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With thanks to Rick who encouraged me to post this straight from my blog... I think the below will resonate with many of us.
The joys of Boss ownership. There will always be "better" stuff out there, but that definitely is missing the point:
2013 marks the first year of high power rwd ownership in my life. So how was life in a high octane guzzling, V8 stick axle, "unrefined" monster?
I never imagined that I'd ever own a car of this magnitude. Each day that I looked at the car and sat in it, I felt like it was a dream. All along, I've driven tiny, slow 4 cylinder econoboxes and took these machines to the track. Going from a variety of 16 valve straight 4s wedged in cars meant to save gas and upgrading them to be better suited to track use....to finally what is a true, purpose built car for the circuit was, to put it lightly, an eye opener. This thing is fast, capable, communicative and easy to mess up if you're not careful. Driving it even in familiar circuits required serious focus and anticipation of what the car was going to do next. A lack of anticipation will cause for a mistake costing time.
This thing forces you to be considerate of when to brake and how hard. It requires that the driver is conscious of all touches - how swiftly but softly are you getting off the brake pedal? How smooth is that motion, and how is your transition to the gas pedal thereafter? With a low power car, one has the "luxury" of being all gung ho with the pedals. Give it full gas or full brake one after another, it doesn't really matter. The car is too slow to break traction, and velocity too low for abrupt brake inputs to cause major concern. Not so with this! This is not to say that I had bad habits all along. I'm conscious of inputs, but this thing requires not only being conscious, but true hard edged focus. Taking it to tracks which I've grown up around and have over 10 years of driving experience on (Shannonville) is a brand new experience. In a slow car, an overly familiar circuit may be a bore. This thing makes entertainment out of anything. It eats up the straights between corners. The pace it can throw down is eye popping. The brake dive is also eye popping(!!!). Managing the transition of weight to play with the traction is part of what makes this thing so fun.
In certain situations, I'd merely be driving the thing on the street and I'd stretch out my arm and pat the dashboard a few times and mutter "you're a good car" (LOL)...just purely as a response in awe of how capable this machine really is. Sure, Ford has arguably refined a turd. It can be argued that this chassis was built as a $23,000 rental car. They merely wedged a proper motor in it, built to take the rigors of competition...and refined the suspension to a point where the thing would perform. The fact of the matter is that this car is half the price of an M3, out performs an M3 and is highly competent as a platform. Solid axle, brutish design and high CG. It has all of these elements, and yet it can come out and whoop the butts of most things out there on the circuit. Is it easy to drive? No. It will bite you if you're not careful. But that's not the point of why I bought the car. It's capable, fast, provides the driver with tons of feedback and has very progressive characteristics--it'll ease into understeer, or ease into oversteer and rotation. It won't surprise you. You just need to be smooth.
I was never a muscle car guy, but I always liked the look of the updated Mustang (2010 and on). When the Boss was announced, I drooled over it but simply couldn't afford it. Fast forward to only 2 years later and I have one in my garage. How lucky am I! Purchased date was close to my birthday to boot
This thing has become a machine for me where it's one of those things where the car speaks to you. You own a car not just for it's performance capability, but also because of what it emotionally does for you. The feeling you get by driving the car. The retro styling (I like me some old cars!), the wonderful sound (arguably the best sounding cross plane V8) and how engaging it is to drive. Want some mid-corner rotation? No sweat, just prod the throttle a little. Even the hillarious amounts of brake dive and body motion between shifts add to the experience. Yes, neither of these are traits of a good car. But I don't want a clinically clean, perfect car. I don't want a car that does perfect shifts every time (DSG), and nor do I want a car that is so lazer sorted and focused that the odd slide, or the terminal understeer as a result of an overcooked corner are negated (I'm looking at you, Evo). In the days of electric diffs giving you perfect corner entry, and torque vectoring for on power precision or the highly tuned direct injection motor...This car stands up for what driving should be. Driving was never clinically perfect. Cars were not there to make the journey easier for you. It should demand something of the driver. It should be a toy in the hands of a driver. It may not be the fastest, but it'll make your smile the widest. This is the every man's sports car. The working man's machine. The rough and tumble, overly muscled, blue collar brute in the corner which has somehow elevated to such a level that it can take on giants. That alone speaks to me. 17,000 happy & trouble free KM's, 9 track days and 1 race. Enjoyed every second and every cent spent.
The joys of Boss ownership. There will always be "better" stuff out there, but that definitely is missing the point:
2013 marks the first year of high power rwd ownership in my life. So how was life in a high octane guzzling, V8 stick axle, "unrefined" monster?
I never imagined that I'd ever own a car of this magnitude. Each day that I looked at the car and sat in it, I felt like it was a dream. All along, I've driven tiny, slow 4 cylinder econoboxes and took these machines to the track. Going from a variety of 16 valve straight 4s wedged in cars meant to save gas and upgrading them to be better suited to track use....to finally what is a true, purpose built car for the circuit was, to put it lightly, an eye opener. This thing is fast, capable, communicative and easy to mess up if you're not careful. Driving it even in familiar circuits required serious focus and anticipation of what the car was going to do next. A lack of anticipation will cause for a mistake costing time.
This thing forces you to be considerate of when to brake and how hard. It requires that the driver is conscious of all touches - how swiftly but softly are you getting off the brake pedal? How smooth is that motion, and how is your transition to the gas pedal thereafter? With a low power car, one has the "luxury" of being all gung ho with the pedals. Give it full gas or full brake one after another, it doesn't really matter. The car is too slow to break traction, and velocity too low for abrupt brake inputs to cause major concern. Not so with this! This is not to say that I had bad habits all along. I'm conscious of inputs, but this thing requires not only being conscious, but true hard edged focus. Taking it to tracks which I've grown up around and have over 10 years of driving experience on (Shannonville) is a brand new experience. In a slow car, an overly familiar circuit may be a bore. This thing makes entertainment out of anything. It eats up the straights between corners. The pace it can throw down is eye popping. The brake dive is also eye popping(!!!). Managing the transition of weight to play with the traction is part of what makes this thing so fun.
In certain situations, I'd merely be driving the thing on the street and I'd stretch out my arm and pat the dashboard a few times and mutter "you're a good car" (LOL)...just purely as a response in awe of how capable this machine really is. Sure, Ford has arguably refined a turd. It can be argued that this chassis was built as a $23,000 rental car. They merely wedged a proper motor in it, built to take the rigors of competition...and refined the suspension to a point where the thing would perform. The fact of the matter is that this car is half the price of an M3, out performs an M3 and is highly competent as a platform. Solid axle, brutish design and high CG. It has all of these elements, and yet it can come out and whoop the butts of most things out there on the circuit. Is it easy to drive? No. It will bite you if you're not careful. But that's not the point of why I bought the car. It's capable, fast, provides the driver with tons of feedback and has very progressive characteristics--it'll ease into understeer, or ease into oversteer and rotation. It won't surprise you. You just need to be smooth.
I was never a muscle car guy, but I always liked the look of the updated Mustang (2010 and on). When the Boss was announced, I drooled over it but simply couldn't afford it. Fast forward to only 2 years later and I have one in my garage. How lucky am I! Purchased date was close to my birthday to boot
This thing has become a machine for me where it's one of those things where the car speaks to you. You own a car not just for it's performance capability, but also because of what it emotionally does for you. The feeling you get by driving the car. The retro styling (I like me some old cars!), the wonderful sound (arguably the best sounding cross plane V8) and how engaging it is to drive. Want some mid-corner rotation? No sweat, just prod the throttle a little. Even the hillarious amounts of brake dive and body motion between shifts add to the experience. Yes, neither of these are traits of a good car. But I don't want a clinically clean, perfect car. I don't want a car that does perfect shifts every time (DSG), and nor do I want a car that is so lazer sorted and focused that the odd slide, or the terminal understeer as a result of an overcooked corner are negated (I'm looking at you, Evo). In the days of electric diffs giving you perfect corner entry, and torque vectoring for on power precision or the highly tuned direct injection motor...This car stands up for what driving should be. Driving was never clinically perfect. Cars were not there to make the journey easier for you. It should demand something of the driver. It should be a toy in the hands of a driver. It may not be the fastest, but it'll make your smile the widest. This is the every man's sports car. The working man's machine. The rough and tumble, overly muscled, blue collar brute in the corner which has somehow elevated to such a level that it can take on giants. That alone speaks to me. 17,000 happy & trouble free KM's, 9 track days and 1 race. Enjoyed every second and every cent spent.