What about factory support of an owner's club?
Maybe this is a separate thread but I remember two things about Dodge support of the Viper
1.)When Bob Luta was with Chrysler he told the Board one time "I'd stay longer but I have to go meet some Viper ownrs"
Also I remember going to the Monterey Hisorica and seeing a tent reserved for Viper owners and they were wearing badges like "Viper #SN___Joe Blow, High Point NC" etc.
My point is that Viper was quickly established as a marque for performance fans to own because Dodge supported it (their owner's club is a model for owner's clubs).
Not to mention Dodge making some racing Vipers which did well at LeMans for a new marque (even supported by the French, who are supposed to be so Anti-American)
Ford created the (old and new) Ford GT but there is no fancy magazine (such as I got from Bentley before they figued out I wouldn't be buying a new one) , no high quality watch (Bentley has several,working with Breitling), no behind-the-scenes support for an owner's club. If they plan on making the GR-1 fastback Cobra coupe as the follow up to the Ford GT, it seems to me that they need to cultivate the higher spending group than the usual Ford buyers (like four times as much as a loaded Expedition) that the Ford GT has brought into the tent. It's alittle like Burger King inviting in a famous chef, serving one fabulous meal and then going back to making burgers. Now that they've got the big spenders into the tent,you would think they would cater to them to keep them happy.
Maybe you're right--you are going to make your own memorabilia, and maybe the aftermarket will make it, nice leather jackets, with Ford GT serial numbers etc. I'm jsut saying they are neglecting this area where Bentley, Aston, Jaguar and Ferrari do a nice job there.
Another way to promote the Ford GT would be for Ford to pay expenses of vintage racers who go to the expense to race their original GT40s in vintage racing (on the other hand with GT40 owners like Rob Walton , they might have more money than Ford...). That was the point of making the new Ford GT look like the old one--capitalizing off the racing victories of the original, so I would hope those racing the originals would receive every hospitality perq that Ford can afford....the guys racing the original GT40s might not be the guys that drove to victory at LeMans but they are out there showing us what made the car legendary.
Actually there was one point where Ford did support the original GT40 owners, no doubt rolling out the red carpet that was at the Laguna Seca press preview for the new Ford GT. I tiptoed into this event uninvited (it's a long story, involving an unalert guard and a lot of fog ) and at the preview they had two or three original GT40s, the same ones that ran at LeMans and Dan Gurney and Sir Jackie Stewart and the owners of the GT40s, Dan and Sir Jackie took interested reporters around the track for the ride of their life. At the time I hoped Ford would give support to GT40 racers for subsequent events but have seen no sign of it (maybe it's all behind the scenes).
