[petraman]

God I hope this has nothing to do with the (mis)management of the Focus ST launch...
Car and Driver Blog » EXCLUSIVE: Jost Capito, Head of SVT and Performance Vehicles, Leaving Ford to Lead Volkswagen Motorsport [UPDATED]

We don’t expect this to cause any delays to the late-2012 arrival of the Focus ST in the U.S.

Let's hope they're right, but I think the Focus ST is far enough in development that it won't matter, which is probably why he left.

 

[Craig9080]

This qualifies as an FML moment

 

[ScorpioWRXST]

Home of the GTI....the measuring stick for the Focus ST ?!?! Wow! Seems like very weird timing for this.

 

[Shomare]

He's gone to bed with the enemy!

 

[sk8parker94]

This is very perplexing....

 

[DarkBuddha]

Meh... this kinda thing happens all the time in manufacturer circles... someone goes here, gets lured there, blah blah blah. Let's look at Iacocca as an example... he had a hugely important career at Ford where he helped design and introduce the Mustang and a bunch of other iconic cars, then goes to Chrysler and develops the minivan. Epic! Or look at Bob Lutz... at Ford he helped develop the extremely successful european Sierra and the US Explorer (and championed bringing euro Fords to the US... imagine that!), goes to Chrysler and leads development of the Viper, and then goes to GM and brought us the new Pontiac GTO, Sky/Solstice, G8, the new Camaro, a bunch of Cadillacs, and a bunch of other significant contributions.

So while it kinda bums me that Jost has moved on, it's not surprising or overly problematic. The ST and RS were part of Ford before his arrival and they'll be there after he's gone.

 

[Frankenbike]

It's typically not money that lures people, but an opportunity to put in a contract that the new company won't do all the annoying management things the previous one did.

If I were Capito, the reason would be the parameters set by Ford management on the RS. Like say, insisting it be front wheel drive only. Or refusing to upgrade the fuel/injector system so they could get enough horsepower to beat an MS3 on specs for the ST.

It's all good. Management might reverse such compromising decisions just to spite Capito and poke VW in the eye. Or not. By the time I replace my ST, it's gonna be a whole new world of cars and if Ford isn't pushing to be the best choice, I'll switch brands

Once I own a car, what difference does it make to me what the company does? Hell, if it takes as long for me to replace the ST as my current car, my next car will be a hovercar with 500 horsepower and a battery that can take me 1000 miles that can be recharged in 2 minutes.

 

[sleepin 4.6]

I see the next GTI having similar things to the ST now.....

 

[jthj]

Yeah. Al roof and floor plus haldex diff and 260 hp. Will be interesting to see what they do to the price.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

Darkbruddah has it right... its rather incestuous at the top of the car MFG biz..