03GreyMach1

Information this morning from The Detroit News says that John Coletti has announced his retirement from Ford:
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"The charismatic Coletti, 55, will leave Ford this month as director of SVT, which gave birth to popular vehicles such as the SVT Mustang Cobra and F-150 Lightning.

Regarded throughout the industry as a leading innovator of hot-rod vehicles, Coletti helped SVT chalk up sales of more than 100,000 premium-priced, high-performance cars and trucks since 1992.

"John is an icon," said Phil Martens, Ford's group vice president of product creation. "Inside and outside of the company, he is extremely highly regarded. You have to step back and say, quite frankly, SVT is what it is today because of John."
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Although there have been a recent spate of announcements from Ford, including the ascension of Jim Padilla to President and number two man in the company, the Coletti announcement has yet to be confirmed publicly by Ford.

Previous announcements involving SVT have suggested that the group may be in crisis within the company. The promotion of Hau Thai Tang to a new post, which also included responsibility for SVT, was looked on as good news for the group.

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