Now that I've had a split second to catch my breath, I wanted to thank all those that helped my family and I in this process.
Really need to start with FMC and the Ford Family. Bill, Lisa and their son William. Edsel, Cynthia and their sons Henry III, Stuart and Albert. Henry and Stuart's wives Emily and Kristen. The Ford Family are some of the most genuine people you will ever meet. The fact that they took the time to get to know Susan and myself at the different GT races and Rallies speaks volumes to the character of this family. All of them at one point or another personally offered a word or two of encouragement in regards to my family and I applying for a New GT. They didn't have to do so, but the fact that they did really made the process a sincere one for us.
The FMC design team. Let's face it, without this team it never would have happened. Raj Nair, Dave Pericak, Jamal Hameedi, Chris Svensson, Garen Nicoghosian, Craig Metros, Kip Ewing, Bill , Moray where more than generous in answering my fan boy questions for nearly the last three years. One of the biggest things I will always take away from the design team is how proud they are that the Ford GT is a bonafied factory supported race car/program. This team did the impossible and we are so honored to have spent all that time with them during the journey.
The Multimatic Team go hand in hand with the Ford design team in my opinion. Everyone I meet tell me that Larry Holt is a race car genius and they are right. It was awesome getting to spend time with him, Steven and Jean Pierre in Daytona, Long Beach, Laguna Seca and of course Le Mans. The suspension on the GT is one of the most impressive feats of engineering in an automobile I have ever seen.
DBK. I know he's not the sort of guy that likes to be called out but I'm going to anyways. Haha! Without his passion and willingness to do so much for all of us, Susan and I would never have been given the opportunities to meet all the people we did and have this once in a lifetime experience. He always downplays himself but thank you for everything you do man.
Kevin Koshkarian and Pat Milliken Ford went above and beyond in escorting us through the purchase and delivery process. I just wasn't happy with how my local Ford dealerships were treating this entire process and once I got to meet Brian and Kevin at Rally 12, I never looked back. They make sure they are present and available through the entire process. Their involvement and service is first class. Thank you Kevin for everything.
Shout out to Chloe and Jessica as well. These two were my Ford Concierge team and they made things super simple. Since we had so much time to decide what we wanted, we were ready to go, Chloe streamlined my order from the get go. Susan and I were amazed at how quickly the process went all because those two got my order in right away. Of course Pearce, for giving us one of the most radical Multimatic tour visits anyone could ask for. At one point all five of us were walking around the Multimatic facility as Raj took over the tour controls and turned it up to 20. So unbelievable.
Steven Coates my delivery specialist. Steven gave me the E-Ticket tutorial on the GT from bottom to top and everything in between. He is a super cool guy and entertained me when I asked him to speak real slowly because I was so overwhelmed by the experience. Haha! Super patient and amazing in his ability to dumb down the incredible technology of the GT so that a non-racecar driver like me could understand it. Master class.
Several of you are asking about the color of my GT. That is something that is very special to me. The person responsible for the color is our friend Chris Svensson. When DBK was picking out the color of his GT back in the day, he had a couple samples that Chris borrowed to play around with. He wanted to put them into his design program to see what he might go with when it was his time to order. From there he started to use a little artistic freedom and added different colors and shadings. Susan and I were lucky enough to have become friends with Chris at LeMans that year and he sent me a rendition of the GT in that color. He called it Svensson Petrol Grey and asked me what I thought. It blew my mind and I told him so. Time went on and when Chris' order window came up I reached out to him to see if he was still going with Svensson Petrol Grey. He laughed and said he's a designer and designers always end up going for black or white colors. He then ordered his gorgeous lightweight spec in black. At that time I asked him if I had his permission to go with the Svensson Petrol Grey. He explained that there was no color code for that color because he just made it up but if I could find it, go for it. At that point I was on a mission looking for the color from every manufacturer and period time you could imagine. In comes DBK who helps me find it in the real world and even tells me the color code for it. Needless to say Susan and I love it. Thanks DBK and our friend Chris Svensson for the unbelievable color.
Vince H
Chris' Renditions:
My GT: