It's the Shelby Mustang Cobra!
Weight: A GT weighs 3468 pounds; a Mustang GT 3520. With the aluminum-block engine, the Shelby Mustang Cobra won't weigh that much more. Performance target is the new 500-horsepower, 7.0-liter Corvette Z06 (a lighter car), and the Dodge Viper SRT-10.
Out back: A stiffened, toughened version on the GT's live axle with coil springs and an anti-roll bar.
What now for SVT?
John Coletti has hung up his hat as head of Ford's in-house hot-shop, SVT. His successor is Hau Thai-Tang, the engineer behind the new 2005 Mustang--as well as the 2001 Mustang GT, the Mustang Cobra, and the Bullitt--and former vehicle-dynamics supervisor and engineering manager for the 2000 Lincoln LS.
Coletti gave us great high-performance Fords: His crowning achievement is the Ferrari-killer GT. Besides the Mustang Cobra and Cobra R, there's been the F-150 Lightning, Contour SVT, and the excellent (but commercially unsuccessful) SVT Focus. He insisted SVT work only on Ford division cars and trucks and that they be as lightweight as possible. Thus, no extended-cab Lightning, no Expedition or Explorer Lightning, and no supercharged Mercury Marauder.
Look for that to change: Thai-Tang also is Ford Motor Company director of advanced product creation. One SVT insider also has hinted that they're eyeing the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Mazda Speed6 to yield its powertrain and suspension upgrades to create an SVT Fusion. As the 6 and Fusion share platform architecture, it wouldn't be a huge stretch. The blown and intercooled 2.3-liter I-4 could produce as much as 300 horsepower in SVT form.