New ford gt

While picking up CAV # 082 at Daytona Raceway I was a little surprised to see not 1 but 2 of the new FORD GT's in the paddock being scrutinized by a group of lap-top holding FORD geniuses. Each engineer had a role to fill and was busy going about their duties to prepare the cars for testing. Covered in its black CF body looking very stealthy and way over the top high-tech they were very gracious in answering any questions I had and appreciated me asking about photos. They said no close-ups but no problem with distant shots. In the end not wanting to overstay my welcome I took none.

They asked me if I was there testing and I responded sort of.....I offered I own the yellow and black GT 40 and was picking the car up from Savannah Race Engineering who were delivering the car after a gear-box change.

What surprised me was just how appreciative and complimentary they were of my GT40. When I arrived at SRE's pit their supervisor told me the FORD team had just left after spending 20 minutes taking photos of the car and praising its quality of build. The few I spoke with from FORD reiterated that to me when finding out I was the owner. Comments of "very cool car" and "must be a blast to drive" and "that's a real nice looking chassis" and how fun it must be to own it. I was beaming from ear to ear as you can imagine.

Later when all went quiet for the lunch break SRE asked me to take my car out again for a test drive after they worked the linkage a bit more. I was the only car running and the sound coming from my mega phones was a "very sweet sound" from one mechanic while another said "now that's what an engine should sound like." More beaming, more joy from me.

I don't tell you this for any other reason then to say what a privilege all of us share owning and driving these stunning cars no matter who makes it. Long gone are many of the "shade tree" mechanics replaced by the new "lap-top" mechanics but overall even these new guys look at our cars with a certain reverence and appreciate what jobs they have developing the next generation of this fantastic car.
 
that is like those visa commercials where they say how much things cost all the way through and at the end the moment is priceless I think you just had one of those moments. thank you for sharing. it would have been great to be on the track following one of them and had video. now that would have been the million dollar money shot. I am so jealous.
 
Jimmy, congrats on a fantastic day! I am going to put my megaphones back on for the weekend events I have coming ... :thumbsup:

Sam
 
Thanks guys. It certainly was a great day for me. Sorry, I didn't take any photos or videos but I believe they (Ford?) may have posted a few on Facebook or on other media outlets of the car on the track from that test session. I agree with what others have stated about the sound of the car.....its different and if honest no overly pleasing to my ears. Maybe the lap-top guys will work on that later.
 
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