New Ford GT

[Les Quam]

Colin,
Sorry to hear about your limp hose I have heard you have a problem with keeping your hose firm and not spewing , shall we say prematurely??? LOL LOL LOL

That Saleen/Ford GT/Colin/ limp hose problem was pretty common on the 2005 GTs but I am surprised to hear(or am I not surprised?)that by the 2006 model year the hoses still keep falling off. Also curious why you the customer need to spend about 150K on a car and then you the customer have to open the engine compartment and re-tighten and re-torque everything before you drive it??? After spending a buck fifty is it unreasonable to rely on Ford to have done some quality control prior to sending it to you?

The CGT wrecks were caused by the drivers. A car can't wreck itself. The Porsche dealers( please note I have not defended or recommended them)are not screening the prospective CGT buyer and selling them to whomever can write a check even if they can't even drive a manual trans.

When I bought my CGT, Ford GTs were selling in the 300K range many dealers at this time were paying 275K to other dealers and selling them to their appreciative and very gullible customers for 300K or more. Several Ford GTs were selling at auctions we both attended for 300K or more as well. The CGT MSRP was 448K but I paid less than 400K out the door. Therefore at the time it cost me about 100K more to get a 605 HP Porsche than the Saleen/Ford GT which I thought was reasonable.

The CGT clutch is easy to drive for anyone with a little skill and experience. I hope someday you have a chance to experience it for yourself. The HP on the CGT is actually understated and the CGT is indeed a car that requires all your attention to drive since it has no Ferrari like computer aids and with it's technology revs up to it's redline quicker perhaps than any street car in automotive history. The exhaust note on the CGT is not to be believed it is the nearest we will ever come to driving a car designed to race at Le Mans but sold on the street. It is a car designed and built for a small group of prospective buyers(600 to America) who still appreciate the art of driving. It was not designed for everyone but was indeed built in house by Porsche as is the Viper and Vette and Ferrari, as is EVERY respectable sports car that has ever been built. Interesting to note that both the Ford GT and the Porsche CGT were a two year model run and yet 600 or less CGTs were built for North America and about 4500 Saleen/Ford GTs will be built for North America. I wonder which one received the most quality control and attention?

The lawsuit you mentioned I assume is the one I faxed you to your office for your magazine article? I am not aware of any others pending?

In that suit a good friend of mine who left a wife and a six month old baby and who had no previous driver training or racing experience whatsoever crashed his CGT head on into a wall at about 150 MPH at the California speedway after another car was waved from the pits directly in front of my friend and both he AND HIS PASSENGER in the CGT who also had a wife and young child both were killed. The PASSENGERS family is suing the track, the event organizers , the flagman who waved the car onto the track , the guy driving the car who pulled onto the track and of course Porsche. In other words they are suing everyone possible not just Porsche as you allude to. It is the passengers family who has filed suit not the driver of the Porsche as you were well aware.

I am surprised and pretty disappointed that you would even attempt to use the deaths of two young men one being a good friend of mine to somehow further your cause in this "friendly" debate over the Ford GT? If this is your payback for the race challenge I made to you it is a pretty cheap shot IMHO? Or perhaps my friends death is still a sensitive subject with me since I miss my friend terribly and still grieve for his family and daughter. If I took your statment the wrong way I apologize.

In regard to your discussion about us racing at a Barber Dodge weekend while you were attending Mopars at the strip. I raised the idea because after Barrett Jackson you told me you were going to come out to the Mopar show this year after missing it last year. I was looking forward to seeing(dating) you again and thought we could race in the morning and go to the Mopar show in the afternoon which didn't sound like such a terrible weekend date to me? As you know we have been engaged in a debate over who would be quicker on a race track for the past couple of years and I always believed that Barber Dodge with it's identically prepared race cars and safe racing format would be a fun way to resolve the
debate? I certainly meant no disrespect towards your racing skills and very impressive career.

After about 17 years of racing in one form of motorsports or another(not including Karting) I am pushing 50 years old now and I am too old and beat up and have had two many broken bones and concussions(which explains a lot doesn't it LOL)to go out and try to figure out how to beat the guys with the cheater motors and worry about why the set up on my car needs to be changed every couple of hours as the track changes. I like Barber Dodge because they provide the race cars, they provide the mechanic's , they provide the trackside amenities. I spend more time having fun and socilaizing with my friends then setting the camber on my race car or worrying why another driver who allegedly has the same HP in his as mine pulls away from me as we both go down the straight? It's arrive and drive and have fun at Barber Dodge and they also provide the best racing training of any format in the world IMHO. Michael Andretti's kid Marco just finished the race series and I figure Michael could have sent his kid to any race series in the world but chose barber Dodge so that was a pretty good endorsement IMHO. It's more important to me at my stage in life to have fun at the races then trying to figure out how to squeeze a little more HP out of my Vinatge car. BTW I would have loved to have raced vintage muscle cars when I was your age but unfortunatley today's vintage cars were not vintage then and still were all acvtively being raced. LOL LOL LOL LOL

In regard to buying Charley's GT 350 vintage racer to race against you guys I just bought Charley's 1963 Ford Galaxie wagon that ought to be enough to handle Colin(juggernaut) Cramer on the track? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

NOTE: Sorry about the excessive LOLs in my post but someone whose name I will not mention(Cramer)sent me a blistering private email indicating my posts lacked enough LOLs when I was referring to him on this forum. LOL LOL

Now if all you Ford GT lovers can coax Gloria back into this debate I might have some actual competition? The juggernaut is a total weenie lightweight. Send in the first string and put this Cramer guy back where he belongs on the bench. LOL LOL LOL