Don’t Call It an SVO: A Look Behind the Mustang EcoBoost HPP Name
Newest addition to the Mustang herd was built in 10 months, and Ford still owns SVO name, according to Muscle Cars & Trucks.
SVO. Those three letters mean a whole lot to Mustang fans. Back in the early Eighties, when everyone was shaking off the malaise and performance restrictions of the previous decade, Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations Department took the Fox-body Mustang aside, removed its 5.0-liter V8, and dropped in a 2.3-liter turbo-four linked to a five-speed manual. Some styling flair was added, along with plenty of performance upgrades, resulting in the legendary 1984-86 Mustang SVO.
For the 2020 model year, Ford is going back to the well with a Mustang powered by a 2.3-liter turbo-four, linked to either a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic. And this time, it will be known as the Mustang EcoBoost High Performance Package. That’s a long name, to say the least. Muscle Cars & Trucks wondered why the storied SVO name wasn’t used, and thus spoke with Mustang boss Jim Owens to get the answer.
“SVO was an engineering organization,” Owens told Muscle Cars & Trucks. “SVE, SVO, SVT – those were all engineering entities that actually did the work.”
The SVO name was retired a while ago — though still in possession by Ford, according to Owens — the team eventually reorganized as Ford Performance. Meanwhile, the team behind the High Performance Package “was the base Mustang team working weekends at the Arizona Proving Grounds, taking the engine out of a Ford Focus RS and putting it into a Mustang.” The whole affair took 10 months, resulting in an athletic machine putting down 330 horses and 350 lb-ft of torque, a long way from the SVO’s peak output of 205 horses and 248 lb-ft of torque in the middle of the 1985 model year.
Much like the SVO, though, the EcoBoost High Performance Package is aimed at the autocross crowd, thanks to the brakes, aero, and suspension pieces from the Mustang GT parts bin. The drag strip should be fun, too, as the new pony can hit 60 mph in just over four seconds on its way to a top speed of 155 mph. Not a bad way to ring in the original pony’s 55th anniversary, long name aside.
Photos: Ford
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