Special Vehicle Operations

Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) is a term used throughout Ford's global operations as a performance group, first used in America as Ford's own "speed shop," with a separate budget from Ford's regular operations. In 1993, the group was renamed Special Vehicle Team.

In 1981, Ford formed the SVO group to design and develop performance parts and accessories related to the company's racing programs. SVO was involved in three separate assignments:

SVO turned its attention to building Mustangs for the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-Am and International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GT series. With engine builder Jack Roush now involved the factory-backed SVO Mustangs dominated Trans-Am, winning 17 of 34 contests in 1985-86, and by '89, Ford had scored 46 Trans-Am victories, more than all other manufacturers combined. SVO also helped end 9 years of Chevrolet NASCAR dominance, with Ford drivers finishing 1-2-3 in NASCAR's final Winston Cup standings.

The group's sole production car, the Ford Mustang SVO, was designed to compete directly with European sports sedans like BMW's 3 Series. To reduce costs, they used the existing 2.3 L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine and Borg-Warner T-5 5-speed manual transmission from the Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. The car had a different computer and air meter and added an intercooler, a Hurst shifter, KONI Group shock absorbers, and 16 inch wheels, a novelty at the time. The car produced 175 hp (130 kW) for the 1984 model year (MY) and the first part of the 1985 MY, 205 hp (152 kW) after mid-1985 MY, and 200 hp (149 kW) for the 1986 MY. In total, 9,844 were built.

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