Hau Thai-Tang leaving SVT, will run Ford of Brazil

[arepb]

http://news.windingroad.com/auto-news/ford...zil-operations/

[one2gamble]

so a guy who does nothing at svt, did ok on the mustang will now run a major manufacturing entity......

[range]

so a guy who does nothing at svt, did ok on the mustang will now run a major manufacturing entity......

 

I wouldn't call the GT500 nothing.

 

"Our feature story on the SVT boss, which was published in this month’s issue of WINDING ROAD, gave Thai-Tang the lion’s share of the credit for the success of Ford’s go-fast products. Carroll Shelby tends to agree with us, too. “There have been some shitty Mustangs,” said Shelby. “But someone always comes back with a vision of how the Mustang should be–and that’s Hau Thai-Tang. Hau brought the Mustang back.”

Edited February 19, 2007 by range

[tim kakouris]

now, who at SVT will step up and put the mustang, and future SVT products, on diets so we don't have to have 500hp supercharged motors to be truly fast?

[TomServo92]

now, who at SVT will step up and put the mustang, and future SVT products, on diets so we don't have to have 500hp supercharged motors to be truly fast?

 

This thread on the The Mustang Source says that Hermann Salenbauch is replaceing HTT.

[NickF1011]

This thread on the The Mustang Source says that Hermann Salenbauch is replaceing HTT.

 

Who? I'm writing off SVT entirely until Ford starts making profits in NA again...so....2025 or so.

[LincolnFan]

So Asian ricerboy is now head of FoB?

[ANTAUS]

Poor guy, what did he do wrong to be pushed over to Brazil?

[ehaase]

Brazil, Mexico, and India may be the source of what few Ford cars are sold in North America in 5 to 10 years.

[Edstock]

If you went to that link, you got

"Mr. Salenbauch was recently Ford's Director of Advanced Product Creation. He had responsibilities for developing new product concepts for Ford North America. Prior to that he was Engineering Director in Ford's Lifestyle Car Cluster. In that role he led the core engineering activities that supported Focus, Mustang, Windstar, and Thunderbird.

 

He has been with Ford for approximately 6 years. He joined Ford from BMW where he was Chief Engineer at Land Rover which was owned by BMW at the time.

 

He is a very strong engineer. He worked for Hau over the past two years and is familiar with the SVT performance business. In addition, he led the core engineering (body, chassis, and electrical) on the Mustang program in a prior role and is a strong advocate for Mustang. They have a well laid out transition plan and he will build on the progress that SVT has made."

[Shoman594]

Any chance of convincing John Coletti to out of retirement ???

[one2gamble]

I wouldn't call the GT500 nothing.

 

"Our feature story on the SVT boss, which was published in this month’s issue of WINDING ROAD, gave Thai-Tang the lion’s share of the credit for the success of Ford’s go-fast products. Carroll Shelby tends to agree with us, too. “There have been some shitty Mustangs,” said Shelby. “But someone always comes back with a vision of how the Mustang should be–and that’s Hau Thai-Tang. Hau brought the Mustang back.”

 

 

The GT500 is largely a failure in the sense that it didnt push SVT or the brand forward. Its not significantly better or faster that the terminator.

[Edstock]

The GT500 is OK.

 

The advent of the new Boss V-8's must have caused change in future hi-po Mustang development plus any other new chassis to get the SVT treatment, because wouldn't it make further work on the mod-derived GT engine worthwhile.

[bb62]

Boy oh boy. The GT500 has been roundly paned for being nothing more than power addition with little for the rest of the chassis. Whatever. The problem with naming this guy to the Brazil post is the lack of BUSINESS credentials. He may be a good engineer, but that doesn't translate into viable BUSINESS strategy. But then, Ford eliminated their planners long ago. And that's what's killing them in North America.

[Blueblood]

Like I said, SVT IS DEAD.

 

Ford has no plans for performance cars of any kind other than the Mustang, so forget about it, they threw away a great thingand their most loyal customers.

 

HTT didn't do a thing, probably because Ford wouldn't let him, now they confirmed the death of SVT, how sad..

 

:rip: R.I.P. SVT

[RichardJensen]

Boy oh boy. The GT500 has been roundly paned for being nothing more than power addition with little for the rest of the chassis. Whatever. The problem with naming this guy to the Brazil post is the lack of BUSINESS credentials. He may be a good engineer, but that doesn't translate into viable BUSINESS strategy. But then, Ford eliminated their planners long ago. And that's what's killing them in North America.

At least he's got an MBA. http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=17236

[Mark B. Morrow]

I had the opportunity to meet HTT two years ago when the Mustang was the Marque of the Year for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. The event is run through Schenley Park adjacent to Carnegie Mellon University which is HTT's alma matter. He came in for the show along with 50 red '05 Mustangs (one for each local dealer with PVGP decals) We raffled off a GT coupe.

 

I was very impressed with HTT's knowledge of the Mustang's place in the market, Mustang owners and the history of the car as well as the engineering. If the powers that were at Ford had let him loose at SVT, we wouldn't be having these conversations. Unfortunately, the anti-performance group in management tied his hands and left him with nothing to do after the GT 500. It is a real shame. We might have had an SVT Focus and Fusion for those who can't swing the price of a GT 500.

 

The Brazil job will be good experience for a future return to NA. I wish him well.

[NickF1011]

Like I said, SVT IS DEAD.

 

Ford has no plans for performance cars of any kind other than the Mustang, so forget about it, they threw away a great thingand their most loyal customers.

 

HTT didn't do a thing, probably because Ford wouldn't let him, now they confirmed the death of SVT, how sad..

 

:rip: R.I.P. SVT

 

HTT did mention that there are still plans for a hipo truck.

 

As for the earlier comment from someone about the GT500 not being a big step up from the Terminator -- did it really have to be? I mean the Terminators were freakin unbelievable performers at their price. It would be pretty insane to think that the GT500 could make as big a leap from its predecessors as the Terminators did. There's just not that much more room for the performance market to grow as far as straight-line acceleration is concerned.

Edited February 20, 2007 by NickF1011

[atomaro]

The GT500 is largely a failure in the sense that it didnt push SVT or the brand forward. Its not significantly better or faster that the terminator.

 

 

Yeah, the first 500hp factory Mustang is a failure.

[bb62]

At least he's got an MBA. http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=17236

 

But he's spent his entire career in engineering. There's a world of difference in the two.

[TomServo92]

But he's spent his entire career in engineering. There's a world of difference in the two.

 

That's why they're moving him. They want him to get some operations experience under his belt.

[NickF1011]

That's why they're moving him. They want him to get some operations experience under his belt.

 

 

Then they should have promoted him to President of the Americas. At least here if he completely screwed up, nobody would notice.

[one2gamble]

Yeah, the first 500hp factory Mustang is a failure.

 

 

The amount of hp a vehicle happens to produce doesnt make automagically make it a success. Yes it was a hp bump but it was also a fairly large price jump/weight jump over the terminator. Its performance times do not show much of an improvement over the 03/04 when reality would dictate that it should have been significantly faster.

 

Theres gobs of potential in the car but it should have been better.

[RichardJensen]

But he's spent his entire career in engineering. There's a world of difference in the two.

Yeah. But at least he's actually seen a balance sheet and knows about accounting. Since Barry Engle's promotion, I think Ford Brazil has been without a head. Also IIRC Ford has gradually restructured the Americas division so that each separate business unit now reports directly to Mark Fields, instead of the old South America (with Brazil, Argentina etc. under that umbrella) and "Rest of North America" (with Canada & Mexico under that umbrella) structure with the Pres. of Americas being directly responsible for U.S. ops., and 2 removes from the rest of the continent.

 

If I'm right about the restructuring HTT now reports directly to Mark Fields, and since Ford Brazil has come a long way since the failure and wind down of the Auto Latina project, one hopes that he's got a capable staff, and a decent teacher in the Ford Brazil corporate offices, and Mark Fields respectively.

Edited February 20, 2007 by RichardJensen

[Kris Kolman]

Correct... Used to be Ford of North America responsible for USA & Canada... With Mexico south reporting to a combined Ford of Asia/Africa/South America structure... When Fields came in they gave him the title Ford of Americas, which handles every thing from Canada down to Argentina, freeing the other group to concentrate more on the growing China and India markets.