My Passion for Mustang GTs Ch. 04

Not all just about writing erotica, this story is about car buff stuff for car buffs. Susan discusses her other passion the automobile.

Of all the things that I learned about driving faster from Bob Bondurant and his team of drivers is that driving smoother is faster. With my eyes only looking to where I want to go, needing to feel the car to know what the car is doing, every move must be planned. Stomping on the gas, jamming on the brakes, missing the apex by turning in too soon or turning out too late not only burns energy but unbalances the car and scrubs off speed from lap times. Always flat out, something that I never could do, it takes a master driver to drive every lap at nearly the exact same, lap speed time.

The driver first needs to get comfortable in the car. Check the mirrors, buckle the seatbelt, lock the doors, and hold the steering wheel with both hands at the ten and two position or three and nine position. Whether feathering the brakes, cadence braking, and learning how and when to shift, the car must stay balanced and neutral before entering and emerging from the apex of a turn. Whether on a race course, a highway, a back road, or a neighborhood street, that's what driving is all about.

With a little knowledge a dangerous thing, or in my case, a little knowledge about high speed driving made me a better driver. Not only did the high speed driving instruction make me a faster driver, when driving faster, but also it made me aware of all the things that could go wrong when driving a car at the limit. If anything, the one day course made me a safer, slower, and a more careful, defensive driver.

Even a tip as simple as not driving in the pack and letting all the other cars speed ahead, to leaving yourself options to change lanes by not boxing yourself in, especially when driving beside a trailer truck, are good ways to drive. Driving with your peripheral vision by always looking far ahead is how to safely drive and to stay out of trouble. I recommend parents giving their kids a high speed driving course. With the knowledge of how to drive a car faster safely, not only just about speed, a high speed driving course will make them better and more responsible drivers. Now that I know what the car does and what my limitations are, I have more respect for driving, for the car, and for my driving abilities or lack thereof.

What learning how to drive faster safely has taught me is that I could never be a race car driver. I don't have the appetite for driving at breakneck speed. I scare too easily when driving at speed. Such a tiny woman, my hat is off to Danica Patrick. She is truly gifted as are all of the other drivers who can drive at speeds four times the speed limit.

For only a few seconds, the fastest I've ever driven a car is 130 mph on a long straight, empty highway. My knuckles were white, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing. Afraid I'd have a tire blowout, instead of trying to drive faster, I couldn't wait to slow down. A scary proposition, for me to have a wreck at that speed would only take a mere twitch of the steering wheel. Taking my foot off the gas, not braking to upset the car, I allowed the car to slow naturally. Not seeing anything from the sides of the car but blurs, I felt as if I was driving in a tunnel. I can't imagine what it must feel like to drive 230 mph with cars in front, behind, and on either side of me.

Yet, still loving to drive, especially on a road that has lots of twists, turns, and long straightaways to safely pass, I love the Kangamagus Highway, commonly misspelled as Kangamangus. A 34.5 mile scenic drive on a two lane road from Lincoln, NH to Conway, NH, through the White Mountain National Forest, the road runs east to west through the White Mountains with peeks of white water and rocky streams on the side. Designated as Americas scenic byway for its rich history, aesthetic beauty, and culture, the views are breathtaking especially during the summer and fall foliage season. My favorite road to drive, bar none, is the Kangamagus highway on the way to the Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Even more thrilling than driving the Kangamagus Highway is driving the road up Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United states at nearly, 6,300 feet. Mount Washington has a weather station on top. With measured wind speeds of 231 miles an hour and temperatures of -47 in winter, for safety reasons, the road is closed to cars in October. Barely enough room for two cars, the road has no barrier on the passenger side up the mountain. The car comes close enough to the edge of the road to feel the sensation, when looking down, to see where you'd drop if driving off the road.

"Wow! That's not how I want to die, free falling from a mountain, as if I was someone chasing James Bond and lost."

One of the best lessons learned when taking the high speed driving course was watching Bob Bondurant load all 14 of us in a huge van and beat our fastest time against our Mustang GT's. Watching him driving that top heavy van loaded with the weight of 15 people, including him as the driver, faster by driving it smoother while balanced was an amazing, jaw dropping sight to see. Unbelievably, he beat the best times of our Mustang GT's around the course. I wouldn't want him chasing me.

I can only imagine the time he'd have if he were driving a Mustang GT alone. I can only imagine how much faster he was when racing in his prime. By the way, all police are required to take high speed driving course too, so for those felons who think they can outrun a cop car, especially one with a helicopter in pursuit, they should rethink their decision to flee. Perhaps it's better that they should take public transportation or run away on foot than trying to outrun a police car.

A time when the economy was booming, I was working, and had money to spend, I ordered my Mustang GT new with a 5 speed manual transmission. Now they come standard with six speed transmission. It took me 8 weeks to get the new car and I was content waiting because I could pick the color and the options that I wanted. Too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter for my poor naked legs, especially when wearing a short skirt, I ordered the car with cloth seats instead of leather. Besides, I didn't want to slide around the seat when taking a tight turn or making a fast corner.

With the only colors available on dealers' lots being white, black, silver, red, and blue, all the good, attention grabbing colors, the whole purpose of driving a sleek, loud, Mustang GT, yellow, orange, green, better shades of blues, and candy apple red are special order colors. The special order colors are new colors for that year and that are available for a year or two. If you want your car to be different from all the other cars of the same model and make, special order the car so that you can get a color not available on a dealer's lot. Trust me, it's worth waiting the 8 weeks for your ordered car to be built to your exact specifications.

Moreover, customers can order those options that they prefer and that are not usually available on a car that are already ordered by the dealer or that was outfitted by the manufacturer and that sits on dealers' lots for months. If you read the stickers of the dealers' lot cars, not much diversity in choices, but for the difference in colors, the cars are much the same. Cookie cutter cars, there's nothing special about any of them, not even the color and certainly not the options.

Conversely, Mini Cooper advertises on its website that there are more than 10 million variations of their car when outfitted with select options. Someone who goes through all the expense and trouble of buying a new car really doesn't want to own the same car that everyone else owns. Yet, apparently figuring that it must be a good car because their neighbor bought one, routinely that often happens with someone buying the same car as their neighbor.

Unable to trust them to tell the truth, the car salesman or saleswoman will misinform by saying that it's cheaper to buy a car off the lot than it is to special order a car. It's not. The truth is that it cost more to buy a car that you really don't want and that has been sitting on a dealer's lot while flat spotting the tires than it does to special order a car and wait the required time for the manufacturer to build the car to your exact specifications.

As soon as the dealer accepts a new car on its lot, the finance fee clock that they must pay the manufacturer starts ticking. With the car sitting there for days, weeks, or months while waiting to be sold, for them to maintain their profit margin, they mark up vehicles with those finance fees paid to the manufacturer and pass those costs of doing business on to you. The longer the car sits unsold, the more finance fees the car is saddle with for it to sell at a profit. By special ordering the car, as if a consignment buy between you and the manufacturer with the dealer acting as a go between, you avoid most dealer finance fees which, depending on the car, could be several hundred dollars to a couple of thousand.

Rather than buying the car off the lot, some manufacturers, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen have factory special offers where, bypassing the dealer but still ordering the car from the dealer, the customer can order their dream car directly from the factory. Much like the deal that Chevy has with the Corvette, the customer can travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky to watch the car being made, pay to have a photographic album made of the car being assembled, and accept delivery of the car right there at the Corvette Museum.

"Wow!"

Where the dealer will allow a few hundred dollars off of your expensive, new BMW, generally 2%, when buying from the dealership, buying the car directly from the factory in Germany discounts the car by thousands, typically 7 to 9% depending on the brand and model. Moreover, while you're there visiting Germany to watch your car being made, after it's finished, you can drive your new car through the Bavarian Alps before having the factory ship it home for you.

A very good deal, especially when including buying a new car in your travel plans, the program pays for your roundtrip airfare, a two night hotel stay, and includes shipping your car to the United States. Moreover, there are more color choices and option selections available when ordering the car directly from the factory than when buying the car from a dealer's lot. Ferrari and Lamborghini offer similar programs too. Unfortunately, being that I'm still unemployed, homeless, and living in the spare bedroom of a kind Mennonite woman, I don't have the budget to afford a German car or any car, new or used, for that matter. If anyone wants to buy me a car or help with my car fund, in exchange for me writing them a story or a novel, feel free to contact me.

Anyway, back to the Mustang. The first things I did with my Mustang was to remove and sell the tires that came with the car and buy better tires online. Buying tires online is always cheaper than buying them at a local tire dealership. Moreover, buying tires online allows the customer to not only read the sidewall information but also compare one brand of tire to several others. I always bought AA/A summer performance V rated tires for my Mustang. Double A for traction and A for temperature and V means for speeds up to 149mph.

Having been schooled by my brothers on how to read a tire sidewalk in addition to being taught how to do other things that had nothing to do with cars, I'm embarrassed to add, at least I'm grateful for the tire knowledge. Too many people don't bother or even know how to read the information that appears on their sidewall. There's even a three digit number code for the mileage expected from the tire. Depending how you drive and care for your tires, three hundred means you can expect approximately 30,000 miles of use, four hundred, 40,000 miles, five hundred, 50,000 miles, and six hundred, 60,000 miles of use.

In the way that I don't like automatic transmissions, I don't much like all season tires. A compromise, they're numb and have little road feel to them. They don't do anything well and are inferior to summer tires in the good weather and snow tires in the bad weather. Unless buying the very best all season tires, such as the ones that Michelin offers for big bucks, they don't handle well nor stop the car as quickly as a summer or winter tire.

Because the rubber compounds are softer on a summer tire and harder on an all season tire, a trade off that's worth it to some and not to others, summer tires don't last as long as all season tires do. A decent set of summer tires will last around 20,000 to 30,000 miles so long burnouts and spirited driving are limited. A good set of all season tires will last 40-60,000 miles.

I ran my summer tires from early spring to late fall before switching to four snow tires. Having to take the car in to change the tires from summer tires and aluminum rims to snow tires with steel wheels is an inconvenience but is well worth the time and expense when driving a performance car such as a Mustang GT. Granted the Mustang is no Maserati or Aston Martin but it's still fun to drive for those on a budget.

When driving my car with four snow tires and traction control, I never got stuck in the snow. Moreover, just by putting a couple of cinderblocks on my backseat floor and leaving a tire in my trunk, I passed other drivers on snow covered highways that had four wheel drive and all wheel drive but who didn't bother to take the time and expense to fit their cars with snow tires. They'd be idling their cars in second gear at twenty miles an hour and I'd be passing them in fourth gear at forty miles an hour.

Aside from installing a four panel Wink racing mirror that allowed me to cut someone off within inches and better tires, the other thing I had done to my car was to have a speed shop install a Recaro driver's seat. Wow! The difference going from a stock Mustang seat to a Recaro seat is much like sitting on a Herman Miller Aeron chair after sitting on a stool. Making me feel that I was driving an exotic sports car instead of a mere Mustang GT, the Recaro seat hugs my body and kept me planted. Moreover, I could more feel what the car was doing through my panty clad ass.

Even though a Recaro seat is expensive, around $1,500 installed then and about $2,000 today for just one seat, more padded, a Recaro seat is safer. Unlike regular car seats in a crash, especially when someone hits your car from behind, the seat is designed not to break at a 35mph impact and launch the driver and passenger, when two Recaro seats are installed, out the back window. Feeling as if I was in the cocoon while strapped in a space shuttle capsule, Recaro seats, imported from Germany, are the same seats used in Porsche, other high end sports cars, race cars, and now offered in Mustang GT's as an option.

Buying the Recaro seat option from the Ford factory when ordering your new Mustang GT is the best way to buy the best car seat in the world for a discount price. Ford charges around $1,500 for the Recaro seat option that includes other goodies. The same option would cost you more than double when trying to replicate it yourself in the aftermarket. The Recaro seat option can even be ordered in the V6 Mustang but in cloth instead of leather.

Unfortunately, just as too many people still smoke, drink, eat too much, and don't exercise, too many people still don't wear their seatbelts. Too many people think that if they wear their seatbelt, they'll be trapped in the car and will burn to death in case of an accident. That's baloney. Drivers are more likely to die by not wearing their seatbelts.

Too many people don't even take the time to lock their car doors. Did you know that if your car door is locked, it will not pop open in a crash. It's a good thing for your car door not to fly open on its own in a crash, especially if you're not wearing your seatbelt. Too many people have the misconception that if they lock their doors and wear their seatbelts, they'll be trapped and will die in a car accident. That's not true. Many people have died in survivable accidents not from crashing their cars but by being ejected from their cars for not locking their doors and for not wearing their seatbelts. Depending upon the severity of the crash, of course, the door can still be unlocked and forced opened after the crash.

Much like what happened with Chrysler years ago with the rear doors of their mini-vans suddenly flying open and their precious cargo of children bouncing out and dying on the highway behind them, if that door opens in an accident after you've locked it, you can sue the manufacturer? A built-in safety feature, those doors are designed not to pop open in a crash once locked. Trust me, if your door locks fail, if your car door pops open after you've locked it, and you are killed in an accident, I'll sue on your behalf. After covering my exhaustive expenses, of course, I promise to give you the best, um a wonderful, um a good enough funeral. I promise to buy you a grave plot and a befitting headstone. Actually, I'll probably have you cremated with all, um most, um a token portion of the money received from the lawsuit.

Just transportation to too many people, wanting to get good fuel economy even over safety, their only criteria in buying a car, too many people buy boring and unsafe cars. Those who are not driving enthusiasts and/or car buffs, don't understand the rest of us buying our hot cars that burn fuel at twice the rate of their small, unsafe, and boring little cars. I'd rather drive a Mustang GT any day than to drive any Honda, Toyota, Kia, or Hyundai.

The world is filled with Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords, sport utility vehicles, and pickup trucks. Why is that every time I see a gigantic vehicle, a vehicle big enough to sit 8 people and all of their luggage, I see only one person, the driver, in the vehicle? Why is it that every time I see the biggest sport utility vehicle, pickup, van, or Hummer, I see the smallest man or the tiniest woman driving it? Are they compensating for their small status by buying something so large?

When I had my Mustang, so long as I drove it at 53 mph, 1,500 rpm's, a rare and nerve racking occurrence, I received 29 mph, not bad for a car with a 300 horsepower V8 engine. Even though the speed limit range on the highway was 45 mph to 65 mph, driving a Mustang GT at 53 mph on the highway while everyone else was flying by me and up on my bumper at 80 mph and faster, even a Toyota Prius, was not the smartest or safest thing to do. Routinely, big trucks would come right up on my bumper and flash me their lights, even though I was in the far right lane. Where else was I to go? Pass me already, just get off my ass.

"Asshole!"

Being the dumb blonde that I am, what I thought they were giving me the number one sign or the thumbs up because I had a Mustang GT in a color they've never seen before, it took me a while to realize that they were giving me the finger. Steering clear of the too expensive and too heavy Cobras and GT 500's, the new Mustang GT's get even better gas mileage than they ever did before. If ever I could afford to buy a new Mustang, over $40,000 for the GT now, the Mustang comes standard with the more fuel efficient and more powerful six cylinder engines than they were before.

Not that I'd ever be caught dead driving a six cylinder engine, unless it was a Porsche, I wouldn't have to drive at fifty-five if my car received better gas mileage, but at what price? There's no fun driving a boring car slow or fast than there is driving a Mustang GT at any speed. The new Mustang GT's come standard with over 400 horsepower. Only, with their increased weight and different gear ratios there's only a mere, one second difference in zero to sixty times between the new ones and the older Mustang GT's.