Ford GT Owner VIP Hospitality at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans

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This was the best part of the drive. Endless high speed sweepers in fantastic scenery. Light traffic. Awesome, awesome driving. I seriously thought "I might as well just leave the GT here, fly here for a week once per year, because one week of driving like this is better than the any amount of driving in the U.S."

 

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At this point, we entered back into France. Matt and I had been jamming pretty hard, so luckily the group was split up a bit and only he and I got a nice introduction to the local authorities. :lol

The helpful Gendarmes that took us into their border station told me they had three problems. Then it became 4. :lol Ultimately, because they could not prove that the white GT with someone who looks suspiciously like me driving and no front plate was mine, I left with a no front plate ticket only. He was good natured, but was concerned about the high fees of my Amex, so I gave him a Visa instead. We were let go with a cheerful "Welcome to France!"

Rare sight

 

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The BAT set:

 

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And finally...

They waved us straight in, all the way to the front door of the Ford Hospitality. Hilarious.

And now I have to get home for dinner. I shall finish this tomorrow.

 

[Xcentric]

Forgive me, there weren't many pixels to work with. But I thought this was such a cool pic, just in need of some editing. Could do better with higher res file. Hard to work with 300kb.



One more. Again, wish there was more data to work with. Cool pic.

 

[nautoncall]

Dave...awesome narrative and great photos. I'm sure every forum member wishes they could have been there.

I hope and believe that everyone of you that made the trip should get a new car. Ford is stupid if you don't.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GTJack]

Thanks for all the pics. What a memorable experience for y'all.

 

[STORMCAT]

Shmee's take on the new GT at Lemans
[video]https://youtu.be/HsgXX5XzXB8[/video]
https://youtu.be/5RZG29iNt0I

Good Find Carl !! The first video has some on the best sound footage that I've seen of the new GT. The car sounds great !!

Great trip pictures guys !!

 

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Continued...

Forgot to mention about some of the derestricted area driving. One thing that I learned is that when it's wet out, the GT rapidly becomes invisible. They do an excellent job of preventing water from pooling on the Autobahn, and at low triple digits, a GT in front of you will just look like water spray. You can't see the car at all. Otherwise, I miss Germany.

The Ford Hospitality was, as we all now know, glorious. A cinema, massage rooms, a store on site, billiards, foosball, tons of couches, bean bags, nice seats, TVs, etc. I would like to live at the Ford Le Mans Hospitality. (all these really awesome pics can be found at flickr.com/fordchipganassiracing)

Very happy to see two of my friends artwork all over the place (Jonathan Sczupak & Garen Nicoghosian).

And of course the pit suite above the Ford garages:

 

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And of course soon many Ford GT Forum members were filling the place:

Shesgotlegs, SteveA, Chip Beck

Ed Sims, Maxemus, Chip

GeeTee

Blue Mooses having a quiet evening.

Charlie Beck, Mrs. BAT, Matt & Danielle

Me, HF3 & new member Andre Q, who just got his GT in Germany shipped over from Florida.

FlorIdaho Chris, Chip, Stef

Mrs. shesgotlegs and I think that's Soren.

John Gourley deep in thought.

 

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Mr. and Mrs. ByeEnzo & Ed & Heidi Sims

These two

JBG and Anya

BAT & Matt

Vince and JWZ obviously having fun

Serious business...

...but not too serious

Carroll's grandson Aaron & his wife Brooke

Had to be surreal for Edsel to be back for the first time in 50 years with Henry and his other two sons.

Owner of the 1966 Winner Rob Kauffman, Dave Pericak, Joe Hinrichs Raj, Edsel, Mark Fields, Bill Ford.

Proud weekend for this man

 

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Bill addressing the crowd at lunch, served by famous Michelin star chef.

Then all 12 drivers came by to say a quick word. Guess who is winning Le Mans on Sunday?

Us three

Hashtag America

Dinner Friday night in town after the parade. They closed the place down for us.

 

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Here is where things went next level insanity for me on a personal level. Whatever this trip ended up costing, it was all worth it for this.

The gang in the parking area awaiting our parade lap.

And who shows up to lead us? Ok, well I'd actually been in that car before so it wasn't a huge surprise to me, but still, awesom

Raj as wheelman with FIA boss Jean Todt shotgun.

 

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Ford GT Owner VIP Hospitality at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Now that is awesome, but when we got on the circuit, this is what happened:

We got on the track and the 1-2-3 cars from 1966 pulled onto the circuit literally right next to me.

Shortly thereafter, I was involved in this situation.

I am literally in my Ford GT, in France, on the track at Le Mans, driving down the Mulsanne, getting rocks flung at my car by the three priceless cars that swept the podium in 1966, followed by the new Ford GT, driven by the man responsible for bringing the car back and convincing everyone it had to race. Throw in the podium finishing privateer Robertson Racing GT, the only husband wife team ever to podium, with Andrea being the first woman to do so in nearly a century. Oh, and the Ford GT behind me? That's Edsel B. Ford II driving it.

 

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At some point during this sequence of events, it dawned on me that I should sell my Ford GT, close the forum, cancel all future Ford GT events, and retire from the world of cars. This has to be it. If the above is not Peak Ford GT, whatever that is will literally kill me. I can't handle anything better than this.

Did Ford provide the world's dorkiest helmets? Yes, but it adds to the charm, and fits with the hilariously atrocious safety helmets most of the Le Mans staff wears. At some point, for some reason, Keanu Reeves ran in and began driving that yellow Mustang peeking out.

"Edsel, what just happened?"

"No, seriously, what the hell is going on? I'm definitely hallucinating, right?"

I got out after we pulled off the track and told Edsel I was seriously going to cry during the course of that lap. :lol To see those three cars running down that circuit, the sound of their engines, the sight of all three and the new GT criss-crossing their paths, me being in the bridge between the generations...that's some serious once-in-a-lifetime stuff. I could have flown home immediately.

We just parked wherever. The Focus RS squad maintained their mathematical precision.

 

[Howard]

Wow! Great photos and commentary. I'm actually feeling a little jet lag from the vicarious experience.

Howard

 

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Ford GT Owner VIP Hospitality at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Of course, everyone knows what happened next. I was wrong. Peak Ford GT was moved to Sunday.

Hello

Goodbye

Wave the flags!

I know I wasn't the only person concerned with the stability of that balcony. It got very top heavy as the Ford GT closed in on victory :lol

The picture for the ages:

Jay Ward, on the left, was very much responsible for getting all of this together for us.

Captain Excitement, as always.

Henry was more excited

I caught Raj, still in his race suit, in the CGR garage before he got whisked away for the ceremony, gave him a hug and congratulated him. He said "We did this for you guys." Amazing.

And of course got a garbage cell pic. :lol

Bill came back to the hospitality and gave a rousing speech, then sprayed champagne all over Ford GT Forum members. Just unbelievable.

 

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With that, we said goodbye to Le Mans. Until next year. :wink

This time we took the Ferry back from Cherbourg to Poole.

The staff are amazingly conscientious about low cars. That didn't stop this dude with a slammed car with a major front splitter from attempting to drive straight on for some reason, subsequently getting stuck, and having to have the passenger get out and help push the car off.

One more night at our Portsmouth local, the White Star Tavern.

A final drive on the wrong side of the road.

Dropped back off with Schumacher Cargo Logistics.

A sleepy cab ride to Heathrow.

And one final long kiss goodbye. :lol

 

[Gene Cassone]

Dave,
thanks for posting all the pics, especially what happened on the parade lap!! I was watching from the View box over the pits and it was special. I only regret not to have gotten in one of those RSs for the parade lap!! I now feel I was in one of them!! Great coverage!!

 

[STORMCAT]

Thanks Dave !! The parade lap pictures are priceless... !! Great pictures and memories etched in the memory banks !! We all need a copy of the #68 flag finish picture !!