2015 Mustang SVO speculation

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

ROFL I've gotten more E36 M3ty looks today than people laughing, but those laughing can't stop.

Vigo wrote: It would be really hard to use the Ecoboost V6 without blatantly dumbing it down for the sake of the v8, or making it a higher trim than the v8. I like the idea of a turbo 4 in the mustang. It doesnt even need 350hp in my opinion. I would rather have the outside of the car shrink a little bit and weigh 3300, than have 350hp in the current car. Just my .02. I admit i am not a new-mustang shopper by any stretch of the imagination.

Joking aside. Our family hauler/pickup truck/school run/SUV is a 305hp V6 Vert. It's a fine car for DD duty and really, fast enough for 99% of the time. Here it is doing pick up duty. Get's good mileage too.

There was an 3.5l GTDI Mustang. But that was 7 years ago. And it was a prototype for the engine/turbo controls and not for the car- it was just a convienent platform for the work.

What many here would enjoy- it had Challenge kind of plumbing in areas under the hood. Well, Home Depot.

Far, far, far from a real car.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Joking aside. Our family hauler/pickup truck/school run/SUV is a 305hp V6 Vert. <snip> Get's good mileage too.

Sigh. That's got my WRX by 40hp and 10mpg (or would if that were 90% city driving?)

Ford is FAR better then the 2 government bailed out E36 (what ever the code is for total trash) US automakers....

ecoboost 4 with IRS is a move in the right direction...

But I want something smaller... lighter... NIMBLE......

yamaha wrote: In reply to Flight Service: Ask adrian, he might know. Either way, the 2.3L T is iconic in a way.

Oh yeah, return of the SVO would be awesome, I just think with the safety equipment and all the size of the Mustang the V6 ecoboost might be a better choice.

The SVO would still mean a Turbo stang, even if not a 4 cylinder one.

With the mustang covering so many bases would it be nice to have a smaller chassis altogether, like a new Capri to go play the the BRZ/FT86 and Miata? Of course it'll never happen, but ford has been on a roll lately with the performance minded products and getting rave reviews.

We all want a SVO that reminds us of the original SVO, but to do so it needs to be in a different weight/size class.

I think the Ecoboost 4-cyl will be European only.

I hope not, it would be hilarious if it became the car for F Stock... er F Street.

All of the current pony cars are too big for me to be interested. I'm really interested in a 300+ HP rwd car from Ford, or any of the big three, but not one as big as the current Mustang. If the Fiesta can have as much room inside as it does, they should have the voodoo at their disposal to shrink the 'stang to 80% of it's current size and still fit 350lb drivers. The big question is, couple it still fit the 5.0 if it gets much smaller.

Probably not, the Coyote is HUGE. Pic under the hood from when I had mine.

Joking aside. Our family hauler/pickup truck/school run/SUV is a 305hp V6 Vert. It's a fine car for DD duty and really, fast enough for 99% of the time. Here it is doing pick up duty.

Yeah, the current v6 powertrain strikes a fantastic balance that i really appreciate. It's my most-wanted mustang ever, which doesnt place it high on my most-wanted CAR list (at all), but it's a major accomplishment considering i went from downright HATING the mustang 10-15 years ago, to thinking they were half-ass decent 5 years ago, to kind of WANTING one with the BASE powertrain today. I give ford major credit.

Having said that, i still think the car is a little too big on the outside but should NOT get any smaller on the inside. IF they shrink the next version on the outside ONLY, lose a few hundred lbs, and offer an ecoboost 4 that beats the economy of the v6 (it doesnt even have to beat the power imo as long as the car loses weight), i will make THAT my favorite mustang.

Vigo wrote:

Having said that, i still think the car is a little too big on the outside but should NOT get any smaller on the inside. IF they shrink the next version on the outside ONLY, lose a few hundred lbs, and offer an ecoboost 4 that beats the economy of the v6 (it doesnt even have to beat the power imo as long as the car loses weight), i will make THAT my favorite mustang.

What I don't understand is how the Mustang can be sooo big outside and so little inside. It's as if they said the original Mustang had no back seat (to speak of) and we're going to put in all kinds of wasted space to make sure the interior is just as small.

Flight Service wrote: Why would they not just use the EcoBoost 6?

My assumption? Packaging. You can sling turbos off of each side in a truck, and you can sling turbos off of the front and back in a transverse car, but packaging the turbos AND a half-decent front suspension in a longitudinal car is tricky.

Exhibit A: 300ZX twin turbo. Exhibit B: Any VWAG product with a .2.7t or 4.2t.

Ranger50 wrote: I'm talking that Ford will kill it themselves. Reason you didn't see any SVO's past '86. They crept the price up to the point you could get a big burly V8 for LESS money. History will repeat itself.

Even in '84, the SVO was something like 50% more than a GT. I think the numbers were $10k for the GT and $15k for the SVO.

logdog wrote: No diesel, no want. Its too ugly. I wont buy one new but I want to pick one up for 2034 Challenge money. Sorry... Couldn't resist.

Maybe if they offered it with an F2T that runs on WVO....

For some reason I want a V6 stang with the brembo brakes and recaros for a track car in like 10 years?

Side note. They are likely to drop the Shelby moniker and supercharging on the Cobra.

Nitroracer wrote: With the mustang covering so many bases would it be nice to have a smaller chassis altogether, like a new Capri to go play the the BRZ/FT86 and Miata? Of course it'll never happen, but ford has been on a roll lately with the performance minded products and getting rave reviews. We all want a SVO that reminds us of the original SVO, but to do so it needs to be in a different weight/size class.

I only partially agree. The Mustang really shouldn't try to be a BRZ/FT86 competitor. It should slide in more light/svelte than the other pony cars. I do agree if they ever go after that space, it needs to be it's own new car... but really I think they can own the hot hatch market with the ST/RS hatches and there's not much profit to be had chasing into the small RWD segment.

While the original SVO was neat in it's own regards, I'd welcome a modern/larger SVO in it's new weight/class for the fact that it would be a very usable DD. An honest 30's highway MPG for commuting, 2 usable back seats for hauling my 2 smaller kids, and 300+ horsepower at it's relative weight class is nothing to sneeze at for tossing it around on the weekends/offramps/etc.

It becomes a pretty good all around contender in the face of higher fuel prices, without giving much up in terms of compromise. As a 2nd car or weekend toy I'd always take the 5.0, but as a true daily, a modern SVO might have more takers than we think if priced/marketed correctly.

Serious question from those who have spent time in them, is the Mustang any bigger inside than the Focus? I've only sat in both of them and not driven them, but they seem remarkably similar in size inside considering how different they are on the outside.
I want the Mustang to be lighter mostly, but then I go look up the curb weight of the Focus ST and it's only 400 lbs less than a Mustang GT. That's not much in the grand scheme of things and a bunch of that is probably required to handle the power of a boosted 5.0 driving the rear wheels.

mazdeuce wrote: Serious question from those who have spent time in them, is the Mustang any bigger inside than the Focus? I've only sat in both of them and not driven them, but they seem remarkably similar in size inside considering how different they are on the outside. I want the Mustang to be lighter mostly, but then I go look up the curb weight of the Focus ST and it's only 400 lbs less than a Mustang GT. That's not much in the grand scheme of things and a bunch of that is probably required to handle the power of a boosted 5.0 driving the rear wheels.

I hate to admit it, but the Mustang is much smaller on the inside, especialy the back seat. The front is different rather than bigger or smaller. It's longer and lower than the front of the Focus. While I love and defend the Mustang and we do use it for hauling 3 7th and 8th graders on the school run carpool (25 mins each way). It's not really up to daily small kid shlepping duties, especialy for small ones. Strange to say 11+ year old kids are more comfortable in the back than little kids. I (6'0" 225lb's) have spend 2 hours in the back before. It isn't torture, but I'm happier in the back of the C30

mazdeuce wrote: All of the current pony cars are too big for me to be interested. I'm really interested in a 300+ HP rwd car from Ford, or any of the big three, but not one as big as the current Mustang. If the Fiesta can have as much room inside as it does, they should have the voodoo at their disposal to shrink the 'stang to 80% of it's current size and still fit 350lb drivers. The big question is, couple it still fit the 5.0 if it gets much smaller.

So what you are asking for is a Fiesta sized RWD car.

We know the size of that market, so it confuses me that one would suggest to an OEM that they ignore the +100k market that they sell to, and instead focus on a ~10k market. And charge less for it.

If I were a shareholder, I would fire whoever made that decision.

Pony car market >>> Sports car market. Both for size and profits.

I dunno, they sold a lot of Chevettes back in the day

alfadriver wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: All of the current pony cars are too big for me to be interested. I'm really interested in a 300+ HP rwd car from Ford, or any of the big three, but not one as big as the current Mustang. If the Fiesta can have as much room inside as it does, they should have the voodoo at their disposal to shrink the 'stang to 80% of it's current size and still fit 350lb drivers. The big question is, couple it still fit the 5.0 if it gets much smaller.

So what you are asking for is a Fiesta sized RWD car. We know the size of that market, so it confuses me that one would suggest to an OEM that they ignore the +100k market that they sell to, and instead focus on a ~10k market. And charge less for it. If I were a shareholder, I would fire whoever made that decision. Pony car market >>> Sports car market. Both for size and profits.

The Fox was little and seemed to sell well. Even the SN195 cars were quite a lot smaller than the current cars. I don't really want a 2500 lb tiny Mustang, though I do want a 250 hp turbo hardtop Miata. It just seems like Ford could keep the current interior volume while shrinking the outside by quite a lot and drop some weight in the process. I guess I don't understand why any of the current pony cars need to be so huge on the outside and so small on the inside, and why they have to keep getting bigger and heavier every time. The dramatic downsizing of cars happened in the late 70's/early 80's when I was a kid and it seems that things have been getting bigger for my whole life. I just want it to stop.

The dramatic downsizing of cars happened in the late 70's/early 80's when I was a kid and it seems that things have been getting bigger for my whole life. I just want it to stop.

I'm dubious about a turbo 4 in a Mustang, but then I was dubious about a turbo 6 in a F-series, so what do I know.

The current mustangs are linebackers. They're remarkably quick for something so bulky looking and feeling, but most sports car guys (read us) are more interested in a back or at least a safety. The ongoing dilemma of pony cars is whether losing the size and weight would make the car more or less of a sales success. Conventional wisdom says that if you slim it too much the bubbas won't buy it. That may well be true. But I also see the extra bulk as something of a crutch. Pony cars live in a parallel world to other enthusiast cars where if someone points out how they are lacking in certain dynamic areas, they always have the "out" of saying, "well we have to compromise to keep the bubbas happy". It'd be awesome if the 'Stang could be made into more of the international definition of an enthusiast car via a turbo 4, IRS, lighter weight and other tweaks, but at that point I'd be tempted to change the skin and call it something entirely different.

So what you are asking for is a Fiesta sized RWD car

There is a huge middle ground between the current mustang and fiesta, size wise. I believe you can find what you just did listed under 'false dichotomy fallacy'.

In reply to Vigo:

And ford has lots of cars in that hole(from smallest to largest)
Fiesta
Focus
Fusion/Mustang

The Fusion is the only one without a true sports version and my guess is the Mustang for that reason.

I like the current Stang. I think it is a good mix of size and styling with plenty of substance mixed in depending on model. It isnt the little pony car of the original, but it hasn't been that since 66 anyways.

Sure it could be alittle smaller on the outside, a little lighter, and maybe a little more room on the inside but I dont think that would bring a statitical difference in sales at all.

The stang is a fun performance bargain car and on those qualifications it is an 11 on a scale of 10.