Hi, What's the S197 exactly mean? I know it's for 05+ but is it just GT's? And what is it? Order code, I don't see it on my window sticker. Thanks

 

S197 is the 05+ body style, V6 or GT, any color, any combo....

 

It is the platform designation, kinda like the MN12 was the Thunderbird/Cougar platform. If Mercury were to bring back the Cougar, like the rumors were a few years ago, on a Mustang platform, it too would be considered an S197

 

Is there a naming convention? Does "S" stand for a city? Does 197 equate to some dimension? Just wondering.

 

My bro is an engineer for one of their subsidiaries..and he said that he's not sure where the letters come from, but the numbers come from whichever design version they decide will be the final that goes into production

 

Is it the frame or the body style? I thought it was the body style... cause didnt the sn95s use the same frame as the foxes?

 

As an engineer myself, that'd be my guess too. Normally every idea gets assigned a number and every revision gets another number. Where these numbers come from, probably the only one who could tell you for sure is the engineer who originally started the number system for Ford, everyone else was just following suit. I'm not sure on the frame between fox and SN95, but a platform is basically the frame, powertrain mounts, basic suspension, etc

 

^ Right, the same frame etc... and I thought that before the 2005s came out, the frame hadnt been changed in like.. 20 something years right?

 

Its an internal (FoMoCo) code name - for instance, if we start with the '94-'04 Mustang aka "SN95", the code breaks down like this:

S = Specialty (market group/segment that the Mustang is in)
N = North America (location of project design engineers)
95 = Project Number


"Fox" = '78-'93 ('79-'93 Mustang)
"SN95" = '94-'04
"S197" = '05-?


SN95 - aka "Fox 4" (4 = 1994)
S197 - aka "DEW Lite" ("DEW98" is the code name for the Lincoln LS/Thunderbird chassis, of which the '05+ Mustang was originally supposed to built upon (in unmodified form, but it is now a modified DEW98 chassis and as such got a new code name)

 

Dang...can't say we don't learn something new around here.....