JETSOLVER

After long absence; I'm almost back. Ford, I beg you, past notwithstanding, reign in the dealers, and I will return to the fold. I want another car in the mold of my original SVT, close, but distinctive. Everyday, but not paranoia. One that I can quote chapter and verse to all the lookie lou's who take the time to wait by my perfectly parked, but not sideways object of affection. I want a car that does what you claim, that does what I claim, and does what it should. Is this it? :happy feet:

While it might have been a lot easier to sell this to the folks who bought SVT product (we already know what we are getting in for), if the cachet can be used for legitimate purposes (think of how little the STI actually meant to the other Subbie buyers, as opposed to those who would have bought an all singing, all dancing STI even if it had had a Saturn badge), it might find a home as a new realistic halo car. The trick is to engage the kids with credit, the ones who have no brand loyalty except to the F&F franchise. Personally, if Ford does some how manage to man up and fend off the flack from the Detroit flayers who seem to hate personal transport in all its forms, I will put my name on a list.( it rarely is "the" list with dealer greed) It isn't going to happen however, so I'll just keep doing what I am doing, which is to accumulate bits and pieces of Corvette engineering for my V's mill. Perhaps the parts prices might even come down...? Shame, I would really enjoy an Ultimate Green RS coming down out of the Rogers Pass in the Canadian Rockies a few times next summer...a much more politically correct (and much less expensive) toy than the one I have, or my much missed, if expensive to maintain, last car, the Cayman.

NO qualms. ATI procharger and makes a regular, every day (if high maintainance) 435+++ horse bullitt. SVT+ 4v MOd = Terminator That worked. Sure hope this one does.

Hmm, that looks familiar. So does this. sure looks familiar. link In house please. SVT .

hmm. after 3 plus years... g f y , just sayin'... and you wonder where the walk in factor went, when I bought my niece her Mazda 3, when I told the neighbour lady to look at the Fusion (07) and I went round and round with my buddy who sells P, B, Caddies. If this is still the attitude, get it or else, the entire thing deserves to be on the hook. PULL IT. nothing bad will happen.

Ford might have no chance but to give up. So, how many actual engineers are still sweating the entire Twin Force/Eco Boost vapourware that was supposed to revolutionize the powertrain division again? I suggest that the SVT group is now a bunch of guys not unlike the old RamChargers group in the dog years of the early 60's at Dodge. That is, dodging and ducking the boss. WAAAAAY outside the purview of the job at hand. :glare: :beerchug: ps, do you folks think I should put off the delivery of my 09 CTS-V for the coupe?

After not having visited the site for about a month, I read all the way through a 13 page post on utter and total vapourware. I am reminded why I have pretty much given up on Ford for the near AND mid term. To sum up, no near performance cars, no real performance cars, apologists from all sides for Fords failings, Richards endless prattle about why traditional Ford virtues like slow steering, soft acceleration and of course, the gentle shudder of the car when you slam the overweight doors, are such strong sales points. A few pages at the end pointing out how little is actually known about the demise of SVT, hint in Feb of 2003, there was talk of using Cosworth as a brand even beyond SVT, and two years later, John walked away from the entire program. He to this day refuses to talk about the means and methods, but the bitterness is evident in all my referenced material. H.T.T. sold the company on a new way of doing SVT, and now there is no SVT, and H.T.T. is making costumes in Brazil. It is hard to believe that after 35+ years of being a die hard blue oval fan, and having bought all the ones I did, that I can not even bring myself to drive the latest lame offering (Flex) due to the fact that I just don't believe they want me as a customer. Seems a damn shame, but once one looses the Ford tinted glasses and looks out into the larger automotive world, there is a lot of interesting machinery, and performance isn't a dirty word, or used as an excuse for an overweight, solid rear axle, iron blocked behemoth costing almost 100k (price a KR, if you can get over the laughter). Have fun folks, lots of excuses to be needed in the future for Ford, be creative!

This car and its coupe sibling are Cadillac's "moon shot". Seeing as how they are selling pretty much all they can make of the line now, and with two other versions (coupe, and wagon) coming online to fill demand, they sourced a limited group inside of GM performance to build this uber version. The thinking as I get it, is to use this as a way to stretch the capabilities of a select group of engineers, parts types, marketing, and assembly. Sort of what SVT was before it was gelded(I think I know who did that in Ford, but...). The base car is a hit, great sales, happy customers, and really good reaction from the media. This, is for enthusiasts. Period. It is to the CTS and future Cadillacs as is the GT500 is to the Mustang line up. The max reach of the available resources, with a good dose of focused thinking about how they want to position themselves. It takes the fight right to the M5 sort of car, at a price point closer to the M3. Ford no longer has that capability, and GM seems to want to find it. And, its mine. I have a pretty tight contract with the local performance dealer(It's hard to believe that in a city with around a million extended bodies, they have pre sold 14 ZR1's and more than a dozen Z06's are already out on the streets with the dealer ordering another 8!) $10k up to hold the third spot, with another 20k on order, and I agreed to eat 2k if I choose to wait on the coupe. The price is "supposed" to be about 65+- 5, and he agreed in the contract not to rape me like the local former SVT dealer tried to over the GT500. The final numbers are just being confirmed with the production calibration and results of EPA etc. in the next month or so. I don't give a whoop. I have never been so committed to a car, both in terms of pre order planning and in terms of emotional investment. The last car was a kneejerk reaction to what happened over the $helby thing, and I have tried to protect myself against as much of that BS as possible this time. I take public transport when I can, and walk and ride on a daily basis. This is just like my modded 94 GT, my heavily modded 97 COBRA and my Cayman. A daily driver, one that I drive all year round, with proper German sourced snow tires for the winters and frankly, a long time sharpening my skills. I love to see the reaction when I move off in front of soccer mom and dad in their Expy in Feb in Edmonton. It tends to educate people about how little they REALLY know about driving. Why? If some folks want to argue about the preservation of the radio antenna bag like they did over the $helby, I feel you are doing a disservice to the gearheads who work so hard to push this kind of limited return project through the layers and layers of weenies inside the big manu's, and probably would be better off with some rare art. Next summer is gonna be a very good one, and I am making plans to drive this thing pretty much from Alaska to Mexico. I figure that is enough value in it to pay back the long hours I do and will have to work to pay for it. If, like me you live and work that you can find one or two really good afternoons a month to just drive, and one or three on track days a year, then you get it.

Talk about a hotrod, this thing smokes. They call it Roadrunner. International Herald Tribune on the next level

I also read that empty beer kegs are on their shopping list. Stupid criminals, steal the FULL ones.

I'm not so sure of the Arab/Muslims being the bad guy here. After all, most of their oil goes to Europe, and thats where the prices are highest. To me the wild card is the Russians. Putin's hand picked successor Medvedev is almost as scary as the lunatic in Iran. This bubble is being controlled far from Washington this time, and it comes at a perfect time to rebuild the ailing and malnourished(and ascending) Russian military. And the patriotism that they have been missing for a decade over there. A few months of panic and they will have a bunch of new toys to wave around, and a WHOLE LOT of influence in the way this all shakes out. It was just last year that the Russians surpassed the Saudi's as the worlds largest producer. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Just read that Rosneft the largest producer had profits jump 7 fold over last year first quarter! I go looking for something to back up my assertion and lookie what I found. A very interesting summation. International Herald Tribune on Putin and Bush

Man do I wish there was a hot rod Lincoln to choose instead. Especially as the Saudi's just stated for the record that there is no supply problem, and laid this latest bump in price directly at the feet of the speculators. I may have a very hard time waiting for my new toy...

That's a driver call, and most of the $helby owners around here that actually drive them more than twice a month, are not very good. So add a pulley, tune up, and it should be fun to hammer them with a Caddy. And a lot nicer chair to work from. And the IRS tuned to handle launchs. Good summer next year I think. If I can get a couple to come out and play...

Hmm, seems to me that THIS makes all the predictions just so much hot air. "RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said Monday it will soon call for a meeting between oil producers and consumers to discuss what it called the unjustified rise in prices. Market fundamentals did not justify the rise in oil prices, said the cabinet of top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia in a statement, adding it asked Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi to call the meeting."

Should look good, but it seems I have just moved on...now I find $helby just old news. Can't wait until I first see the full trio of the born again group though...I hope someone sets up a photo shoot with all the old originals and the new age musclecars. That will be the other car poster I frame... And I can't wait to kick this things ass. This time, CTS-V ftw. (and now in coupe flavour!) Sorry FoMoCo. You and your dealers pissed me off to much two years ago to go down the $helby road. Shame that. Perhaps a 4v Boss will make a difference, but doing the iron block 5.4 is no longer enough.

Yahoo news on Toyota fuel cell hybrid I think I'll just step out now...

Me first. My eldest niece just got her first car. A Mazda 3 GS hatch.(sport). I understood her mother, (my sis) to pay a little under 19k for what I though was a decent if not outstanding first car. Pricey, but we are that sort of family that those kids had an uncle(me) wander parts depts to find another set of seatbelts and a pair of longer bolts to make the last kid fit. She liked the easy doors, the "PUNCH" of the engine, and the lack of noise. To me, the single best part of her car(I would have given her a Speed) was the q uiet part. Solid, clean, simple and cheap. What is the perception of a car in the if you will, large C class, when the :unsure:mileage is near the same as the more or less sub C Focial? To my mind, simple as it is, she prefered the choice of room, "p unch"(worried ) and the ability to keep up the payments. My sis MOM has a hard driven A4 q wagon. MYchoice, just cause I used to make the payments. Next?

Lets [; play a wee game inside a ruined thread. If i were to spent $27 000 on the car "I" need, choose, value, and defend against the "other". Shiats and .... the least we can do is to offer a public valuation of our preferences.

Brief reminder, the Japanese manu's were SLAMMED in the press just a few years ago for not having a design language that translated into a national identity. And yet they sold HUNDREDS of thousands of those things and now, frankly, shift the market response of the domestics. so, one conclusion is that staid and true value is a selling point. Another might be that value is in the eye of the beholder, and with 6+bill on the planet, finding a market identity is as valuable as finding a niche. Loyalty, that's a whole larger think.

I find this latest craze to the tiney and tinny very unlikely long term, especially as the numbers in North America are approaching 3 cars/trucks per family. I just can't imagine people making the decision to sell two of those overnight, and give up our traditional driving habits entirely. Perhaps some thinking about running to the Pourtugeuse bakery for a loaf of twist on Sat. aft. in the 1/2 ton 1500 or F- series is in the offing, and that's very good, but as I drive around town and see all the boats and travel trailers, I just can't see N.A. becoming uptown Newcastle in the next two years. The absolute downside I see in the next year is that people will tend to learn how to hate driving, and all that that politicaly entails. The greatest harm may do the greatest good long term, but some smart cookie is going to find a way to remind people that the personal freedom part of driving is why it is such a huge part of our culture and heritage. Top down Stang convertible after a tiring week? Seems like a good idea to me.

Hmm badge snobbery is a big thing in the lux end, but I'll suggest that a lot of people are changing buying habits now to a more value concious think. Never underestimate the power of repeat buyers, as Ford fans we know the return rate for Stangs is pretty consistent, and I have asked H customers and sales people, they are as loyal as anyone in the market, with the exception of the big enemy, Toyo, where that loyalty is, well, blind. The low sales goals, high content, and darn good quality in the rest of the line tells me that they will probably meet, and possibly exceed their numbers. And for those who scoff, H group has made inroads into most traditional Detroit markets in a very short time, and they don't seem to be giving back those numbers. The current gas thing is an investment driven bubble, and the record shows that for every oil shock we have ever had, North American buyers ALWAYS return to our prior habits. I can even forsee a situation in the next year where a bunch of flavour of the week types who follow the Yahoo news, run in, trade the three y/o Explorer for a tiny llittle x brand and decide by the fall that "this thing sucks" and trade back up to something more in line with what they have owned for a couple of decades. A change is coming, but the record makes one want to hedge their bets as far as mid term buying trends.

Definitely not your Ex-wives minivan. And the dealers must be chortling over the markup on tinting all that glass, I think I might pick up some 3M stock. Simple, big, people mover. The Fairlane lives!

Thought I recognized one of those pics...

Wizard, is there any inherent limitation on power levels as designed? Such as the size of the case and weight of rotating componants? And are they waiting to see the warranty issues if any before a wider rollout? I would love to play with one of these, and would probably buy another car just to see what kind of fun a driver might be able to have. And I am on record hoping for a phoenix like rebirth of SVT, just to make that car.