One thing people tend to forget when comparing the Mustang GT to other V8 motors is that the Mustang runs great on 87. That makes the car economical for most people and leaves untapped potential for enthusiast.
I believe you are correct, the Ford GT engine does not have VVT.
But, a DOHC motor can benefit more from VVT than a SOHC engine. With a SOHC engine, the exhaust and intake valves have to vary timing together since they are both actuated from the same cam. With a DOHC engine you can vary only the intake timing or you can vary both the intake and exhaust timing and change the timing on intake and exhaust independently, thus also varying valve overlap. This is what BMW's Dual Vanos system does and parth of the reason why BMW is able to get >100 hp / Liter and >80 lb. ft / liter from a normally aspirated engine.
Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, it's a much more complex process to make VVT work with DOHC than with SOHC, simply based on the amount of stuff you have to cram onto the engine. And while it's not technically difficult, it's a bit expensive. I'd love to see a DOHC 5.4 V8 w/ VVT n/a in a Ford vehicle. Perhaps if SVT really truly does go high-end, we'll see something like that in a Mercury. When it comes to N/A power, Ford truly has the one-up on GM here, simply because aside from the Northstar, GM hasn't invested much money into anything besides the pushrods.
Actually, here's what I'd like to see for the engine in a Mustang SVT R model:
Just something for when the Ford GT gets retired and the Viper and Vette boys are going ga-ga over their new 600hp limited run models.
Back to the topic at hand, though... I think the performance market is going to explode for the new engine pretty quickly given that Ford has been letting the aftermarket companies get ahold of the engine early on.
You crack me up. Ever compared an LS1 to a Ford Windsor motor (for example, the 302)? The Ford came first, thanks. And if you've looked up close and personal at the Northstar, it looks surprisingly similar to the 4.6L DOHC from Ford. Enough so that it'd be easy to get them mixed up. And the 4.6L has been around for more than 10 years as well.