My Sources Tell me the 2010 Model will have a Tapered Looking Front Lamp Setup, A cleaner Interior with a more Contemporary Look and Different grille Set up. Also Look for MORE ROUSH Involvment with the Performance Development and Less SHELBY Development Influence. Saleen and Mustangs Future is said to be Shaky and Uncertain. Remember this is The Rumors Section! But how often have I been Wrong. Of course Ford Likes to Change their Direction mid Stream!

KC

 

Hmm. I'm not certain what they mean by less Shelby development influence. While I like the GT500 as it stands the Shelby influence in that model is limited to styling which apes that of the 68 model and a thumbs up from Carrol along with a suggestion or two on his part which Ford acted upon. Unless the vehicle looks almost nothing like the existing GT500, which given that cars fantastic reception stylistically speaking seems incredibly unlikely, they cease using the Shelby name, which seems equally unlikely for obvious reasons, or Shelby himself simply refuses to sit in a pre-production model I am unsure of how else such a predition could be realized.

 

Hips?

 

OOOOOOOOoooooooo, I do like a good rumour

Tapered lights? I hope that's referring the the GT500 front end look as opposed to the SN95 oblong headlights.

And yeah, hips too please.

What I'd really like would be for Ford to morph a '69 Mustang with the '09 Camaro. That'd be a killer look.

In the meantime, I'm more than happy with my '05.

 

SHELBY Name Cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
ROUSH Name Cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

While any Die Hard Ford Person Knows who Shelby is! Thanks to Nascar The Roush Name is More Known in the Mainstream. It Does Not Matter to Me Personally which way Ford Promotes the Stang. I am Merely Reporting what I have Heard. I talk to Hundreds of people about Mustangs during the course of a Month and Some are Sub Suppliers or Vendors who work with Ford so I try to get some Inside info whenever possible. But as The Topic Says RUMOR. We shall See.

I say Ford is Going to Try to Get the Biggest Bang for the Buck. Even if the Gt-500 Did Not have the Shelby Name Ford would Not have Had any Trouble Selling the Car Regardless of Name. Dealers May not have got the Same ADM But what does Ford Care as Long as they Sell as Many of a Model as they Make. Shelby Charges a Premium for His Name and Ford is Hurting for Bucks. I sense a Revamp in a lot of Fords Business Practices and very Soon.

kc

 

Juicy Rumors are good

 

I juicy rumors! thanks!

Since the last time a Shelby vehicle won a significant race was over 30 years ago, the Roush name is a lot more relevent. You can only live in the past for so long.

 

v. ta·pered, ta·per·ing, ta·pers
v.intr.
1. To become gradually narrower or thinner toward one end.
2. To diminish or lessen gradually. Often used with off: The storm finally tapered off.
v.tr.
1. To make thinner or narrower at one end.
2. To make smaller gradually.
adj.
Gradually decreasing in size toward a point.


Jack Roush is right in Fords backyard. Steve Saleen is out as the "man" and they have been saying that they will go with other OEMs too.
Shelby has had a good run but $$$ is an issue. They have had the Ford Shelby Cobra Concept and Ford Shelby GR-1 concept and so many
Shelbys since then that the "glamour" has worn off and the name has become too popular for a niche vehicle.
Also Carroll was the one that told SVT to yank the IRS from the GT500...
A change should be welcomed...A more simple /trimmed line up without all the payola.
Ford should have kept SVT stronger than it is. They had a great line up of cars/trucks for over 10 years.
Best thing about 2010...No more fugly whip antenna!

 

Yes, I want SVT back.

 

If production vehicles had any serious connection to the better known racing series I might agree. But realistically only enthusiasts are typically familiar with Roush's racing exploits outside of NASCAR which arguably means that race pedegree relevence is, unfortunately, not especially relevent.

I was actually thinking the same thing, only to a different end. Payola is the issue, but it is even more significant as it relates to cash inflow for Ford than cash outflow to Shelby. While I think that the whole ADM thing has reached ridiculous proportions the the extraordinary staying power of the same relative to the GT500 has proven that Ford could easily have asked 10k more for this car than they did and still sold every last one of them.

Is part of that because the car wears the Shelby badge? Absolutely. But while some complain about this the reality is no different than with any other storied badge. People want the car to demonstrate pedigree in some fashion or another, and badging is one way to do that. And while I like Roush, for most folks his name doesn't possess the same emotional impact that the Shelby moniker does whatever our personal attachement. Put succinctly from a business perspective the Shelby name is at least as relevent to increased cash inflow as it is to cash outflow.

That is why I find it difficult to believe Ford would leave the Shelby badge for a Roush or SVT moniker...or any other for that matter. Dropping a Shelby name on the car means that a performance car will receive maximum attention and demand maximum dollars. Payments to Shelby for the rights to the Shelby name may be high, but I seriously doubt they are high enough to negate the impact of the above.

Unless Carrol has seriously upped the ante regarding royalties, which I doubt is the case, I think the above is more likely another misconstrued rumour with accurate information having been garbled in translation before it reached KC. Of course, there is one other plausible possibility. If Shelby is looking to make a genuine comeback with a modern take on the old Shelby American concept then I could envision such a move. But as far as I know there are no rumours of the same and something would have leaked about a move thiat big without question.

 

That's what Shelby has...But his name as of late doesn't bring the same umph it did in the 60's.
Everybody that reminised about the ole days of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" has already picked
up a new Shelby over the last 2 years...Everyone else (under 35...prime market for Mustang)
hear Shelby and remember Omni and Dakota. Moreso kids (13-18)
introduced to Mustang with the 2005 model like the GT500 but also
see the Shelby name of late on the web (that's where all the kids are!)
tarnished with Shelby GT quality issues, Children's Foundation not
donating enough, Cutting ties with Unique Performance for undelivered cars paid for up front, etc...
At the end of the day if Shelby didn't sign up, any Mustang with 500HP
and unique styling would have sold plenty and could have easily been labeled a BOSS or a MACh or even a FR500.
Ford stills owns the Cobra name... how 'bout 2010 Ford Mustang Cobra
and throw on SVT Badges on both fenders.

 

I understand where your argument is coming from, but if you were fronting the same in a FoMoCo boardroom I think you would likely be in a very lonely position. Assuming Ford is looking at these things strictly from a business perspective if the SVT and Roush monikers are fighting the Shelby badge for future dominance the latter walks all over them. Without question badging this car as a Shelby, particularly with it's wanna be 68 GT500 looks, did everything Ford had hoped and then some. The reasons are simple.

Despite being on the market for over a year with relatively high production numbers for a SE car you still wont likely find a GT500 for sticker and at present it looks like you still wont reasonably be able to expect to wrangle the same out of a dealer for several months at least. In the past it took ridiculously low volume cars like the Cobra R to manage the same and nowwe have a 10k unit a year Mustang is doing it. Granted, we can front the notion that this is something of a one time deal with demand being inflated by old codgers wanting to relive their youth. But realistically speaking that argument wont last five seconds in a board room without something of substance to back it up...and as yet there is nothing but opinion to indicate that the GT500's success couldn't be repeated with every generation.

I never developed the emotional attachment to the SVT badge that many did, partially because I never understood the need to market an internal Ford tuning arm and partially because of a disappointing 'near purchase' experience with a 98 SVT Cobra. So the fate of the SVT moniker isn't of great cocern to me. But any indifference on my part aside, from a business perspective the only argument that doesn't fall strictly into the realm of personal opinion against the continued use of the Shelby moniker is based on the idea that Ford doesn't make enough from the use of the Shelby moniker to cover the cost of using it since the GT500 has without question destroyed expectations in every other way as it relates to the Shelby badge. And since we have no idea what Shelby gets per car we can't even seriously front the notion that this is an issue.

Granted, there has been some backlash from SVT loyalists over the use of the Shelby name. But given the insane demand for the GT500 you would be hard pressed to prove that this has had a negative impact on sales. If the Shelby name is disappearing from the Mustang it seems extremely unlikely that a lack of profit potential is the issue. I personally would love to see Shelby take complete control of the GT350 and 500 programs back with Ford going back to another moniker, SVT or whatever, since the same would allow for maximum possible Mustang goodness. But realisitcally I don't see that happening right now.

 

This isn't an argument, just an opinion...
Ford did and does a great job with Mustang.
Who knows...maybe we'll see Shelbys
until my kids can buy one.

From 1971 to 2007 Ford Mustang didn't need
Shelby to sell and ultimately outsell the competition.

Camaro will jump on the bandwagon next year with
their old namesakes (RS,SS,YENKO, Z28, etc)
because it worked for Ford

As for the boardroom meetings...
I may have a few supporters. See having a car on the showroom floor like the GT500
is eye candy and floor traffic. But if that said dealer spends its day trying to sell the Shelby
with ridiculous ADMs and ignores the bread and butter it's not helping Ford at all.
ADM's are what they are...Additional Dealer Markup... The only people that profit are the dealers
Ford doesn't get any of that back. Dealers get lazy and stamp ADMs on all the Shelbys on the lot...
People buy them and dealer profit goes through the roof. They sit back counting their cash
and do not make any effort putting people into say a Focus, Fusion, Taurus...etc.

 

Bring it, just leave any ideas of 4 doors and 3 doors like a Saturn out of the picture please.

 

It will be Interesting to See in a Year or so what Pans Out. Great Points being made Imo.

KC

 

Obviously a money thing,
or it was set in stone in the beginning knowing full well that a run of say 3 years of GT500s etc, would fetch more money after the fact.

A 3 year run of said car, compared to a market flooded with Shelbys.
less = more valuable.
EVEN if the car was the exact same sans Shelby name....
you KNOW people would be saying and trying to fetch more money JUST because of its brand name.
"I have a 2009 Mustang Cobra"
"but its not a 2008 Shelby GT500"
"Uh yes it is..same car, just badged differently"
"But its not a Shelby"

Although I don't feel that oomph if a Roush name was attached to a factory Ford mustang.
I'm just guessing that it'll be more of a collaboration on/in the car.

I could see Saleen doing work on other brands as well (ie: Challenger/Camaro) ... especially the latter as was rumoured/reported last year.
Roush does a lot of work with ford on engine testing etc (as did Saleen) but Roush also worked on other vehicles if I'm not mistaken, but he sells Mustangs and F-150s.

 

I dont understand why Ford needs to go to other companies for help building THIER Mustang? I mean...Ford is a car company for crying out loud! Just have the SVT people figure out how to make it high perfomance instead of paying roush to do it. Keep the money in the company...don't pay other people to do something you are more than capable of doing!...Its like paying somone to mow your yard, and use your lawn mower.

 

My $.02:

Less Shelby doesn't have to mean all Shelby products are headed out. I think the GT-500 could stay as the sole Shelby and "Halo" Mustang, while Roush works through something like the SVT or FR names to fill out the range. That way you get Shelby's draw, but you're not dependant on his cars to make your money.

Roush isn't trying to pretend he's his own OEM like Saleen, and he's friendlier to Ford's bottom line than Shelby. And he's got a partnership with Yates Engines. Not a lot of name recognition, but the wonders they work with the powertrain speak for themselves.

 

You guys have missed another reason for making more of the Roush connection: Remember the rumors of NASCAR switching to ponycars for the Busch League in 2009 or 2010? If (When?) that happens, having a Roush Mustang will market well to the millions of NASCAR fans.

 

Nascar or Some Other Race Series with a Camaro,Challenger & Mustang! That I would Watch. Time to Get back to Grass Roots Racing ! The Big Three with Cars as close to Showroom but being built for Safety. Remember the Old What wins on Sunday Sells on Monday! The Car of Tommorrow Nascar does not Interest me one bit. If That Happens I hope Toyota Stays out Though! That Means we would Need a BOSS Mustang, Z28 Camaro and an T/A Challenger! I welcome theNew Pony Cars! Let the Speculation Begin!

KC