Which Cars & Trucks Are Included In Ford’s Special Vehicles Team?

Most car manufacturers have their own performance division. For example, BMW has its M series, and Mercedes-Benz has its AMG line. All of Chevrolet’s Corvette models are designated as performance vehicles. Whether these companies are developing these vehicles for commercial purposes or simply to bolster their positions on racetracks around the world, engineers are going to continue to push the boundaries on how much power and speed they are able to generate in one of their four-wheeled machines.

In the case of a company like Ford, it has long had a performance division, and it has gone through several names over the years. Right now, the company has chosen the rather simplistic name of Ford Performance, which was established back in 2017. Prior to that, this division went by another name: the Ford Special Vehicles Team, or SVT for short.

This performance division of Ford goes back to the 1993 model year, where it replaced the company’s SVO division, and it had a decently long run through the 2015 model year. While some of these SVT performance vehicles are certainly more successful than others, there are a number of notable vehicles that have made their mark on the automotive landscape, and some have even carried over into the Ford Performance generation of the division for development into the modern age.

Although you may just think of cars like coupes and sedans when it comes to performance, SVT also has a couple of pickup trucks in its history that are worth remembering. Let’s run down all the models that Ford SVT had to offer over the years.

Ford SVT F-150 Lightning

Ford started offering an F-150 Lightning for the 2022 model year as an all-electric version of the company’s most popular vehicle. However, this is not the first time that Ford has used the Lightning nameplate in conjunction with the F-150. That actually goes back to the SVT division for the 1993 model year.

The Ford SVT F-150 Lightning was originally the high-performance version of the pickup truck. This was one of two vehicles that the SVT created for this model year that kicked off the division’s run, and Ford would continue to make this version of the Lightning all the way through the 2004 model year, though there was a brief gap in production from 1996 to 1998.

For those first three years, the Lightning SVT utilized a 5.8L V8 underneath its hood. This was a specially produced version of the same size engine called the 351W that Ford had been using in various vehicles since the late 1960s. This version could generate an output of 240 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque. The regular F-150 at that time came with a 4.9L I6 that could generate 145 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, so the Lightning was a significant improvement.

Once the Lightning returned for the 1999 model year, that engine was replaced by a supercharged version of the 5.4L Triton V8. At first, the power output went up to 360 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, but starting with the 2001 model, those numbers went up to 380 horsepower and 450 lb-ft after some retooling.

Ford SVT F-150 Raptor

It would take a number of years before the SVT division would put out another pickup truck. Of course, it was another version of the Ford F-150, and this time, it was given the name SVT Raptor. The Raptor name will also be familiar to a modern audience because the company still uses this nameplate as well, but unlike the modern F-150 Lightning, this still signals that it is a performance version of the pickup truck and comes from the Ford Performance division. This original SVT Raptor that debuted for the 2010 model year, meaning there was a six-year gap between performance pickups for Ford. Along with being a performance truck, the SVT Raptor was also designed to be a desirable off-road truck.

The 2010 Ford SVT F-150 Raptor actually gave people the option between two different engines. The standard engine was a 5.4L V8 that could generate 310 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque, and the optional upgrade was a 6.2L V8 that the Super Duty F-Series trucks also used that had an output of 411 horsepower and 434 lb-ft of torque.

Because the smaller engine was rather old, Ford decided to ditch that option for the 2011 model year, and the 6.2L V8 became the sole engine for the SVT Raptor. It would remain that way until the discontinuation of the pickup truck after the 2014 model year. This makes it one of the last models ever produced by the SVT division, as that is when Ford folded in the division to form Ford Performance. The Raptor would reemerge for 2017.

Ford SVT Mustang Cobra

Unlike the pickup trucks, the Ford Mustang is already a vehicle you associate with high performance and large engines, so it only makes sense that the SVT division got its crack at the Mustang as well. Right alongside the F-150 Lightning for the 1993 model year, Ford also debuted the Ford SVT Mustang Cobra, which was the highest performance level for the car, even over the popular GT trim.

There were two different versions of the SVT Cobra that debuted. You had the standard version and the R variation. The R stood for “race,” so not only was this a performance vehicle, but it was also designed specifically for racing. It didn’t feature any amenities like a stereo system or air conditioning; it was just a race car.

Despite the delineation, both versions of the car used the same 5.0L Windsor V8 engine that generated 235 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque, and today, they are worth quite a bit of money. Starting with 1994, the body design changed from a hatchback to a coupe, which improved the power output ever so slightly.

In 1996, the 5.0L V8 was replaced by a 4.6L Modular V8. Though it was smaller, it was more powerful. Over the years, this engine could generate anywhere from 305 horsepower to 390 horsepower, and it remained the Cobra’s engine through the final 2004 model year. Meanwhile, the Cobra R — a model that was not consistently in production — had model years in 1995 and 2000 that utilized a 5.8L Windsor V8 and 5.4L Modular V8 for outputs of 300 horsepower and 385 horsepower, respectively.

Ford Shelby Mustang GT500

It looked like the SVT division was going to be done with the Ford Mustang after the 2004 model year, but that turned out not to be the case. Its relationship with the pony car was revitalized for the 2007 model year. Starting in 2005, Ford had begun utilizing the Shelby name for its performance Mustang trims, harkening back to Carroll Shelby who had been so instrumental in the Mustang’s success in the late 1960s.

Two years after this reintroduction of the Shelby Mustang, the car was brought over to the SVT division to maximize what this version of the car could be, resulting in the Ford SVT Shelby Mustang GT500. This iteration of the pony car would last all the way through the 2014 model year and the end of the SVT division.

The GT500 was a true powerhouse. With the 2007 model, the SVT would put a 5.4L Modular V8 engine under the hood that was both supercharged and intercooled. The result was a power output of 475 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque. Although the same engine was used from 2010 through 2014, the power output was most assuredly not the same due in part to a new cold air intake.

For its final years, the 5.4L V8 in the GT500 could generate 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. These are some serious output numbers for a car that is not designed specifically for racing like the aforementioned SVT Mustang Cobra R. After 2014 and the move to Ford Performance, the company kept the Mustang alive but created the new GT350 and GT350R variations, which lasted through 2021.

Ford SVT Contour

The Mustang was not the only car that the Ford SVT division got its hands on during its run, but it would take a few years after that initial one-two punch in 1993 for the division to release its next vehicle. Going all the way to 1998, we see the next high-performance creation from Ford: the SVT Contour. Unlike the previously mentioned vehicles, the Contour does not have as storied a history as the F-150 or the Mustang, but Ford felt it necessary to upgrade the Contour, which had been initially brought to market for the 1993 model year.

The Ford SVT Contour only had three years in production, running through the 2000 model year. In that time, it only utilized one engine, a 2.5L Duratec V6 engine. This engine was already available on some of the upper-trim tiers of the Contour, but this one was modified by the SVT division to maximize power. The result was an output of 195 horsepower and 165 lb-ft of torque. For the last two years, those numbers crept up slightly to 200 horsepower and 169 lb-ft after some improvements.

The SVT division would not return to the Contour after a break like it had done with the F-150 Lightning. This is because the standard-issue Contour would end production after the 2001 model year, lasting just one year longer. All in all, the Contour has not left much of a legacy, though it’s certainly underrated. It would eventually be effectively replaced by the Ford Fusion a few years later, but SVT would not develop a performance version of that car.

Ford SVT Focus

With the Contour gone, the SVT division needed another car from the Ford lineup to develop for maximum performance, so it turned to another vehicle that had only been around for a couple of years: the Ford Focus. The car first debuted in Europe for the 1998 model year, but for the United States, it didn’t make its way to the market until 2000. It would only take until the 2002 model year before we saw the SVT Focus debut. However, much like the Contour, the SVT Focus would be produced for just three model years.

The Ford Focus at that time had a couple different 2.0L I4 engines that it would use to power the vehicle, and the SVT decided that was a good enough foundation. It installed the 2.0L Zetec-R I4 underneath the hood. While its output does not seem all that impressive at 170 horsepower and 145 lb-ft of torque, that is significantly more than the output of 110 horsepower and 125 lb-ft that the base-level 2.0L I4 Focus could generate. There were no alterations or improvements to the engine during this run, so that remained the power output for all three years.

Ford decided to pull the plug on the SVT Focus after the 2004 model year. The Focus would go on to have a life in the United States through 2018, and in other territories, it remains in production to this day. Performance versions of the car would continue to get made, starting with the 2005 ST model. The SVT division just had nothing to do with it.

Ford SVT Thunder and other unmade vehicles

Those may have been all the vehicles that SVT developed that went into production, but in all the years of that division, there have been several vehicles that either never made it to production or just simply existed as concept cars. In the latter category, there were the SVT Thunderbird and SVT GT90, both of which were produced in the mid-1990s. Performance concept cars are not all that uncommon for divisions like this, as they exist just to be a marvel to behold at an auto show. There may have been a thought to eventually bring these to production, but ultimately, that was not their fate.

However, there was a model that the SVT division was developing that was fully meant to be a production vehicle, but it just never came to pass. That would be the Ford SVT Thunder. Not to be confused with the aforementioned Thunderbird, the SVT Thunder was to be the performance version of the Ford Expedition SUV and was to debut for the 2000 model year. It was to be equipped with the same 5.4L V8 engine that powered the SVT F-150 Lightning and could generate 360 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque.

This seems like it would be a slam dunk. However, this generation of the Expedition was close to wrapping up, so Ford did not see the use in putting out a performance version of this SUV when it was to get a redesign in two years. Therefore, Ford put the kibosh on the SVT Thunder, and it never went to production.