Forgive me, fellow GT owners, for I have sinned.
I underwent an excruciatingly-long and mentally-horrific 14 year time period when I did not own a Ford GT.
Between 2009 and Dec 2023, I got distracted by several Porsches, Ferraris, Corvettes and a Lamborghini. That just compounded the sin.
Fortunately, I recently came to my senses and bought another GT. This action has absolved my sin of being GT-less, but required a severe penance of a couple hundred thousand additional greenbacks over what I paid for my first GT.
My History: I grew up in West Los Angeles during the 1960s/70s and was transfixed by fast cars and the racing scene. Beginning on my seventh birthday, my dad started taking me to races at Riverside, Lion's Drag Strip, OCIR, Ascot Park and Ontario Motor Speedway. We would even occasionally drop by Shelby's LAX facility on a Saturday to peek through the fence at the Cobras and Mustangs being transformed.
All of the above helped launch my automotive career. I've enjoyed 30+ years experience as car magazine editor, writer, photographer, track-test-driver and racer. The first freelance article I wrote was about my tire-smoking ride in a real Cobra 427. It was published in Popular Hot Rodding Magazine in 1981, thereby convincing me that my freshly-minted college business degree wouldn't be setting the career path for me after all. I was driven from my heart to become a car magazine editor & track-test driver.
Fortunately, Popular Hot Rodding soon hired me as Associate Editor (lowest rung on the editorial ladder) and over my five years there, eventually promoted me to Technical Director. Between then and when I was hired by Motor Trend as its Editor-in-Chief in 1994, I contributed words and photos (as a prolific freelancer) to most every car magazine on the newsstands.
I left Motor Trend in 2002 to create the first non-motorsports automotive show for ESPN. The result was the "Drive" TV series. I was the host, writer and track-test driver, and there was tire smoke in every episode.
My Ford GT "Inside Connections":
Back in the early 1980s, when I won the Shelby-Rolex Journalist Challenge Series, I became friends with Carroll Shelby (whom I've always referred to as "The Most Interesting Man in the World.") He hired me to be his PR Manager for the Dodge/Shelby products in 1988-89, and again for the 1992 Indy 500, when he drove the Dodge Viper Pace Car.
In 2003, Carroll told me off-the-record that he was working on a "new GT40" with Ford. My ears perked-up at that.
In 2004, Carroll arranged for me to drive one of the GT development cars at Ford Proving Grounds. Neil Hannemann (a friend from my Shelby days) was one of the project's lead engineers. The car blew my mind. I vowed then and there to own one.
In 2006, I tested a production GT for my "Drive" TV show. It's searchable on YouTube.
That cinched the hook. I soon bought a GT identical to the test car: 2006 Tungsten, 4-options. Unfortunately, I sold it in 2009 (amidst the recession) and have been regretting it ever since.
Fast-forward to today: I'm now 65 and have Stage IV Lung Cancer (despite never having smoked anything but tires in my life.) It recently hit me that my Bucket List items aren't going to wait for "someday" to achieve. So, I reordered my priorities and began blazing through The List at WOT! Next in line: Buying another GT.
The very next day, I found a 2006 Tungsten with 5200 miles on BJ Motors' website. What made me look beyond the large price tag was that it'd been modded exactly as I would've done with my own GT: Polished 3.3l Whipple blower, Accufab throttle body, JBA headers, exhaust, Stillen clutch, 3.90 gears, Ohlin adjustable coil-overs, rear bumper delete. Dynoed at 602hp at the wheels. Ran 210 mph at Mojave 1.5 Mile (with previous owner "GT44" at the wheel.)
Here's the link to the Dec 2023 listing: https://www.bjmotors.biz/2006-ford-gt-4-option-car-with-5k-miles-c-13920.htm
Needless to say, I bought it.
Now, with this stunning one-owner GT in my garage, next to my silver Kirkham Cobra 427, I'm whole again. Fully absolved of automotive sin, and with nothing left to do but lay down rubber and watch the speedometer needle twist past 200 mph. Over and over, and over again.
I'm thrilled to be a GT owner...the second time around! And, I'm looking forward to being an active part of this forum.
Van
C. Van Tune
I underwent an excruciatingly-long and mentally-horrific 14 year time period when I did not own a Ford GT.
Between 2009 and Dec 2023, I got distracted by several Porsches, Ferraris, Corvettes and a Lamborghini. That just compounded the sin.
Fortunately, I recently came to my senses and bought another GT. This action has absolved my sin of being GT-less, but required a severe penance of a couple hundred thousand additional greenbacks over what I paid for my first GT.
My History: I grew up in West Los Angeles during the 1960s/70s and was transfixed by fast cars and the racing scene. Beginning on my seventh birthday, my dad started taking me to races at Riverside, Lion's Drag Strip, OCIR, Ascot Park and Ontario Motor Speedway. We would even occasionally drop by Shelby's LAX facility on a Saturday to peek through the fence at the Cobras and Mustangs being transformed.
All of the above helped launch my automotive career. I've enjoyed 30+ years experience as car magazine editor, writer, photographer, track-test-driver and racer. The first freelance article I wrote was about my tire-smoking ride in a real Cobra 427. It was published in Popular Hot Rodding Magazine in 1981, thereby convincing me that my freshly-minted college business degree wouldn't be setting the career path for me after all. I was driven from my heart to become a car magazine editor & track-test driver.
Fortunately, Popular Hot Rodding soon hired me as Associate Editor (lowest rung on the editorial ladder) and over my five years there, eventually promoted me to Technical Director. Between then and when I was hired by Motor Trend as its Editor-in-Chief in 1994, I contributed words and photos (as a prolific freelancer) to most every car magazine on the newsstands.
I left Motor Trend in 2002 to create the first non-motorsports automotive show for ESPN. The result was the "Drive" TV series. I was the host, writer and track-test driver, and there was tire smoke in every episode.
My Ford GT "Inside Connections":
Back in the early 1980s, when I won the Shelby-Rolex Journalist Challenge Series, I became friends with Carroll Shelby (whom I've always referred to as "The Most Interesting Man in the World.") He hired me to be his PR Manager for the Dodge/Shelby products in 1988-89, and again for the 1992 Indy 500, when he drove the Dodge Viper Pace Car.
In 2003, Carroll told me off-the-record that he was working on a "new GT40" with Ford. My ears perked-up at that.
In 2004, Carroll arranged for me to drive one of the GT development cars at Ford Proving Grounds. Neil Hannemann (a friend from my Shelby days) was one of the project's lead engineers. The car blew my mind. I vowed then and there to own one.
In 2006, I tested a production GT for my "Drive" TV show. It's searchable on YouTube.
That cinched the hook. I soon bought a GT identical to the test car: 2006 Tungsten, 4-options. Unfortunately, I sold it in 2009 (amidst the recession) and have been regretting it ever since.
Fast-forward to today: I'm now 65 and have Stage IV Lung Cancer (despite never having smoked anything but tires in my life.) It recently hit me that my Bucket List items aren't going to wait for "someday" to achieve. So, I reordered my priorities and began blazing through The List at WOT! Next in line: Buying another GT.
The very next day, I found a 2006 Tungsten with 5200 miles on BJ Motors' website. What made me look beyond the large price tag was that it'd been modded exactly as I would've done with my own GT: Polished 3.3l Whipple blower, Accufab throttle body, JBA headers, exhaust, Stillen clutch, 3.90 gears, Ohlin adjustable coil-overs, rear bumper delete. Dynoed at 602hp at the wheels. Ran 210 mph at Mojave 1.5 Mile (with previous owner "GT44" at the wheel.)
Here's the link to the Dec 2023 listing: https://www.bjmotors.biz/2006-ford-gt-4-option-car-with-5k-miles-c-13920.htm
Needless to say, I bought it.
Now, with this stunning one-owner GT in my garage, next to my silver Kirkham Cobra 427, I'm whole again. Fully absolved of automotive sin, and with nothing left to do but lay down rubber and watch the speedometer needle twist past 200 mph. Over and over, and over again.
I'm thrilled to be a GT owner...the second time around! And, I'm looking forward to being an active part of this forum.
Van
C. Van Tune
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