[Pickup Man]

Good poimts, but remember, the high-performance market is limited, the Vette name is tried and true, and as we all know, even if Ford outperforms (like we have learned with the truck market), the die-hard Chevrolet crowd will still insist that the Chevrolet is faster, even when they see the Ford beat it, I get that all the time, especially about the new 6.0 diesel (Duramax is no competition, but it's still all I hear). If ford produced the 49, would it hurt the market for the Lightning? It may, because I don't think it has the prestige to possibly de-throne the Vette (even if it was better in every aspect), just because of the length of time that the Vette has been around. Also, it couldn't be debuted this year, because of the slow economy, the unemployment rate, and because, traditionally, people don't make major purchases when coming up on an election year. The target buyers for this are very stereotypical consumers, and Ford wouldn't gain much financially from the cars, because they would have to spend so much in marketing to attract the customers away from the market that is already there. SVT has always done well with this, though, because they usually limit their production runs (like the Lightning), and they should produce something that will compete with the Vette (limited to 3,000 or 5,000), and something to compete with the Viper (limited to 2,500). This could work, but it would be risky, but if it took off and sold out the limited run, it could be slightly expanded, and with the prices on certain vehicles, it could certainly help stimulate the economy (not to mention produce more jobs for factory workers). The Vette competitor should eventually be mass-produced, and then we should have an SVT version of that vehicle to compete with special Vettes (Z06 and Callaway). Could you imagine what Saleen would do with a vehicle of that caliber? That would be awesome, and then we should have something to compete with the imports, like you said (by we I mean Ford, because for some odd reason, I feel like I am one of them, and I'm sure a lot of us do). Maybe something on the ZX2 frame (not an Escort, nothing wrong with the Escort, but ricer kids will never respect it), and the Focus is nice, and the Cougar is nice, but something completely new and fresh, and tuner-friendly. Ford has always been awesome at selling vehicles that are very easily upgraded, and this is a traiditon that I am sure they will not abandon anytime soon. Good points, Bighersh, and while they are risky, I believe they would all work fine, and I would definitely be one of the people dreaming of having some of these high-performance vehicles.