Former Ford Man Jamal Hameedi To Head Jaguar-Land Rover’s SVO
The guy responsible for all your favorite Fords this decade—the Raptor, GT, Shelby GT350, and Focus RS—will now take over JLR’s performance division.
Jamal Hameedi has left his position as chief engineer at Ford Performance to take up a job at Jaguar-Land Rover's high performance division, Special Vehicle Operations, or SVO for short.
Confirmation of Hameedi's departure from Ford was confirmed by Road & Track. On taking the role of chief engineer at Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) in 2005, Hameedi's first performance car project at Ford was the previous generation Ford GT, one of the most beloved supercars of the new millennium. He would also head the secretive development of its successor.
During Hameedi's time at Ford, the Mustang gained independent rear suspension, which eventually culminated in the track weapons that are the Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT350R. The Drive has reached out to Ford for clarification as to whether Hameedi remained involved in Ford Performance vehicles due out soon, such as the Mustang Shelby GT500, Edge ST, and Ranger Raptor
"Jamal Hameedi had influence on all Ford Performance products," said Ford Performance's Matt Leaver in an email to The Drive. "He didn’t lead any one specific product, so there really isn’t one final assignment he was working on at Ford Performance."
Other pies in which Hameedi thankfully dragged his finger include the Fiesta ST, Focus ST and RS, and F-150 Raptor.
Over at JLR, the company's focus is on reestablishing itself as a leading manufacturer of premium enthusiast vehicles. Part of this scheme is to stomp track records this summer with the Jaguar XE SV Project 8, and to design a possible halo car by SVO, developed independently of the rest of JLR. The Drive reached out to the company for information on the direction in which Hameedi will steer SVO, but no response has yet been received.
