Another GT gone and a path to recovery

[RPM217]

James,

Reading your post brings back very bad memories.:facepalm: I had nearly the identical wreck on Jan 20th @ 18 degrees and cut a telephone pole in half on my first drive .:frown And to make matters worse, I had my son in the car.:thumbsdow And yes Thank God, and thank FORD for building a frikin Sherman Tank.:usa We both walked away.

Get a copy of the FORD GT Owner's Expierience book from SVTOA and read my story. Not necessary to post the horrific expierience here.

Just glad to hear you are fine and purchased another GT (as I did).
Fell free to P.M. me as you will be suprised how similar our stroies are......

GTJIMMY

And to James, know that Jimmy is an "experienced" driver, and very familiar with the handling characteristics of rear engined cars, before he got the GT. I was glad to see that your experience in survival was similar to Jimmy, and I hope that your new ownership experience is as good as well!!!

 

[steved57]

JC, Glad you are ok and sorry about your car. I just finished reading this entire thread and what a great group of people GT forum folks are as you can see you are part a of the best group/forum in the internet

 

[topshot]

reading this post is definatley going to make me hyper cautios when I get my GT in next week.. I am going to keep reading this post so that I force myself to wait till the weather is good to test drive the car.... thanks for sharing your experiance, glad you are OK...

Thanks
Kurt

 

[Kayvan]

Sorry for this loss.

I put together a temp/time to warm up guide, that forum readers found useful

For new driver, seriously consider practicing driving in a large parking lot and very familiar back roads before you try the highway....I did this for 250 miles

Special attention to crowns on minor road rises/dips; and second gear shifts as split second lift off accelerator leads to loss of pressure on rear wheels and traction loss

Most crashes I read are right after 2nd shift or power shift

 

[twobjshelbys]

I put together a temp/time to warm up guide, that forum readers found useful

Linky please! Will this tell us how long to drive at a temperature before the tires are warmed up?

 

[Superfly]

I put together a temp/time to warm up guide, that forum readers found useful

I'd like a link to this too. Can't seem to find it on a search. Well, not "Tire Temp" warm up guide anyway. Engine/Tranny temps I did find.

Special attention to crowns on minor road rises/dips; and second gear shifts as split second lift off accelerator leads to loss of pressure on rear wheels and traction loss

Most crashes I read are right after 2nd shift or power shift

I'd never thought of this, but in retrospect, I'd have to agree. Last summer I caught some unexpected wheel spin on an onramp with high acceleration and a crowned road as I shifted to 3rd gear. At the time, I rather enjoyed it, but it was probably closer to a disaster than I gave it credit for at the time. I always thought it was because I was probably a little harder on the gas and it was a power shift, but it seems as likely as not that it was this exact scenario you described. Reading all these stories, I think I'll be a little more cautious this coming summer.

To JCThorne, sorry for your loss, but I thank you for sharing it with us, and I'm happy to hear you're back in a GT.

 

[Kayvan]

Temp / Advice / Consequences
------------------------------

99-60 degrees: 15-20 min, before full power / hard turns; good grip

60-55 degrees: 30 min; limit full power only to straights; some wheel spin / hop

55-45 degrees: 45 min; drive carefully w. slower turns, <65mph; some breaking away

45-40 degrees: 1hr; avoid full power, hard turns, & overtaking <45 mph; some sliding

40-32 degrees: 1hr+; 1st gear only, <35 mph, avoid early am/late pm; full loss of control

<32 degrees: Do not drive / emergency use / flashers <25 mph; probable crash

0-31 degrees: store under cover

 

[dbk]

To be honest, my opinion is that if you try and adhere to a set of guidelines based on the temperature, you're just going to lull yourself into a false sense of security. The reality is, most of the guys on the forum have more than enough horsepower to destroy their cars whether it's 90 degrees or 9 degrees. And if you're doing something that will wreck your car at 55, it probably will at 65 or 70. My suggestion would just be, if you think it might be a bad idea to go hammer down, that means it is. No matter what you do, you can't change the temperature of the surface you're driving on. My other suggestion would be to remind yourself every time you get in the seat that the GT is capable of more as a car than you are as a driver. The GT doesn't forgive once you cross the point of no return and as we all know at this point, it gets easier and easier to do that the colder it gets.

This video was from November 3rd, 2006. I drove the GT 130 miles to the dragstrip (with occasional flurries) and it's the one and only pass I've ever made. I was very concerned about leaving hard because of the low temperature so I rolled out easy and ran 11.62@132.9 mph on the stock F1s. I checked the historical weather data and the low temperature on that day was 24*, the high was 37*, and when I made the pass later in the day it was probably ~30*. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person that's ever run a GT at the track in the low 30's (or maybe even high 20's).

[video=youtube;EKrp63e7KGc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKrp63e7KGc[/video]

 

[Superfly]

I rolled out easy and ran 11.62@132.9 mph on the stock F1s. I checked the historical weather data and the low temperature on that day was 24*, the high was 37*, and when I made the pass later in the day it was probably ~30*. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person that's ever run a GT at the track in the low 30's (or maybe even high 20's).

Just goes to show, without the electronic nannies, the best traction control is the ERF system (educated right foot)!!!