I'm not saying bubble wrap the car and stick it in cold storage. The SVO was meant to be driven....driven hard by true enthusiasts. The whole mystique of the car is the unique body styling, suspension pieces, and what lays under the hood from the factory.

SVO's are hard enough to find as it is, and it would be nice to keep the remaining SVO's with their original powerplants. It is a shame to see one torn apart by someone who doesn't know what he has. I just don't see the point of trashing such a rare car when you could do a V8 swap into any other Mustang.


BTW, even with my SVO I fell into category 1. I was in the process of building the car for autocross when I was pretty much forced to sell her. I don't think the SVO should be kept bone stock and I believe there are plenty of shortcomings on the car (particularly in the suspension department). Ditching that wonderful stock powerplant for the common 302 is just sacrelige to me. 302's are like assholes, everyone has one. Put it in any other Mustang, but keep it out of the SVO.

 

Tell your friend that he might as well put a 350 in it..

 

yeah, its like taking a grand national or t type and dropping a 305 in it......... why? when you can just buy a regal and do it?


or why not just buy a 03 cobra and drop a flat head ford in it....... sure you can but WHY????

i think a regular mustang with a 2.3t is cooler than an svo with a damn rocket on it,


the svo is the svo, putting anything else in it is just making it nothing and kinda dumb.......... especially when he doesn't care about the car and will have to woneder why he has to pay $800 for a headlight when he could just pay $20............



tell him if he wants to do something original to get a 76 mustang king cobra ! you never see those ! (wonder why?)

 

because they are ugly as piss! but i would rock one. i think you are refering to the '78 any how but i could be wrong.

 

Gotta disagree with you on the first part here, Fordified...

I have, and have KEPT my SVO for the past 6 years or so because it is absolutely dirt cheap to operate and maintain. I'm not going to lie to you, my car is by no means a show car; it's a driver all the way. I drive the crap out of it everyday and love every minute of it.

Most of the mechanical parts of an SVO are not specific. The rear end, brakes and control arms are all Lincoln stuff, the engine was in MANY other cars and the body is just a Fox Stang. The shocks and stuts are specific, yeah, but they're a lifetime warranty item if you just buy them once. The rack is specific, but any other will do, if you don't mind giving up some 'feel' (I don't know what kind of 'feel' the SVO rack had, honestly). The computers are specific, but the 84 TE computers were junk and the other's can be replaced with a T-Bird computer, which is actually a better (faster) processor. Oh yeah, and the wheels...they're specific, too.

The cosmetic stuff is what's specific. And yeah, that stuff can be rare and expensive, but reproductions are being made with the original tooling. Most of the prices are pretty reasonable.

My SVO isn't stock, but I haven't cut it up at all to make any mods. That's why I agree with you about building a Stang with the 2.3t and other SVO mechanical bits. I sometimes wish I had done that instead, so I could chop the crap out of it in the name of performance and not feel bad about wrecking something that is not a run of the mill Mustang.

And that's why whoever wanted to put a 5.0 in an SVO is just missing the point. Sure you can put the 2.3t back in, but if he's on a budget, it will make more sense to sell the SVO and put the money into his new car.

-Mike

 

whoops!

 

Sheesh, talk about editing to put a spin on it...

The shocks and struts are specific, but I'd love to see an original set that isn't beat to death at this point. In other words, if you're looking to build an SVO, you're gonna be buying new ones.

Again, the rack, I don't know HOW it is specific. I mean, any other rack bolts right up.

Computers...only one worth getting is the PE, and the L- series are better, way cheaper and FAR more common.

And if I had a nickel for every time someone told me the car looked OK with the exception of the wheels... IOW- Changing them for something similar won't ruin the car.

And I didn't know we were talking about building show winning SVOs here.

Engine, tranny, rear, body, electrical, brakes and a ton of suspension aren't specific, as well as a lot of the interior. I think the pile of specific stuff is a lot smaller than the non-specific pile.