[D3ADP0OL]

Jost Capito leaving Ford SVT for Volkswagen Motorsport

Very interesting that VW would pounce on the chief of Ford's ST and RS divisions would scoop him up after all the hot press for the Focus ST comes out. Capito remarked more then once that they were specifically aiming for the GTI in every measurable way. Could this been seen as tacit acknowledgement that Ford succeeded? Maybe VW hasn't got any tricks up it's sleeves for the rumored 2014 GTI after all...

 

[Rownan]

Left as of May 1st. Volkswagen is going to benefit big time from that acquisition. I'm sure we'll never know why he left Ford, but the ST was his final labor of love before leaving.. The Raptor and the GT500 also have his stamp of genius. I would expect some good things out of Volkswagen with him at the helm.

 

[Brandon]

I imagine he'll have to fight less to get performance versions of cars, along with the details he wants in them, with VW which has a long history of these types of cars. In some of the ST articles, he talked about how he had to cheat the system at Ford to get the materials and pieces he wanted in the car. Add to that that Ford hasn't really had performance cars outside of the Mustang in the US for quite a while, and I can understand why he took off for VW... which has GTI versions of virtually everything, plus Rs, R-lines, and Audi S/RS.