One day I'll bring an actual challenge car again. The mustang ended up coming because I was too much of a wimp to drive my 1980Mercedes 240d 890 miles to the challenge after only getting one very slow 8 mile test drive in. Jermey was going to let me enter the CAM camaro but instead I entered my friend Chris who never had the chance to autocross or drag race before. He always made it to the challenge the years we broke the car.
I ended up buying a new mustang in 2015 after my DD blew the engine. The daily had been my $2013 Miata. Usually I'm pretty cheap, but I wanted something I could take to any automotive event given the chance. Fortunately my life keeps getting busier so the only event I've been making it to is the challenge. I've used the mustang year round in PA since purchase putting on 55,000 miles.
Actually purchased a set of "will not ship snow tires and wheels" from Ohio via the GRM express. This ended up with the guy dropping the wheels off at Pat's house in Ohio, at this point I had never met Pat and he hadn't been to the challenge. As arranged Pat delivered the wheels to me via the challenge, I know Ohio to FL to get them to PA wasn't the ideal shipping solution but it worked.
Managed to find a wife and get married during Mustang ownership, she never wants me to get rid of it. I'm not that sentimental and we have a kid on the way so it's not quite making as much sense anymore. Still trying to convince her that we will need a minivan eventually so we should just make the jump.
Back to this years challenge, took our time getting there 890 miles in 2 days is a lot nicer than a one day drive.. Especially when you need to stop in Jacksonville to run errands with Jeremy to pick up another car on the way.
I don't know how I get suckered into working on cars in the parking lot, I also don't know why anyone would want me to work on their car. Parking lot projects have been one of the best ways to form new friends and have time to talk to your fellow GRM members. I can't say I knew many of the challengers before the $2014 Fiero fiasco, still one of the best experiences. Bad ideas make for great stories.
The grid in the autocross was excellent this year and have time to have lots of fun runs. Having the mustang allowed me to make enough runs for me to learn the mustangs tract/stability will save me and I have no idea how. Only took me 12 runs to put down a time faster than the one try I gave the pro driver.
Using all of the mustangs trick settings was too hard to learn in the five minutes of watching YouTube videos. I was trying to use the launch control on the drag strip, this led to some massive wheel spin and some 15 second runs. At least trapping 106 felt pretty fast. Eventually I was able to baby a 13.8, makes me question how many runs it takes the magazines to get the best times.
Overall it was a great time. I feel this year was pretty relaxed with an everyone love everybody attitude. I didn't get the feeling from anyone that they were there just to win it all for themselves. Everyone is so helpful trying to make each other faster. On the way home Chris was on the phone with his father, for an hour, telling him what a great time he had, making his first drag passes and autocross runs of his life.
Not sure if I'll make it next year, but I'll be back at some point.
I know you wont believe this but I purchased the mullet wig back when I had a 4th gen fbody with Ttops to drive around wearing in 2009.
