More 5.0 Questions with Hau Thai Tang

**jdv** · 09-21-2005, 10:03 PM

More 5.0 Questions with Hau Thai Tang
He helped bring you the '05 Mustang, and now he's helping develop all the new Fords--including the SVTs

By Steve Turner

You probably know Hau Thai Tang as the man who led the engineering team for the '05 Mustang as Chief Nameplate Engineer. He was also deeply involved in the development of the '01 Cobra and '01 Bullitt, as well as handling the vehicle dynamics on the Lincoln LS. He was also a race engineer with Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti in Formula 1, so he obviously knows performance. On December 1, 2004, Hau was appointed Director, Advanced Product Creation and Special Vehicle Team. After a swirl of rumors regarding the future of SVT, Hau kicked off his tenure with debut of the highly anticipated Shelby Cobra GT 500 and Sport Trac Adrenalin. Since Hau is instrumental in creating the cars we will drive in the years to come, we decided to ask him a few questions.

1.0 Can you give us a little background on your professional career?
I have been with Ford for 17 years. I started in Chassis Engineering as part of the Ford College Graduate Training Program and progressed through various jobs in Product Development. My expertise is in Chassis/Suspension Design and Vehicle Dynamics. My work experience includes a year on the CART program as race engineer for Newman-Haas Racing during the 1993 season. I have also worked in Cologne, Germany for Ford of Europe. All of my work experience has been on RWD products and I have worked on pretty much all of the modern Ford RWD platforms: Fox-based Mustang, Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car, MN12 T-Bird/Cougar/Mark VIII, DEW98 Lincoln LS/S-Type/T-Bird, Scorpio/Sierra, and S197 Mustang.

2.0 What are your top-three career highlights?

Race engineer for Nigel Mansell & Mario Andretti and winning driver's and manufacturer's championship in 1993 for Ford. Vehicle Engineering Manager for Lincoln LS that was named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Chief Engineer for 2005 Mustang Program.

3.0 Your title is Director, Advanced Product Creation and SVT. What are your job responsibilities?

I have responsibility for doing the pre-program engineering for future North American Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury products. This includes working closely with Design, Marketing, Finance, and Manufacturing to ensure that we have compatibility between product hardware assumptions and business objectives. We work on programs that are 5 to 7 years out. I also have responsibility for all SVT products and the Ford GT.

4.0 How different was working on the S197 Mustang compared to the Lincoln LS?

The big difference is that we all knew what a Mustang represented and we had 40 years of history to learn from, where as the LS was an all new nameplate and we were using that to shift the market perception of the Lincoln brand. In that sense, the Mustang was much easier. However, the Mustang posed a bigger technical challenge. We had to design a cost-efficient platform that would make money at sub-$20,000 price point and still have it be robust enough to make a good convertible and support SVT and other high-performance derivatives.

5.0 How has Carroll Shelby impacted SVT and its vehicles?

We have been working very closely with Carroll over the past few years. It started with the Ford GT and continued with the Cobra and GR1 concept cars. This past year we moved our relationship to the next level by collaborating on the Shelby Cobra GT 500. Carroll has been intimately involved with the vehicle design and development. He is a performance legend and has done a great job of conveying his product vision to our team of designers and engineers.

6.0 What's it like to be reunited with Jay O'Connell?

It's fantastic. Jay and I have worked together from almost the beginning of our careers. We hired into Ford a few months apart and have worked together in Chassis Engineering, on the Lincoln LS program, and also in the Small FWD/RWD cluster. He is an extremely talented engineer, a fantastic driver, and a great people person. He is a huge asset to SVT and to Ford. I'm glad to have him back.

7.0 Are you feeling the pressure of enthusiasts' expectations at SVT?

Absolutely. Our customers are the lifeblood of our brand. They are demanding and vocal and I wouldn't expect any less from them. We rely on them to be ambassadors for our products and our job is to meet and exceed their high expectations.

8.0 How will SVT be contributing to non-SVT-branded vehicles?

SVT is the center-of-excellence within Ford NA for performance vehicles. We believe that there may be future opportunities for us to leverage that expertise on non-SVT branded vehicles. We, in effect, did this with the Ford GT. Nothing has been finalized, we are still studying it.

9.0 Along those lines, what are your thoughts regarding other specialty Mustangs like the Bullitt and Mach 1?

We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning. We will take your input under advisement.

10.0 Most enthusiasts are pleased you've kept the solid-axle in the Mustang and the GT 500, but the general automotive press has frowned upon it. What is your feeling about the decision?

The four cornerstones of SVT are Performance, Substance, Exclusivity, and Value. Our job is to give our customers the greatest performance bang for the buck. The reality is that we have a very good rear suspension in the base Mustang. It has beaten the best IRS cars from US, Japan, and Europe in Grand Am series. The incremental benefits of going to an IRS were vastly outweighed by the incremental cost to the consumer. I have no doubt whatsoever that we are doing the right thing for our consumers.

11.0 When the Lightning program was suspended and John Coletti retired, a wildfire of rumors spread across the Internet about SVT's demise. Now Ford is investing more into the program than ever. Did enthusiasts' responses to those rumors serve to strengthen SVT's position within Ford?

We have had some new people appointed at all levels of the company. It's always nice to ground everyone on the importance of SVT. We appreciate hearing from our core customers and their input will always play a role in our decision making process.

12.0 When the SVT Focus program ended, some said the car wasn't upscale enough to be an SVT. Could we see and SVT Focus when North America finally receives the C1 platform?

Sorry, I can't comment on future product decisions.

13.0 What's on your iPod's most-played song list?

Hey Mama - Black Eyed Peas
Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
Where's the Love - Black Eyed Peas
100 Years - Five for Fighting
Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison

http://mustang50magazine.com/eventco...w_50questions/

Hamburglar · 09-21-2005, 10:15 PM

We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning.

UCBeau · 09-21-2005, 10:55 PM

i'd love to see a 5.0 LX

Cali Korleone · 09-22-2005, 07:03 AM

Teh Five Point Oh.

**jdv** · 09-23-2005, 10:44 AM

Maybe they can swing it towards emission legal now?

Cali Korleone · 09-23-2005, 10:51 AM

I might have to quit modding the '04 and buy a new Boss 302.

fiveohh94gt · 09-23-2005, 10:13 PM

time to start saving some money for when all these special edition stangs come out

**U r B a N 96** · 09-24-2005, 12:16 AM

itb's

tomustang · 09-24-2005, 11:06 AM

yeah i can't wait till the SVT namplate is on lincolns and mazdas

he's an idiot!

BlackArtemis · 09-24-2005, 12:00 PM

Well an SVT mazda 3 with a hopped up mzdaspeed engine would be slick and they already have a mazdaspeed RX8 in the works.

The supercharger from a Jag S type bolts onto the LS8, a supercharged LS8 M6 would be pretty hot too.

P-51 · 09-24-2005, 08:34 PM

BOSS 302

mo_dingo · 09-25-2005, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamburglar

We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning.

And when he sayd boss 302 and 5.0LX, does he mean a pushrod motor or a modular w/ some sort of bore/stroke to it???? I couldn't imagine them reverting to the pushrod motor, but I wouldn't complain one bit!!!!
Scott

Hamburglar · 09-25-2005, 04:33 PM

modular 5.0 forsure

**jdv** · 09-25-2005, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mo_dingo

And when he sayd boss 302 and 5.0LX, does he mean a pushrod motor or a modular w/ some sort of bore/stroke to it???? I couldn't imagine them reverting to the pushrod motor, but I wouldn't complain one bit!!!!
Scott

I pray it will be a modular with a 4" bore and a 3" stroke again, you'll see them start making some really good power again.

**jdv** · 09-27-2005, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomustang

yeah i can't wait till the SVT namplate is on lincolns and mazdas

he's an idiot!

I don't see them putting their name plate on Mazda's. Lincolns and Mercury's for sure.

Murph · 09-28-2005, 09:34 AM

We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning.

That is just tits right there! First time I heard about the 5.0 possibly coming back!

I wonder if they bring back the boss 302 if they will make Shinoda stop producing his version??

09-21-2005, 10:03 PM	#1
jdv the polarbear conservation corps protects a polarbear homie straight outa' compton because polarbears love klondike bars Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 34,185	More 5.0 Questions with Hau Thai Tang More 5.0 Questions with Hau Thai Tang He helped bring you the '05 Mustang, and now he's helping develop all the new Fords--including the SVTs By Steve Turner You probably know Hau Thai Tang as the man who led the engineering team for the '05 Mustang as Chief Nameplate Engineer. He was also deeply involved in the development of the '01 Cobra and '01 Bullitt, as well as handling the vehicle dynamics on the Lincoln LS. He was also a race engineer with Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti in Formula 1, so he obviously knows performance. On December 1, 2004, Hau was appointed Director, Advanced Product Creation and Special Vehicle Team. After a swirl of rumors regarding the future of SVT, Hau kicked off his tenure with debut of the highly anticipated Shelby Cobra GT 500 and Sport Trac Adrenalin. Since Hau is instrumental in creating the cars we will drive in the years to come, we decided to ask him a few questions. 1.0 Can you give us a little background on your professional career? I have been with Ford for 17 years. I started in Chassis Engineering as part of the Ford College Graduate Training Program and progressed through various jobs in Product Development. My expertise is in Chassis/Suspension Design and Vehicle Dynamics. My work experience includes a year on the CART program as race engineer for Newman-Haas Racing during the 1993 season. I have also worked in Cologne, Germany for Ford of Europe. All of my work experience has been on RWD products and I have worked on pretty much all of the modern Ford RWD platforms: Fox-based Mustang, Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car, MN12 T-Bird/Cougar/Mark VIII, DEW98 Lincoln LS/S-Type/T-Bird, Scorpio/Sierra, and S197 Mustang. 2.0 What are your top-three career highlights? Race engineer for Nigel Mansell & Mario Andretti and winning driver's and manufacturer's championship in 1993 for Ford. Vehicle Engineering Manager for Lincoln LS that was named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Chief Engineer for 2005 Mustang Program. 3.0 Your title is Director, Advanced Product Creation and SVT. What are your job responsibilities? I have responsibility for doing the pre-program engineering for future North American Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury products. This includes working closely with Design, Marketing, Finance, and Manufacturing to ensure that we have compatibility between product hardware assumptions and business objectives. We work on programs that are 5 to 7 years out. I also have responsibility for all SVT products and the Ford GT. 4.0 How different was working on the S197 Mustang compared to the Lincoln LS? The big difference is that we all knew what a Mustang represented and we had 40 years of history to learn from, where as the LS was an all new nameplate and we were using that to shift the market perception of the Lincoln brand. In that sense, the Mustang was much easier. However, the Mustang posed a bigger technical challenge. We had to design a cost-efficient platform that would make money at sub-$20,000 price point and still have it be robust enough to make a good convertible and support SVT and other high-performance derivatives. 5.0 How has Carroll Shelby impacted SVT and its vehicles? We have been working very closely with Carroll over the past few years. It started with the Ford GT and continued with the Cobra and GR1 concept cars. This past year we moved our relationship to the next level by collaborating on the Shelby Cobra GT 500. Carroll has been intimately involved with the vehicle design and development. He is a performance legend and has done a great job of conveying his product vision to our team of designers and engineers. 6.0 What's it like to be reunited with Jay O'Connell? It's fantastic. Jay and I have worked together from almost the beginning of our careers. We hired into Ford a few months apart and have worked together in Chassis Engineering, on the Lincoln LS program, and also in the Small FWD/RWD cluster. He is an extremely talented engineer, a fantastic driver, and a great people person. He is a huge asset to SVT and to Ford. I'm glad to have him back. 7.0 Are you feeling the pressure of enthusiasts' expectations at SVT? Absolutely. Our customers are the lifeblood of our brand. They are demanding and vocal and I wouldn't expect any less from them. We rely on them to be ambassadors for our products and our job is to meet and exceed their high expectations. 8.0 How will SVT be contributing to non-SVT-branded vehicles? SVT is the center-of-excellence within Ford NA for performance vehicles. We believe that there may be future opportunities for us to leverage that expertise on non-SVT branded vehicles. We, in effect, did this with the Ford GT. Nothing has been finalized, we are still studying it. 9.0 Along those lines, what are your thoughts regarding other specialty Mustangs like the Bullitt and Mach 1? We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning. We will take your input under advisement. 10.0 Most enthusiasts are pleased you've kept the solid-axle in the Mustang and the GT 500, but the general automotive press has frowned upon it. What is your feeling about the decision? The four cornerstones of SVT are Performance, Substance, Exclusivity, and Value. Our job is to give our customers the greatest performance bang for the buck. The reality is that we have a very good rear suspension in the base Mustang. It has beaten the best IRS cars from US, Japan, and Europe in Grand Am series. The incremental benefits of going to an IRS were vastly outweighed by the incremental cost to the consumer. I have no doubt whatsoever that we are doing the right thing for our consumers. 11.0 When the Lightning program was suspended and John Coletti retired, a wildfire of rumors spread across the Internet about SVT's demise. Now Ford is investing more into the program than ever. Did enthusiasts' responses to those rumors serve to strengthen SVT's position within Ford? We have had some new people appointed at all levels of the company. It's always nice to ground everyone on the importance of SVT. We appreciate hearing from our core customers and their input will always play a role in our decision making process. 12.0 When the SVT Focus program ended, some said the car wasn't upscale enough to be an SVT. Could we see and SVT Focus when North America finally receives the C1 platform? Sorry, I can't comment on future product decisions. 13.0 What's on your iPod's most-played song list? Hey Mama - Black Eyed Peas Heaven - Los Lonely Boys Where's the Love - Black Eyed Peas 100 Years - Five for Fighting Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison http://mustang50magazine.com/eventco...w_50questions/

09-21-2005, 10:15 PM	#2
Hamburglar I masturbate to teletubbies Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: In a dumpster behind an Iowa McDonalds Posts: 13,075	We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning. __________________

09-21-2005, 10:55 PM	#3
UCBeau Legendary Veteran Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: San Diego Posts: 8,602	i'd love to see a 5.0 LX __________________ 01 Zinc Yellow Cobra Coupe 283 ci built motor s-trim/intercooler/snow kit

09-22-2005, 07:03 AM	#4
Cali Korleone Megaman says that I'm Too Gangsta 4 A CT. Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Rosewood Ave, CA Posts: 13,517	Teh Five Point Oh. __________________

09-23-2005, 10:51 AM	#6
Cali Korleone Megaman says that I'm Too Gangsta 4 A CT. Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Rosewood Ave, CA Posts: 13,517	I might have to quit modding the '04 and buy a new Boss 302. __________________

09-23-2005, 10:44 AM	#5
jdv the polarbear conservation corps protects a polarbear homie straight outa' compton because polarbears love klondike bars Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 34,185	Maybe they can swing it towards emission legal now?

09-23-2005, 10:13 PM	#7
fiveohh94gt Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 85	time to start saving some money for when all these special edition stangs come out __________________ '94 GT - AFR's/Cobra/Crane2030

09-24-2005, 12:16 AM	#8
U r B a N 96 Bringin sexy back Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 8,207	itb's

09-24-2005, 11:06 AM	#9
tomustang Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Northampton County, Pa Posts: 1,686	yeah i can't wait till the SVT namplate is on lincolns and mazdas he's an idiot! __________________ Tom ©

09-24-2005, 12:00 PM	#10
BlackArtemis I'm so fucking drink right now... Join Date: Mar 1982 Location: West Chester, PA Posts: 11,298	Well an SVT mazda 3 with a hopped up mzdaspeed engine would be slick and they already have a mazdaspeed RX8 in the works. The supercharger from a Jag S type bolts onto the LS8, a supercharged LS8 M6 would be pretty hot too. __________________

09-24-2005, 08:34 PM	#11
P-51 Legendary Veteran Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 371	BOSS 302

09-25-2005, 04:33 PM	#13
Hamburglar I masturbate to teletubbies Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: In a dumpster behind an Iowa McDonalds Posts: 13,075	modular 5.0 forsure __________________

09-28-2005, 09:34 AM	#16
Murph Legendary Veteran Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: MD Posts: 594	We're hoping for a Boss 302 and a 5.0 LX. I believe that there is room between a Mustang GT and a Shelby Cobra GT 500 in terms of product positioning and market positioning. That is just tits right there! First time I heard about the 5.0 possibly coming back! I wonder if they bring back the boss 302 if they will make Shinoda stop producing his version?? __________________

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