One thing missing from the development of the new Ford GT is some good stories from those testing the mules. Something equivilent to when David Douglas Duncan rerpoted for LOOK magazine on his ride with the Mercedes drivers testing the 300SL roadsters in the Italian alps in '56--roaring around full tilt boogie, goggles and racing caps on (cloth caps in those days!). I know the Ford GT team had the mules out on the public highways, at first in flat black, and they even ran them on the dry LA riverbed, but haven't heard if any factory test drivers were ever pinched by the cops who didn't buy the story they were factory prototypes (despite factory plates) because the mules were so rude and crude (still pictures on the net for viewing).
I imagine most of the time any cops apprehending them let them off in the interests of commerce, but I wonder if any test driver had to post a bond in order to get himself (and the car) free of the pokey?
I only met one test driver in person, and he was a highly unlikely example. He must have been 70 years old and I ran into him at the Grove, a trendy shopping center in Los Angeles. He had a jacket that said in elaborate embroidery (including a side view of the Ford GT) something like "Ford GT Rollout Team" and I asked him what he had to do with it and he said "I drove Bill Ford's Ford GT 40,000 miles." I doubted Ford would employ a test driver this old (but then being over 60 myself I don't want in any way to denigrate the capability of senior citizens) but I knew that the three Centennial cars, in between show appearances, were being used as test cars; driven, torn down, built up, etc. so there was some plausibility to what he said. But I'd rather hear more romantic stories about the time they outran a pursuer in the Superstition mountains..etc.
I imagine most of the time any cops apprehending them let them off in the interests of commerce, but I wonder if any test driver had to post a bond in order to get himself (and the car) free of the pokey?
I only met one test driver in person, and he was a highly unlikely example. He must have been 70 years old and I ran into him at the Grove, a trendy shopping center in Los Angeles. He had a jacket that said in elaborate embroidery (including a side view of the Ford GT) something like "Ford GT Rollout Team" and I asked him what he had to do with it and he said "I drove Bill Ford's Ford GT 40,000 miles." I doubted Ford would employ a test driver this old (but then being over 60 myself I don't want in any way to denigrate the capability of senior citizens) but I knew that the three Centennial cars, in between show appearances, were being used as test cars; driven, torn down, built up, etc. so there was some plausibility to what he said. But I'd rather hear more romantic stories about the time they outran a pursuer in the Superstition mountains..etc.