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Story by David S. Wallens • Photos as credited
What was old is new again–yacht rock, rising gas prices and even …
At one point when I was younger, my dad a Turbo T-Bird, an '85 Mustang GT, and my uncle had an '86 SVO.
We used the SVO for a couple of road trips to go see races at Heartland Park. Needless to say, I was more than upset when I found out my uncle sold the SVO my senior of college!
I once came across a 11K miles example for sale back in 1997. I would have bought it but for the fact that it was to nice for a daily driver, which was what I was looking for at the time.
I am still disappointed Ford has yet to call any version of the ecoboost mustang a SVO mustang.
A friend made up SVO stickers and put them on the rear of his green 2015 Ecoboost mustang.
Great cars then, and great cars today. Love the turbo 4's in the pony cars.
just too bad more people don't realize they slot in above the twins in performance and below a lot of the mid 30's cars in price and offer similar performance.
Yeah, kinda sad that name has been allowed to fade away.
True story: Tim prepped a legit SVO for the $1500 Challenge.
I succumbed to the lure of the SVO in its first year, 1984, when its advertised 175 bhp was TEN MORE than the same-year GT. Plus kewlness.
Mine had the dash-mounted switch that you could put in low-boost (145 bhp) or high-boost (175 bhp) mode, depending on what octane gas you put in it. We determined, through watching the boost gauge, that nothing would make the car give the advertised higher level of boost.
The dealer was successful, after several visits which eventually ended up pulling out the dash and transmission tunnel, in discovering that the problem was that the switch had a faulty ground. The first drive after 92 octane plus working boost gauge was worth the effort.
As a first-year model, mine had teething pains and disappointments; I had one of the early versions WITHOUT the four-damper rear end, using traction bars instead of the trick horizontally mounted Konis that were introduced mid-year, and of course I found this out AFTER buying the car. Note to self: look under EVERY car you buy, even new ones on the dealer lot. As my son once said, "Wow, Dad, you sure learned a lot of things the hard way."
Probably the most unfortunate thing about the SVO was that gas prices dropped precipitously in 1985, and Ford's V8 team bumped the 5-liter to ever higher output and economy, matching the SVO's 175 later in 1984 but with V8 throttle response, and exceeding it until the end of the SVO's run. When the SVO offered 4-cylinder economy (I saw 29 on mine many times on road trips) with more-than-V8 performance, it almost made sense. We are seeing the fruition of the principle in, well, every car, truck, and SUV that has a 2-liter turbo today. Rucksprung durch technik, anyone?
This is one of the few cars I had and miss. I had an 85 in rare medium charcoal metallic. I sold it to a friend that really wanted it.
I’m strongly considering getting another, going IRS and ‘15+ GT ecoboost and other mods. It’d be a CAM autoX / track toy and cruiser. It’s kind of my dream Mustang.
Just so you know they are still around, I have been building my 85.5 SVO as a track, autocross and, most recently, vintage road race car for several years. I just completed the SVRA three day school at Roebling Road leading to my license. I will be at the SVRA event at Road Atlanta at the end of March. My car is detailed as a tribute car to the Mac Tools sponsored cars that were campaigned in the SCCA Showroom Stock classes in the 80's.
There is a lot of interest in these cars in various groups on Facebook, and there are two old-style forums dedicated to the car too. They are fairly rare, but get very little respect in the collector car world. Even the few super low mileage, factory fresh examples that have shown up at the various auctions in recent years can barely bring the original 1980's sticker price. To most people, they are just another Fox Mustang. To a few others, they are a really cool and interesting variant that was way ahead of it's time.
This was me at Road Atlanta earlier this year. It has a fair amount of suspension work, while keeping the OEM front end, spindles, brakes, and such. Watts link/poor-mans-three-link rear. Original 85K mile engine and trans (soon to be freshened). I did put in a Pimp (Megaquirt) computer and went to speed density for tunability, but the powerplant is otherwise stock.
In reply to stukndapast :
Very nice and inspiring.
Anthony, my name is Bob Fehan, the Mac Tools SVO Mustang was the car i raced in 1984
Anthony, 1985 SCCA GT-1 CHAMPION in my Roush Protofab Ford Motorsports Mac Tools Mustang 
In reply to detriotperf :
Awesome, I love the 80s Mustang race cars. The more pictures the better!
AnthonyGS said:... going IRS and ‘15+ GT ecoboost and other mods...
That would about double the horsepower.
Having owned more than a dozen fox body Mustangs over the years, I was never fortunate enough to land an SVO. Back in the day, I had the chance to buy a new Competition Prep '86 SVO and like an idiot, I passed. If I had only had the foresight to buy that car instead of GT which I later ended up selling.
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