Flash.(New briefs.)

Ford vacuum, Part 1

Ford's Special Vehicle Team will suffer through at least a year with no new product-and won't offer an SVT Focus when the performance brand emerges from dormancy in 2005. SVT chief John Coletti says plans call for remaking the SVT brand as Ford's highest echelon of performance, which leaves the economy-class Focus out of the mix. SVT's F-150 Lightning truck and the SVT Mustang Cobra will cease production by the middle of 2004 and will return as 2006 models, along with a third, not-yet-specified SVT product. As long as they're going upscale, we could wish for a supercharged Lincoln Navigator.

A performance Focus ST (for "street tuned''), along with a 350-hp Mercury Marauder powered by a supercharged 4.6-liter V8, will be offered in the 2005 model year.

Ford vacuum, Part 2

Despite a 25-percent increase in the allotment of Ford GT supercars headed to Europe-101 cars vs. the 80 originally proposed-most European GT buyers are still a long way back in the line of some 2000 customers interested in purchasing the car. Deliveries are expected during the fourth quarter of 2004; U.S. deliveries of the $150,000, 500-hp two-seater begin next spring. U.S. buyers get the lion's share of the estimated 1500 cars built in the first year.

Audi's uber-A8

Audi will roll out a 450-hp 6.0-liter W12-powered A8 L at the Detroit auto show in January. Due in the States in 2005, the car-possibly the next S8-will be the first production Audi model to adopt the controversial Auto Union-inspired grille treatment revealed on this year's Pikes Peak, Nuvolari and Le Mans concept cars. Grafting the new grille onto the A8 L required new headlights and reshaped hood and fender metal.