Gatorac
Chin Tack Days Event Mgr
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2015
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 248
- Reaction score
- 163
- Location
- Bradenton FL
- First Name
- Jim
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 Premium GTPP Triple Yellow
- Thread starter
- #1
I thought I'd share a pretty cool experience I had with my newest Mustang. I love getting a new car and taking it on a journey to remember. This is going to be long, possibly boring and most likely won't provide any useful information to anyone.
Read on at your own risk.
I've had a Focus RS on order since January. It's built but still seems it hasn't left the port yet. It seems that new owners are reporting some issues with the RS on track. My role as Chief Instructor with Chin Motorsports means I have the opportunity to go to a lot of track events.
As such my car must not only be able to drive long distances comfortably but also handle the track duty. I guess I'm lucky I my RS didn't get here earlier.
So I started the search for what car to get next. My wife has a 2015 GTPP already. Hmm, I love Mustangs. They have the room I need to go long distances. I've driven hers on track before and it's plenty fast. They don't seem to have any inherent reliability issues on track. Looks like it checks all the boxes. Mustang it will be.
Using Cars.com I searched a 1,000 mile radius for a yellow premium, PP with Recaros. One stood out from Koons in Baltimore. Hey, wait a minute, My next event is at Pitt Race. It's a fly in event for me and what do you know, my flight takes me through Baltimore. I'm a believer in fate. I worked up a deal with Koons to buy the car.
Flight is for early Friday morning from Tampa to Baltimore. There's a hurricane coming through our state Friday morning.:eyebulge: The large rain band is running squarely over the Tampa Bay area. I actually turned around once on the way to the airport as it started to get pretty bad. I made it up there, boarded the plane and sat. The wind whipping the rain around outside made me a bit uneasy. 35 minutes late we get a good to go and we are off. Salesman picked me up at the airport and we completed the paperwork Friday afternoon. Very smooth transaction at Koons. (I don't recommend the food truck out front though)
First stop, Pitt Race about 4 hours away. Nothing better than taking your car straight from the dealer to the race track. I did take it easy on the car at Pitt. New car and a track that I have a little less experience at. I'm loving the car. Saturday at lunch I order the Solo-Performance Street/Race from Beefcake. Gotta have my exhaust.
Here's a lap from Pitt. Nothing particularly special about it. I didn't even bring my lap timer as I know when it's running, I end up pushing for lap time.
[ame]
So the Pitt Race event was Saturday/Sunday. It was followed by Watkins Glen Monday/Tuesday right after the Indycar race. So the Chin team had to make the drive from Pitt to WG Sunday evening to be ready to go Monday morning. I left Pitt a bit early to take the scenic route and enjoy my Mustang. I get to the Seneca Lodge and it's packed. Ganassi team is in the bar celebrating. Very awesome. I got a little cell phone video of the team doing the behind the bar traditional photo pose.
Monday it's time to go back to work at the track. Watkins Glen is on my top 5 list of race tracks. The new pavement is fricken awesome. Got some decent laps over the 2 days. I couldn't resist and had to pull up the Track Addict app and just to see where I was at. 2:16. Nothing spectacular but OK for a car running as delivered from the dealer.
Watkins Glen Lap.
[ame]
Now here's where fate seems to step in again. I love the Steeda race wing. It's the one I planned on putting on my car. Low and behold there's a forum member selling a new painted one on this forum. He's in Erie PA. I was trying to figure the logistics of how I could get this wing. There was no time between Pitt and WG to stop anywhere. I ask Scott the event manager what's the lodging plan for Tuesday night. He says, we are heading to Erie to spend the night.:doh: Deals done and I now own the wing.
Now it's time to make the 1200 mile trip home. Ahh, I love a nice long drive in my new car. These Recaros are so awesome. Only thing missing is an exhaust system. If only I could have figured out how to get that on before taking deliver of the car. I had planned to stop at a buddy and fellow Chief in Dawsonville for the night. The route took me along I79, I81, I26. If you driven these roads before you know the incredible vistas all along the route. 12 hour drive seemed almost too short.
So the car is home, exhaust installed, wing installed, what's next? Head to the racetrack of course. Chin was having a open track day Friday 9/16. This was a different format for Chin. No run groups and advanced drivers only. I will say it was a success. Very confident every drive there will return for 1 of these. More track time than you could handle.
At Sebring I finally got up the nerve to completely disable the active handling. Up until this point I was using track mode. I could feel it interfering just when I was about to get a little slip angle out of the car. Just like my 2013 Mustang, turning off the advance-trac makes if feel like a different car. It will still benefit from some suspension mods and I'm on the search now for what I will put on the car. The tires would overheat after just a few laps as well and get greasy. The exhaust is holy sh*t loud and awesome. Incredible.
Here's some laps from Sebring. You can really hear the exhaust. My buddy is also a Mustang guy. This is gonna cost him a car as he fell in love with it.
[ame]
The conclusion after this 2500 mile journey? I'm in love.:ford: I love it even more than I thought I would. Lot's of little things that all add up to the perfect car for me right now.
Some random pictures from the journey. If you ever have the opportunity to fly out and drive home your new car, take advantage of it. Great way to bond with the new ride.
Read on at your own risk.I've had a Focus RS on order since January. It's built but still seems it hasn't left the port yet. It seems that new owners are reporting some issues with the RS on track. My role as Chief Instructor with Chin Motorsports means I have the opportunity to go to a lot of track events.
As such my car must not only be able to drive long distances comfortably but also handle the track duty. I guess I'm lucky I my RS didn't get here earlier. So I started the search for what car to get next. My wife has a 2015 GTPP already. Hmm, I love Mustangs. They have the room I need to go long distances. I've driven hers on track before and it's plenty fast. They don't seem to have any inherent reliability issues on track. Looks like it checks all the boxes. Mustang it will be.
Using Cars.com I searched a 1,000 mile radius for a yellow premium, PP with Recaros. One stood out from Koons in Baltimore. Hey, wait a minute, My next event is at Pitt Race. It's a fly in event for me and what do you know, my flight takes me through Baltimore. I'm a believer in fate. I worked up a deal with Koons to buy the car.
Flight is for early Friday morning from Tampa to Baltimore. There's a hurricane coming through our state Friday morning.:eyebulge: The large rain band is running squarely over the Tampa Bay area. I actually turned around once on the way to the airport as it started to get pretty bad. I made it up there, boarded the plane and sat. The wind whipping the rain around outside made me a bit uneasy. 35 minutes late we get a good to go and we are off. Salesman picked me up at the airport and we completed the paperwork Friday afternoon.
Very smooth transaction at Koons. (I don't recommend the food truck out front though)First stop, Pitt Race about 4 hours away. Nothing better than taking your car straight from the dealer to the race track. I did take it easy on the car at Pitt. New car and a track that I have a little less experience at. I'm loving the car. Saturday at lunch I order the Solo-Performance Street/Race from Beefcake. Gotta have my exhaust.
Here's a lap from Pitt. Nothing particularly special about it. I didn't even bring my lap timer as I know when it's running, I end up pushing for lap time.
[ame]
So the Pitt Race event was Saturday/Sunday. It was followed by Watkins Glen Monday/Tuesday right after the Indycar race. So the Chin team had to make the drive from Pitt to WG Sunday evening to be ready to go Monday morning. I left Pitt a bit early to take the scenic route and enjoy my Mustang. I get to the Seneca Lodge and it's packed. Ganassi team is in the bar celebrating. Very awesome. I got a little cell phone video of the team doing the behind the bar traditional photo pose.
Monday it's time to go back to work at the track. Watkins Glen is on my top 5 list of race tracks. The new pavement is fricken awesome. Got some decent laps over the 2 days. I couldn't resist and had to pull up the Track Addict app and just to see where I was at. 2:16. Nothing spectacular but OK for a car running as delivered from the dealer.
Watkins Glen Lap.
[ame]
Now here's where fate seems to step in again. I love the Steeda race wing. It's the one I planned on putting on my car. Low and behold there's a forum member selling a new painted one on this forum. He's in Erie PA. I was trying to figure the logistics of how I could get this wing. There was no time between Pitt and WG to stop anywhere. I ask Scott the event manager what's the lodging plan for Tuesday night. He says, we are heading to Erie to spend the night.:doh: Deals done and I now own the wing.
Now it's time to make the 1200 mile trip home. Ahh, I love a nice long drive in my new car. These Recaros are so awesome. Only thing missing is an exhaust system. If only I could have figured out how to get that on before taking deliver of the car. I had planned to stop at a buddy and fellow Chief in Dawsonville for the night. The route took me along I79, I81, I26. If you driven these roads before you know the incredible vistas all along the route. 12 hour drive seemed almost too short.
So the car is home, exhaust installed, wing installed, what's next? Head to the racetrack of course. Chin was having a open track day Friday 9/16. This was a different format for Chin. No run groups and advanced drivers only. I will say it was a success. Very confident every drive there will return for 1 of these. More track time than you could handle.
At Sebring I finally got up the nerve to completely disable the active handling. Up until this point I was using track mode. I could feel it interfering just when I was about to get a little slip angle out of the car. Just like my 2013 Mustang, turning off the advance-trac makes if feel like a different car. It will still benefit from some suspension mods and I'm on the search now for what I will put on the car. The tires would overheat after just a few laps as well and get greasy. The exhaust is holy sh*t loud and awesome. Incredible.
Here's some laps from Sebring. You can really hear the exhaust. My buddy is also a Mustang guy. This is gonna cost him a car as he fell in love with it.
[ame]
The conclusion after this 2500 mile journey? I'm in love.:ford: I love it even more than I thought I would. Lot's of little things that all add up to the perfect car for me right now.
Some random pictures from the journey. If you ever have the opportunity to fly out and drive home your new car, take advantage of it. Great way to bond with the new ride.
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