By Jesse Kershaw

Until recently, Ford SVT's performance vehicle business and that of Ford Racing Performance Parts were two fairly distinct worlds. But then an internal project dubbed "Boy Racer" came along. That project soon grew into the Mustang GT-R Concept Car, which in turn spawned a turn-key race car program called the FR500-C. And now that the FR500-C itself has found success in Grand Am Cup racing right out of the box, FRPP and SVT will never be the same.

That's because the Mustang FR500-C program has served to bridge the gap between SVT and FRPP in ways that didn't even exist before. And it starts at the very top: Jay O'Connell, the former manager for the race car program now holds the position of chief engineer for the Ford Special Vehicle Team. Just as his SVT predecessor, O.J. "John" Coletti, had put some muscle car flavor into many of the SVT vehicles he had developed, O'Connell's background as a road racer is sure to add a new performance twist to future SVT products.

"Strengthening the connection between Ford Racing Performance Parts and Ford Special Vehicle Team engineering can only serve to help the Ford enthusiast," O'Connell says. "SVT now has an opportunity to take the engineering lessons learned from the racetrack and have them 'trickle down' directly into SVT-engineered cars for the street."

Of course SVT Engineering had already worked closely with FRPP in developing the FR500-C, giving input from the development of the next-generation SVT Mustang, the Shelby Cobra GT500. But the relationship is closer than ever before with O'Connell at the SVT helm, thanks to his background packing the one-two punch of race car engineering and race car driving.

"When it comes to making fast, fun-to-drive cars that the general public can buy, SVT is the place to be for a Ford enthusiast," O'Connell notes in his disarming matter-of-fact tone. "I'm excited about the opportunity to develop enthusiast-oriented vehicles that could become performance legends in their own right some day, as well as helping FRPP support those vehicles in the marketplace with the right go-faster parts and products."

If anyone should know how to do just that it's O'Connell, whose racing experience has made him a big fan of vehicles that exhibit balanced performance attributes and superior chassis dynamics. Jay comes to SVT by way of a Toronto-based automotive supplier Multimatic, known most recently by Mustang racers as the developer/supplier for the FR500C Grand Am Cup race car program that grew out of "Boy Racer." But O'Connell's race engineering roots had been firmly planted at Ford before that.

"I was lucky enough to have worked closely with (SVT Director) Hau Thai-Tang on Ford chassis dynamics projects a while back, so having that good working relationship with him and mutual respect should help us build a strong case for future SVT programs," O'Connell says.

You can be sure O'Connell will be involved in all aspects of the SVT engineering effort, from vehicle dynamics to on-road evaluation and testing. Before his stint at Multimatic he was Chassis Engineering Manager at Ford, where he'd worked for some 14 years in various positions within product development and Ford Racing Technology. He played a major role in the chassis development of the Lincoln LS/Jaguar S-type platform as well as the suspension design and development of the Ford Racing FR500 Mustang, FR200 Focus and FR100 vehicles. He also managed Ford Racing's CART Program for three years and Jaguar Racing's F1 Research and Development department for one year in England.

"I'd like to see lap times introduced as a benchmark performance number by which we measure our cars versus the competition," O'Connell says. "After all, the enthusiast driving experience goes well beyond just acceleration and braking. Our customers expect SVT products to accelerate, stop and turn with the best of them. Developing a well-engineered vehicle that performs well and is still affordable is what SVT is all about."

And helping to develop winning race cars is what FRPP is all about. In the NASCAR racing world, the dynamic of racing on Sunday to sell on Monday has lost some of its relevance with the purpose-built race cars owing nothing to their stock car counterparts, save for the exterior shape. Consequently, lessons learned in that series no longer trickles down to production cars.

But luckily for Mustang racing enthusiasts, the Grand Am Cup series has provided a perfect venue for trickle-down knowledge to make its way into products from FRPP and SVT. And when the first FR500-Cs finished 1-2 on a Friday afternoon at Daytona to open this year's Grand Am Cup season, it marked a rebirth in Mustang's rich racing heritage. And while many of the components found on the race car are "race only" parts, the valuable information gathered from the teams has already sparked development of street-level components for FRPP. That means for today's Ford racing enthusiast, it's more like "Win on Friday, sell on Monday."

In the performance automotive business there are underlying questions that are key to owner satisfaction, whether you purchase a whole car from SVT or performance components from Ford Racing Performance Parts: "Does it improve the driving experience?" And, "Is the car fun to drive right out of the box from SVT, or is it more fun to drive with FRPP components?"

As the sign that hangs outside of FRPP "Cammer" engine engineer Andy Schwartz's office says: "If it doesn't look sexy, make noise, or go fast I don't care about it." That pretty much sums it up.

This article was originally published in the SVTOA Enthusiast. To learn more about the SVT Owners Association, visit them at SVTOA.com.