The Ford Mustang SVO Had A Hilarious But Possibly Illegal Speedometer (Jalopnik)
The Man wouldn’t let this car boast about its true, latent potential with an honest speedometer.
This is a story of two powerful forces in conflict. The first force was the 1984 to 1986 Ford Mustang SVO, a limited-volume, high-tech, Fox-body high-performance Mustang variant. The other force was the National Maximum Speed Law, part of the 1974 National Highway Energy Conservation Act that mandated the infamous 55 mph speed limit and, relevant to us right now, a maximum indicated speedometer speed of 85 mph. When these two powerful entities clashed, the result was one of the only speedometers to have what’s basically an inside joke. The problem is that it may have been technically illegal.
Okay, just to set the scene a bit, why don’t you watch this old commercial for the Mustang SVO?
Hell yeah, right? Look at all that modern tech in an ’80s car! All that turbocharging and intercooling and sorta-streamlining, but all trapped in this miserable era of the 55 mph speed limit.
And, to add gutting insult to injury, The Man wouldn’t even let the car enjoy the ability to at least boast about its true, latent potential with a speedometer that went up to an impressive speed, like 140 mph!
It was downright cruel, and Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations team was not content to just roll over and take it. The SVO team had a little cheeky surprise up their sleeve, a little secret handshake for SVO buyers to let them know that, yes, they’ll play ball with the government and only go up to 85 on the speedo, but maybe with a wink.
That wink looked like this:
(photo credit: Jason Torchinsky - Jalopnik)
See that? I actually just took this picture last night when I saw a real SVO at a used car lot nearby. So I can confirm this isn’t some bit of internet photoshopfakery, this is what an SVO speedometer looked like.
It only included numbers up to 85 mph, sure, but Ford also included a, um, decorative strip of little hash marks that just so happen to count all the way up to 140 mph in 5 mph increments, and that needle will happily point at them if you, say, drive over 85.
Really, this was a gleefully subversive solution. It’s a nod to SVO buyers that, yes, this baby can hit 140, and that they agree that just limiting the speedo numbers is a silly way to try and encourage drivers to slow down, and, it’s all nice and legal because they’re meeting the letter of the law.
The problem is, I’m not so sure that last part is true …
