Bringing things into focus: Tom Scarpello talks about hot hatches and the business of being SVT - Trends: Management Q&A - Ford's Special Vehicle Team

Automotive Industries,  May, 2002  by John Peter

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You know these guys. They're the ones who make muscle cars out of pickup trucks and Corvette fighters out of Mustangs. Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) has been turning out "enhanced performance" vehicles for nearly 10 years now and just passed the 100,000 milestone.

With the explosion of the hot hatch market, the engineers at SVT are going after this new generation of hot rodders with the introduction of the new SVT Focus. Automotive Industries sat down with Tom Scarpello, marketing and sales manager for Ford SVT, at the North American launch of the Focus in Pasadena, Calif. to get his insight on SVT and where it's headed.

Q. Why does this car exist?

A. I think the primary reason is that it goes after a new segment for us--a new customer that we haven't captured in the past. For us it's a significant thing to provide something that's attractive to them so we can hope to get them into the Ford family.

Q. Will you be offering any Focus aftermarket products?

There's a lot of stuff that's already available for the Focus. In addition we have done some things to try to get a jump. For example, we shared engine information and prototypes with Oscar Jackson of Oscar Jackson Racing. Jackson Racing is very well known in the aftermarket community as being a very high quality provider of mainly Honda performance parts, superchargers in particular. He's consequently put together a kit specifically for the SVT Focus.

Q. How long was the program?

A. Our typical program is 18 to 24 months. This program might have taken just a tad longer. It was a global program done with ST170 (European version), and we made a couple of changes during the course of the program that might have stretched the timing out a little bit. But other than that it was a pretty standard SVT program.

Q. What are your marketing plans for the SVT Focus?

A. We're not planning on doing any traditional advertising. We find that the most effective means of marketing continues to be through the enthusiast media and through the events and activities that we're involved in.

Q. Is there a possibility of increasing production beyond the planned 7,500 units?

A. Yeah, there's a possibility. With our production forecast we want to be conservative. We don't want to flood the market with a whole bunch of vehicles that people aren't ready for. We've got a program that makes financial sense at the volumes that we're at. If we do better, then it just makes it better. There's a lot we can do with the Focus platform. It's got a lot of life in it. There are a lot of variations and a lot of things we can do to maximize this business and we'll be in it for the long haul.

Q. How does SVT operate?

We operate under the umbrella of Ford, but strategically John (Coletti, chief engineer for Ford SVT) and I have the responsibility to manage our overall business and meet our business objectives. We've got our own budgets, engineering, tooling, marketing, and our own dedicated head count. We've got a reporting structure that kind of emulates a company with a board of directors that approves our major spending and major initiatives. We've got a cross-functional group of top management including Chris Theodore (Vice President North American Vehicle Development), Jim O'Connor (President Ford division) and Richard Perry Jones (Global Product Development and Chief Technical Officer)--guys at that level that we meet with periodically to present our cycle plan recommendations and our product recommendations. They approve spending.

Q. Is SVT a fast rack for Ford engineers.

A. I don't think it's a fast track. What I tend to see is that if you're an engineers and you work for Ford and you love cars you're naturally attracted to SVT. We've got a mix of people, people that come through and work there for awhile, and other guys that have come here and have decided career-wise that's this is what they really want to do.

Q. Is SVT profit center?

A. It's not operated like a profit center, although we kind of manage it as if we had a valid P&L responsibility. We don't. All the vehicle possibilities center within their mainstream vehicle lines. But if we were accounted for as a separate business we would be profitable.

Q. What do you think of the SVT copy cats springing up at the other OEMs?

A. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right? It was only a matter of time before someone decided to use the formula. There's a certain individual in particular who used to be at Ford, who's now at Chrysler who was a very big supporter of SVT and a very influential person and I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with it.

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