Rebirth of the SVO Mustang from Ford is on the way, but when?

If you grew up in the 80’s you know what an SVO Mustang is and most likely you dreamed of owning one. Let’s face the facts, the 80’s were not the most popular for car enthusiast due to lack of real muscle cars with any power or torque. However, there are a few exceptions and the Ford Mustang SVO was one of those cars that grabbed lots of attention.

Ford had a newly formed internal group called Special Vehicles Operations Department (SVO) and their job was to oversee both the companies racing programs and production of their limited-edition and high-performance (street-legal) vehicles. They had a new secret weapon that was about to hit the streets in 1984 and was packing a 2.3 liter inline 4 cylinder turbo with 175 HP and 210 lb-ft. of torque. Not impressive in today’s world, but very respectable for the mid 80’s. Eventually reaching 200 HP and 240 lb-ft. of torque by the end run in 1986 (Only a three year run for the SVO 4 cylinder Mustangs). 

The 1985 ½ SVO Mustang was and still is the most sought after with its looks and power (205 HP and 248 lb-ft. of torque). Each year of the SVO production run also had a few other performance goodies that I will not take time to address, but added to their street cred. (Suspension, gears, brakes, etc.)

Now, let’s fast forward 35 years and Ford is once again offering a 2.3 liter inline 4 cylinder turbo Mustang and it’s also gaining lots of attention again. This time around the Ford engineers have been putting in the extra hours to extract a lot more ponies under the hood. The current 2.3 liter EcoBoost version is rated at 310 HP and 350 lb-ft. of torque and is capable of 0-60 mph runs well under 6.0 seconds. That’s some serious performance from the little engine that could!

Not long after the dust settles from the praise-worthy articles about the 2019 EcoBoost Mustang, we get breaking news from Ford that they have once again tweaked their 4 cylinder Pony car and this time the gloves are off and they come out swinging for the knockout punch.

At the New York Auto Show Ford reveals the 2020 Ford Mustang EcoBoost High Performance Package (longest name EVER) will pack even more ponies under the hood. The 2.3 liter turbo 4 cylinder will now sport 330 HP and 350 lb-ft. of torque and is projected to blaze from 0-60 mph in the mid-four-second range! It will also borrow many other performance upgrades from its older brother, the Mustang GT, such as GT front brake rotors, upgraded sway bars, quad-tip exhaust, and specially calibrated magnetic dampers.

Most purist are already asking the question, will this new performance minded 4 cylinder turbo carry the famous SVO badge again as its younger brother did in the 80’s? For now, the answer is no, Ford has even created a snazzy new High-Performance badge with checkerboard trim. But when a spokesperson was asked about bringing back the Iconic SVO badge, they responded and said “Not on this one”.

So I guess we can stay hopeful that the little pony that could may still get branded as an SVO Mustang soon, but for now let’s just enjoy those incredible performance numbers Ford just unveiled. The streets will again be filled with young car enthusiast who will want to gain the bragging rights to those street light challenges that have been known to take place in any small-town USA. Maybe Ford won’t make us wait much longer to shout “Hey…look at that SVO” as we attend those Friday night cruise-in’s and Saturday Cars Shows.

Congrats to you Mr. Ford, way to keep pushing the boundaries and continuing to elevate the performance bar on the American Sports car.

See Ya down the road……..Joseph P. Scott