Ford GT Owner VIP Hospitality at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans


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Ed Sims

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Apr 7, 2006
7,850
NorCal
Heal up quick!

Ed
 

Special K

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Aug 23, 2016
1,775
Franklinton, LA
Counting the days...


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shesgotlegs

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 20, 2006
1,181
I just went through this thread again and still can’t believe many of us including Irene and I got to partake in this most momentous occasion. It was a moment for the ages.

Dave, you definitely experienced automotive nirvana. Reading about it and seeing your pics of especially the parade lap is simply surreal. I don’t know what else to say. Glad you decided to stick around bro and not call it a slice! :thumbsup
 

dbk

The Favor Factory™
Staff member
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jul 30, 2005
15,187
Metro Detroit
You are not lying! Impossible to top. I always tried to tell people "Go. Now. It will not be a possibility in the near future." And now we're already there.

And now that my car is back in the U.S...

Matt lives by a philosophy that essentially boils down to "ZFG." The two of us we're stopped crossing from sunny Italy to France by some very unhappy looking border control. They pulled us to the side and took all of our paperwork, including our vehicle titles (you have to have them shipped over). They were gone for a long time. Long enough that we decided to get out of our cars and mill around.

After a while, a huge group of agents came out. It might have been a dozen very serious looking men and women with guns and badges. I thought "oh well this looks like it will be fun." They asked which one of us was which, at which point I thought we were seriously f$#(*@d. And then they just gave us our paperwork back and let us go. Whew. I did ask them if we could get a picture with all of them in front of the cars. They were not willing to accommodate this request. :lol I have no idea why they stopped us, but I can tell you the white circle with the three black lines doesn't mean the same thing in Italy that it does in Germany. I think we were going 150+ for what seemed like hours.

Luckily, as soon as we arrived on the now pouring French side of the tunnel through the mountains, we were greeted by...more police. They pulled us off to the side and told us to get out of the cars and come into the station. Yay! At least we made it 50 feet into French daylight before getting pulled over. To recap, the officer explained he had three, no wait four, problems with us. He recounted what our violations were with another officer in the small room the 4 of us were locked in. Back to Matt and his ZFG lifestyle, he starts chatting with me as the officer fills out all the paperwork, detailing that "ah yes this is surely just a shakedown" (it was) and slowly raising his phone to get pics of us. I was trying very, very hard not to laugh uncontrollably in an effort to not end up sitting in a French jail cell while my car was off being flattened into a pancake.

"Hmm, zis says ze fee for Amex is 3.2%. Zis is much too high."
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BAT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Oct 11, 2012
946
Central Mitten
The ear buds while driving was the tipping point. LOL
 

texas mongrel

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
May 3, 2009
1,661
Houston Texas
The ear buds while driving was the tipping point. LOL

......and speeding in the tunnel........and hitting crazy high speeds on the aprroach to the tunnel.......and generally being a couple of hipster dude foreigners.
 

ChipBeck

GT Owner
Staff member
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Feb 13, 2006
5,769
Scottsdale, Arizona
Gentlemen,

When Charley and I got to our hotel in Vichy, France that day we expected Matt & Dave to be sitting at the bar as I assumed they were well ahead of us. We were cruising at 140 mph across Italy and we weren’t catching anybody. DBK sent me a text photo of his speedo and he was doing 171. Holy shit I guess we’ll be late for dinner at our sedate pace. But after getting to our hotel which looked like a police station as it was surrounded by heavily armed anti terrorist police and squad cars there was no Dave or Matt. One hour and several cocktails later when I was pretty sure they were at the bottom of a canyon somewhere they strolled in with some great stories. What a great frigging trip.

Chip
 

jaxgt

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Jul 12, 2006
2,794
Now I'm extra curious - What is a ZFG lifestyle?
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
Now I'm extra curious - What is a ZFG lifestyle?

It's what used to be called don't give a damn. Begins with "Zero."
 

Ed Sims

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Apr 7, 2006
7,850
NorCal
LOL! Fantastic story but DBK has more! Ha!

Ed
 

SPEED DEMON

GT Owner
Nov 19, 2006
132
Albuquerque NM
Lol awesome
 

Awsum GT

GT Owner '18
Mark IV Lifetime
Sep 17, 2005
3,985
Carmel & Cntrl Ca
You guys rock! Sounds like an excellent adventure! Sure wish I was there this year. Have a blast and cheer the guys in blue on!
 

LOVE CHP

GT Owner
May 30, 2007
324
Central Calif.
Some great stories. Fun times! Enjoy, gendarmes are not so bad. Go Ford Performance.
 

SYCO GT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Sep 9, 2006
4,971
California
Haha ZFG lifestyle! Damn, I'm old. Thanks for clarifying Xcentric. Have heard the phrase, but didn't immediately match it to the acronym. I'm sure DBK could start a daily posting of stories from this day forward and never catch up! Keep the stories coming.
 
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