news by any means though, as the fuse was lit back in 1992 it was only a matter of time.

So what is left behind? How did this happen? What is the next best thing?

For starters or rather, the finishers left behind are: the SVT Cobra Mustang, the SVT Lightning pickup, the SVT Contour, and the SVT Focus all vehicles that are soon to be the subject for car historians to chat over. SVT's entire staff has dissolved, as have the executives who founded and spearheaded the group's activities.

After the yanking of the Adrenalin from the SVT lineup, the drought continued from 2004 to present, with nothing new being released from SVT. The "Way Forward" plan evidently did not align well with the concept, and Thai-Tang's recipe for shaking up the performance vehicle market soured quickly.

SVT R.I.P.

Speculation as to why SVT is being scuttled remains evasive at best. Some attribute it entirely to executive decision the "Way Forward" plan's losing sight of the performance market. Other theories lead to the fact that so many SVT resources were focused on the production and release of the Ford GT, nothing viable ideas or efforts remained. This barrage of setbacks hampered potential development a next-generation Lightning, a faster Focus, and a smooth SVT Fusion. SVT is said to have basically starved of resources; no fuel, no fire.

Ford's latest card played in the performance segment is the 2007 Shelby GT500 not an SVT endorsement; rather, one blessed by Carroll Shelby. As far as the future goes, market enthusiasts will have to cater to secondary developers and custom crafters (Saleen, Roush, Steeda, Foose, Coddington, etc) for the high-speed addictions ... err ... needs.

Visit the SVT site; sadly it's a limited time offer