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It would have been awesome if they put the lightning motor in the expedition the thunder bolt I remember seeing a prototype picture and the ranger would have been sick too that would have been a powerful truck especially nowadays it would definitely be a saught after truck

Does John colletti have some cobras in his garage we have never seen them or heard some personal cars of his own

Salute to John Coletti! I have a 2013 Shelby GT 500 - my dream car! My Dad - John Colletti - was also an amazing engineer - patented rack and pinion. :) Excellent interview - thank you for sharing!!

My favorite car he built was the super stallion

I really enjoyed this interview, John is truly an automotive legend. I wish you had spent a little more time letting him go into the history of the production of the 03-04 cobra.

Also bought a Terminator new. And still have it .Hands down the best Mustang ever !! Smile and drive with a proud smile. And it’s still exciting !!! Thank you John.

I love my terminator. When I park it I always look back at it several times

There is an underlying theme to all those who change the automotive landscape. I owned the Fox, SN95 (Cobra), New Edge (Cobra), 2nd Gen Lightning and Terminator. You can see the teams work and passion on these things and the fix it with common sense attitude that drove the team(s).

I bought a 03 Cobra new and still have it. What a great car.

Very interesting interview, Sam! I worked at a Ford dealer when the Firestone debacle began. We suddenly became a tire dealer, too. It was not a good time for us. However, from what I could find out about the issues, it seemed Ford was at fault for using very low tire pressure recommendations, Firestone was at fault for making crappy tires (nothing new for Firestone), and the part that nobody addressed was the drivers who would go on a trip with underinflated tires (below 24 psi). I think the tire problem was tread separation, not blow-outs. When the tread separates, it makes some horrible noises, scaring the driver, who then would jam on the brakes, sending the Explorer out of control, often resulting in a roll over. A combination of issues led to a huge issue. Personally, I blame Ford and Firestone for causing the tread separation, but lousy drivers are the cause of losing control and rolling over. Sheesh, look at todays vehicles. A T-bone at 20 mph can cause most SUVs to roll over.

Love this interview. Adds insight to the legend of Coletti and the Mustang.

Amazing series and amazing interview!!!! Thank you gentlemen for the great stories and info.

Amazing series/ podcast !!!!!! Super thankful to have found it.

Great interview style & knowledge you have. Couple of take aways. A couple of drinks. How many designs were done simply on napkins? 'They're sold and at the dealers '. Any one of those ideas is a story on how often it happens in product development.👍🏽🏁

Stumbled upon this. Absolutely brilliant discussion, and I look forward to what’s next!

My brother has a 510 wagon & John Morton signed the sun visor (inside part so its still there). My family use to SCCA race a 510 in G production. The year before they put 510's in H production and got rid of G Production. We had a poor race some 10'ish years ago at Barber Motorsports park in Birmingham(Leeds), AL. The car was stuck in 3rd 1/2 way through the race. Its was 1 of 3'ish cars running GProd., we came in 1st despite the issues, so last I heard it holds a record or 2 there due to it was the last G production race at that track.{<<<I love run on sentences)

Ah ya beat me to it, been seeing all these interviews with cool auto industry guys and wondered what ever happened to Coletti, no one interviewed him since his SVT days, was going to try to find/interview him but glad to see you found him.

Larry work is also an encyclopedia of automotive knowledge, technology, and techniques involved in building cars for passion.

Thanks Larry for the hard work you put in so and remaining humble about it. Thanks Sam, for specially dedicating a space on the internet in which we can learn that at the centre of every great story of accomplishment is the grind and fails that are often overlooked. And thanks Hagerty for your commitment to cat culture!

Really enjoyed this Sam, you've chronicled a nice piece of history here. Thank you!

Here after the Carmudgeon episode. This is absolutely amazing!!! Much to learn from this podcast. Thank you Sam!

Sam Smith and John Morton.. Best hour and ten minutes of my weekend! Nice work Gents

Sam Smith…you talk to much.

Ross is the boss. Real glad I found this podcast. Keep it up!

Thanks Sam & Ross!

Gentleman, having been a coach myself and having experienced a variety of professional environments, you two touched on the point that a given type of personality will flourish in the right team culture, and that's assuming that your chosen endeavor requires a team...and most do. Discovering what type of personality you are, and finding a match in culture will have a large impact on one's degree of success. This of course is solely dependent on whether your desire and skillset are matched to the endeavor at hand.

Sam, you are the Best! It is interesting that Larry, who is responsible for so many great images, has such a minimalist decor!

All true. I was there before, during, and after the best boss I ever had, led SVE.

Salute to the John Coletti! He was responsible for the muscle car wars for the early-mid to early 2000s which is still going on today.

I remember hearing that the Probe was supposed to replace the Mustang. Didn’t know who to thank for saving the original pony car until now. Thanks, John! Also, thanks a lot for the Ford GT! I’ve driven three or four of them in my career. It was a great tribute to the original and an incredible car. It always needed a big V-8. In my opinion, the new TwinTurbo six cylinder GT misses the mark.

04 SVT Focus and 03 Cobra owner... thanks John!

Great interview. Wish there were more on the terminator!! Maybe he’ll come back for a brief follow up???

So, great video... but... You kept pushing the Cobra talk to later and then the end of the video happened. The 03/04 Cobra IS John Colleti embodied in a car and you didn't even talk about it.

Awesome interview! I could sit and listen to John's stories all day long. Having read many of them in books and magazines over the past 25 or so years, it's cool to see that we don't have the WHOLE story... not even close!

Excellent interview! Jason is truly a legend in the PR world, not just the auto industry.

The myth the legend the man himself Mr coletti thank you sir for making some excellent cars I have a 96 cobra and looking to getting a terminator very soon ❤❤❤

So rare to see interviews recently with John Coletti, thank you for this! Thank you also to John for saving Mustang, for spearheading the 2005 GT, and for enabling me to own an SVT Contour.

Fantastic conversation, really engaging:)

First of all great interview! Second of all how did you get Mr.Coletti to do an interview? I’ve search the internet and have found nothing recently as of him, the last interview was probably from 2004. Wow kudos to you for getting this legend to do an interview for all of us to enjoy. I would like to Thank Mr.Coletti for saving the mustang in 1994, and as a Terminator Cobra owner myself, thank you creating the badass Mustang of all time. The Project Terminator was an incredible project, the fact that they put Manley rods at the $56 cost vs what Ford was using at the time ($6 per rod) is incredible. This man put the enthusiast first, he put Ford second. The fact that they put the M112 supercharger instead of the smaller M90, they said 390hp when in reality was more like 430hp. I will promote this interview on my channel so more cobra owners get to enjoy this. Once again Thank you 🙏🏻

Awesome to see John doing well! I still have 2 SVT products, 2003 cobra with 16k miles and a 00 Contour SVT with a 3 liter swap. Don’t think I’ll sell either of them.

Great video 🐍

As a terminator cobra owner thank you John Coletti

Really enjoyed this interview. As ford guy that graduated high school in 92. This was right in my era. Still have a fox body. Owned a 2nd gen lightning. And still an original owner of a 03 Cobra.

Sam, great interview. I've heard so much about John Coletti and his impact at Ford. It was nice to hear from the man himself.

P r o m o s m 🤩

I have my volume as high as I can and I can barely hear you.

Really loving this show, Sam! You ask some of the greatest questions I'd never think of, and the guests have been incredible so far. Driven to Fail has quickly become one of my favorite podcasts and I think it'll stay that way as long as you keep it up!

"90% of life is just showing up"

Thanks for this great interview Sam. Miss your wonderful writing at Road & Track. The years when you and Webster were running the show, with great photography as well, were some of the best. I definitely need to get a subscription( what is that in this day and age?) to Hagerty.

Love Hinch, thanks for this!