this was posted by BigD(Dwight)
Hello all,
As many of you know, I had a meeting with SVT at SEMA last month concerning the 06 Gen 3 Lightning, and lack thereof.
I had an appointment to meet with both Tom Scarpello and John Coletti on Wednesday morning (3rd) at the Ford display. Tom was on time, but John did not make the meeting due to other commitments. Tom was cordial and we discussed the Gen 3 Lightning and SVT's future for ~45 minutes, as Tom delayed his next appointment.
Here is a synopsis of the meeting:
There will be no 06 Gen 3 Lightning
There may be a Gen 3 Lightning in 2008. Currently the "bean counters"
want all products to "pay their own way" and the Lightning probably does not recoup development and warranty costs?! I argued that the value to Ford of most SVT products is intangible, but of real value to the corporation as a whole.
Another reason there will not be a 06 Gen 3 Lightning is that Ford will make major changes to the "new" current F-150 platform, and Ford did not want to release a new Lightning on a changing platform.
All the SVT people are happy with the email and faxes they are receiving, as it gives SVT ammunition to "beat up" the bean counter with. They want the flood of emails and faxes to continue!
I shamed Tom and SVT for not helping the NLOC and LightningFest. Other than sending the SVT truck and selling their shirts at our event, NLOC and the event does not receive one dollar from Ford. I asked Tom to support the NLOC and LightningFest with just a portion of the cost of one NASCAR TV ad for the Lightning. Tom agreed that Ford has not helped and should, so we may get monetary support from Ford for the 2005 event.
I was asked by Tom about an interim Lightning to keep the name alive in the short term, thus the poll on the board concerning an interim Lightning.
I came away from the meeting with the following impressions:
There will be a Gen 3 Lightning, but not until 2008.
Much of the development work is already done, but has stopped due to the platform changes coming.
It seems that the next Lightning will have the Whipple SC rather than the Eaton.
SVT wants us to continue to bombard Ford with emails and faxes...with well thought comments.
We will just have to wait and see what happens.
Roy Richards (Super Cab L) and I also talked to many potential LightningFest Sponsors at SEMA. We handed out 20 Sponsor packs and mailed another 10 additional packs after the show....thanks Roy!