My GT Arrived Tonight!!! What a day!!

[nota4re]

Just a short blurb tonight.... I gotta get some rest as I have a full day tomorrow. Hopefully I can play hooky Friday and play with the GT. As some of you may know, my car was shipped last Monday (5/8) from Wixom to Bev. Hills, CA. I really expected that I might see it last Friday or Saturday. Today when it came, I spoke to the driver who told me he had a transmission failure in Barstow and lost 2-days for repairs. Oh well, it's all good now. Scratch that, it's all great now!!!

I'll write more first impressions tomorrow. Quick thoughts for now.....

I started out nervous as hell driving the car and not feeling very comfortable. After about 10 minutes on the 405 freeway, I started to feel really at home in the car. After the 30 minute drive home and a couple of 5 mile laps around with each kid, I feel like I've known the car forever. It "feels" great. The shift action is very NSX-like, which is the best compliment in the world.

Car gets lots of looks, although mostly dark when I drove it. I got the pleasure of all of the unwrapping. Here's a couple of pics of the delivery as well as a couple of it at its new home. More soon...

 

[ROCMAN]

Beautiful Kendall!
You see, you actually got the car before I came down. :lol
We will get together and give our valley a nice show. :biggrin
Congrats!!! :thumbsup :banana

 

[KJD]

CONGRATULATIONS Kendall!!! Now that the wait is over, it really wasn't that bad!!!! Your car looks great and you documented the delivery with some nice photos.

I know the GT elicits some attention but I'm a bit suprised that the Beverly Hills crowd takes notice. Only place I've been in this county where I routinely see Ferraris and Lambos being driven.

Thanks for the impressions, it'll be hard to focus today on anything other than that car!! :cheers

 

[bigdan40]

It "feels" great. The shift action is very NSX-like, which is the best compliment in the world.

Congratulations and great job documenting the delivery! I have the same car but with the grey calipers. It must of been exciting waiting for the arrival, I bought mine off the showroom floor so their was no real anticipation for me and no real delivery to document! Good for you,now go turn some heads on Wilshire Blvd!!!
Great comment about the "NSX-like" shifting. I'm an Acura dealer and for 15 years have had the pleasure of knowing the NSX product and you're right on target with your comment! :cheers

 

[B O N Y]

CONGRATS AGAIN Kendal, Hope you can find a way to come on up to Fresno and have Mario autograph it, as well as enjoy a great day! Be safe! arty

 

[AZGT]

Congrats and enjoy. They are a re blast. :cheers

From your picture I noticed another small detail difference in the newer cars. In the photo the Brembo is painted in contrast to the caliper.

 

[nota4re]

From your picture I noticed another small detail difference in the newer cars. In the photo the Brembo is painted in contrast to the caliper.

Do you mean that they are not all like this?

 

[AZGT]

No, that is different.

On my 05 I have the gray painted. Mine is plain where yours says Brembo.

 

[Midnite Blu]

What a fine looking machine....Hope you enjoy as much as the NSX I sold you......Come on up to Fresno June 12 for a good time......George

 

[dbtgt]

Congratulations nota4re! Enjoy that beautiful car! :banana

 

[AtomicGT]

Kendall,

Congratulations, I got mine a month ago from Buerge Ford in West LA. So now there are at least 3 Tungstens in West LA, myself, zim32 and you. We had a great little ralley last Saturday to Flo's diner at the Chino Airport. Anytime you want to cruise up the PCH drop me a PM.

On your wheel picture you have a black dot on the wheel and a red spot on the tire. Know the meaning? Black dot is the lowest point on the wheel and the red spot is the highest point on the tire. These are marked so the tire mounter can align them. Once aligned, it reduces the harmonic vibration at high speeds. So don't have your detailer attempt to rub them off, Car looks great but that is because I am partial to Tungsten (but all GTs look awesome).

Check out the GT Owner's Section of the Forum and see the So Cal messages.

 

[nota4re]

More first impressions (from my memory as I take a quick lunch break)...

The car is very easy to drive. Surprisingly easy. The clutch works great and with the torque, stalling is all but out of the question. Gear shifts were very easy - as I said before, very NSX-like only with a longer throws. Can't recall ANY difficulty on 1-2 shifts even when starting out (the whopping 1 time I drove it cold!) The rear visibility wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after reading everything here. (I guess I was expecting shrads of glass in my eye if I tried to use any of the mirrors!) Seriously, it wasn't that bad to drive in modest traffic. I worry more about an adjacent-lane car coming in to me because I am below their line of sight. So, rear visibility is better than expected. Front A-pillar visibility worse than expected. Didn't remember reading about this. Spring-rate is firm but OK for my use of the car. Seat is very comfortable (trust me, I have 30 minutes or total driving time.... what do I know?)

Exhaust sound is good but way, way too quiet. Wind noise inside the cabin is more than I would have expected with windows up. A little bit of a surprise. More of a surprise is that wind noise with windows down. At 70MPH, interior is very, very quiet. Almost erie.

Best "discovered" surprise so far is the trick nightime lighting of the AC controls! Very clever/elegant, Ford!

More to come! Oh, and for those of you who have suffered through my first impressions and are still reading, the Brembo logo on the brake caliper is an added decal - my first mod! Actually I like it a lot but I'm not sure how it will hold up with the heat.

 

[fjpikul]

You trickster, putting that decal on the caliper. I'm sure many people were having envy attacks. Thank god you told us! Enjoy the car. Don't punch it!

 

[AMER SPD]

Congrats Nota4re!

I can tell you'll fit in with the rest of the Forum. You made me look back and forth between the pics of the GT coming off the carrier and again at the rack pics to understand where the Brembo logos came from. I kept thinking "they're not on my car"! But didn't see them on the carrier pics. Good fun!

Thanks for making me scratch my head

Charles

 

[escman]

Congrats!!!

You will find wind and pavement noise most noticable at highway speeds, but when you get it up to speed the charger and engine will sing a lovely tune. You will also find at higher speeds, that the car really seems glued to the road, evidently thats the ground effects working. Good luck.

 

[fjpikul]

You may want to check tire pressures cold when you have a chance. Mine seemd to be a little loud with road noise. When I checked the tires cold, they were about 4lbs low. Filling them up made a difference and smoothed the ride out a little too. You may also want to charge the battery to avoid the dreaded dead battery syndrome with its complications. Since yours was new off the truck, probably not a real problem, but why be sorry.

 

[KJRGT]

nota4re congratulations! I'm very much in your same situation...taking delivery two weeks ago. I, too, am very surprised as to how docile and simple it can drive around town when you want it to, yet the speed comes on with an effortless rush when getting on the 405 north from Sunset Blvd. at 6oam :banana
Have a blast with it this weekend, looking forward to meeting you and the other SoCal GT owners.

 

[StuM]

Congrat's

Woooooow Baby, You gonna' have some fun now. Drive nice and watch the blind spots. Won't take too long for the GT to fit like a glove.

Oh, and be ready for the rock star attention around town!

Congratulations and enjoy. :thumbsup
StuM

 

[Beach-GT]

Fine Machine

The Easter Bunny brought mine to the door the same way....in a big white truck. My red calibers are not autographed tho. 2006 Nov 2005 production.