Stef
GT Owner
Some more action.
Great to see the cars on track again.
Great to see the cars on track again.
Velocity Invitational 2021
- Thread starter Ed Sims
- Start date
That was awesome. Wish I could have been there in-person to see it. Thanks for sharing!
Stef
GT Owner
Why haul your GT when you can use it as a hauler. I think Jeff Foxworthy
would appreciate this
"Larry the Cable Guy" modification.
For those of you who left early, you missed Henry Ford III.
partssmann
GT Owner
Th
Thanks for posting Chris and was great to see that Parnelli Jones No. 15 Boss 302 out on the track. Just had my Boss 302 out for a run this weekend.
It was a very cool inaugural event. I hope it keeps going. The Astro Turf in the pits was a neat idea. Cars were pitted by era or style similar to Goodwood. The guides had military/stewardess uniforms on. The Ford hospitality suite was a nice place to hang out. Demo Man raced a few of his cars! Seeing some of my forum friends was the best.
Ed
Ed
I was kinda surprised that the Liquid Carbon GT was not as shinny as I thought it would be. Interesting headlight change for 2022.
Stef
GT Owner
Don’t forget Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports Global Director and Jim Farley CEO. Ford really brought out the big guns. Oh and of course Joey Hand and Billly Johnson.
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Indy GT
Yea, I got one...too
What a lame response from the GT "manager". Thanks for posting Jeff. Wonder what "unique insurance/bailment policy" Sam Walton had to acquire to deliver his GT40 to the Apex track event? What a stupid response.
Dave, where is my popcorn?
fjpikul
GT Owner
Ok just to clarify this, that answer is word salad designed to cover the fact that Severson just didn't want anything/anyone there. He told Multimatic that they could not bring their own MkII to GT Rally. That's a fact, and the MkII that Multimatic did end up sending actually belongs to a generous customer close to the company. Luckily Peter Czapka, who owns Multimatic, owns the retired WEC car and so that car can go wherever it wants. So Multimatic went to great time and expense to send a race trailer and those two cars to Scottsdale and a really awesome driver who endlessly maneuvered them at my request to make great decor for us, while Mike Severson offered the above answer, and never once bothered to ask anything about the largest gathering of new Ford GTs ever put together, by not a small margin, but a massive one.
There's certainly been occasions where he's seen fit to send GT owners invites to Mustang events, which is one way to do it.Secondarily, and this is where I absolutely blow my lid, I initially told Steve Coates at a delivery that he was such a valuable part of the program that I would love to have him attend GT Rally. I told him that it would be great if he could attend, but even if his employer wouldn't pay for him, I would pay for him. I then extended the event invitation to a broader group of people from the Concierge program, and to my pleasant surprise, they were able to pull it together to send all of them and then some. It was a great opportunity to reconnect program people with the owners, and give them a break from all the work they do unseen. We have great owners, and if you'd believe it, Steve had never actually driven a Ford GT other than off a trailer, and so he got in some hard track sessions in other people's million dollar cars because of this community of people. I would just say if it were me, I'd make sure all the people that keep this show going got, you know, time around the product.
I sent Ford's CEO, who I've known for a number of years, and who asked me in 2015 if we should put together an owner hospitality program at Le Mans, an email of the stitched-together badges of everyone with a new GT attending, as well as those people from the program and program partners. I copied Severson's boss as an FYI. Upon being forwarded that email chain, Severson suddenly developed an interest in why everyone was going to this thing. Long story short, upon consideration and a couple days to think about it, Mike just decided he just really didn't want anyone to go, and told them they couldn't. So it's not that Mike didn't know who was going from Ford or any of the program partners, it's that he just didn't want anyone to go, because that's just what a petty tyrant with a fragile ego would do.
It was then I offered Mike a very short window of time to undo this insanely petty situation he had created, which he chose not to answer, which is amusing. Even if you are in fact totally clueless, you have to know I store Ford GTs and other cars for half the corporate officers at Ford, including the guy that literally is the highest ranking officer Ford Performance reports to, and the guy that guy reports to! After exerting virtually no pressure, I received calls of apology from Mike Severson's boss and his boss's boss for his behavior, and letting me know they would fully support those employees attending, which they did, and it was great.
In the interim, as a result of being such an absolute petty disgrace, Mike lost the VIN 001 final model year Heritage he secretly awarded to himself. When the executive level was informed that he had made this sleazy attempt at personal financial gain, it was taken away. I don't think he's clever enough to figure out that chain of events, but in any case I would say he was very, very lucky to retain employment. So if you can't get a new GT, just be aware, this dude that is the lowest level of manager Ford employs at a salary of roughly $150k a year saw fit to opaquely award himself a $755,000 car with a specialty VIN that always brings extra money that is usually reserved for charity, the Ford family, or some indispensable VIP. This type of blatant attempt to profiteer from the program is absolutely mind-boggling, especially considering an executive retiree I store vehicles for was turned down on a request for that unit! UNREAL!
And finally, I would assess the value of new GTs at this event at around $60,000,000, not $30m. If you want to include the Apex track day, between new GTs, 05/06 GTs, the WEC car, the MkII and P1075, there's no way that's not $100 million dollars worth of GTs, which is surely the most expensive collection of Ford GTs ever assembled.
Believe me, this is me at like a 2 out of 10 on this topic. I really, really do not advise making me turn the dial any higher than that. I've been around Ford my entire life and if you've been on this site for 15+ years you know what it takes to get me to say anything remotely negative about happenings at FMC. Historically, there has been nothing you could do to get me to discuss this kind of stuff, because it never existed previously. This situation is an open secret to everyone involved and frankly I'm blown away that the "situation" hasn't been remedied.
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extrap
GT Owner
Ouch. And I mean OUCH.
And thanks again Dave, and Chip, for pressing on and putting together such an awesome Rally, with the great slate of guests, and events. I literally think about it every day
And thanks again Dave, and Chip, for pressing on and putting together such an awesome Rally, with the great slate of guests, and events. I literally think about it every day