The Ford GT is Dialed In

After being plagued with mechanical, electronic errors and driver mistakes the Ford GT has shaken off the Gremlins and exploded to the front. The design of the GT was like the Pentagon working with NASA on a flight mission, Ford held meetings after hours with nothing on the books and no schedule added to the calendar where others would notice. The design room was on lock down with a padlock where normal key-cards would be used for access by operational managers but were locked out.  A hand full of engineers only knew of the project and kept it in secrecy with a desire to relive Le Mans 50 years later.  Well, Ford and Chip Ganassi swept their class LMGTE with 1, 3, 4 placement at the 84th running of Le Mans 24 Hours, that 2nd position went to the fierce warrior Ferrari.

Highlights of the 2016 Le Mans with all the incidents, battles, crashes and overtakes. No commentary, just pure sound.

Motorsport TV

 

2016 P/GTLM Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix 

Westbrook in No. 67 Ford GT brings a big win for the Ford team at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

IMSA Official

 

Part 2 - 2016 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen

The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing GT Le Mans (GTLM) program was the first 1-2 finish for the team, did I hear winning ugly?  The Ganassi Ford team is second in the standings. Richard Westbrook qualified on the class pole position and produced the fastest lap time of 1 min 41.301 @ 120.8 mph in No. 67 Ford GT shattering the previous record of 1 min 44.084 @117.6 mph set by Andy Priaulx with BMW Team RLL in 2014. 

Westbrook is no stranger to sports car racing. The British-driver has recorded eight wins, including the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring, the 2014 and 2015 Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen, and eight poles over his nine-year sports car career.

Chip Ganassi Racing

IMSA Official

 

2016 Rolex 24 Roar Before

Camera man Lanky Turtle at 2016 Rolex Roar Before

Alrighty then, the hype is almost over to see if the new Ford GT will win or place at Daytona Rolex 54th running. “When you look at how close it is in GTLM among all the cars, it’s going to be very interesting this year at Daytona,” Auberlen said. “We just have to hope on a brand-new car that we have the reliability for 24 hours. But everybody in the class has elevated their game to a new high we’ve never seen before. If you thought last year was tough, when it went down to the last race, this year is going to be even tougher.” To be fair to the competition, everyone in the GTLM class faces a learning curve. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing is new to the class with its Ford GT, Ferrari has a new model the 488 GTE, while Corvette Racing and Porsche North America have all new bodywork.

OK, let's go out to the garage and track-side with camera man Lanky Turtle bringing us the new sights and sound of this historic preview of Ford GT returning to the track. The pressure is on like Auberlen said and if you get a chance to attend one of the circuits presented this year, man get to the track and prepare for some hearing loss for these machines are deafening! 

Lanky Turtle

 

2016 Testing At Daytona 

The 24hr race kicks off Jan 30th at 2:40 PM ET which is making me feel a little warmer already.  So let's roll IMSA clip of sights and sounds testing. This year is a historic one for The Ultimate Driving Machine as Bavarian Motor Works celebrates its 100th anniversary. To mark the occasion, one of the M6 machines will race with the No. 100.

IMSA 

IMSA Official

 
IMSA Testing Action 

Nothing better than the sound of these's super sport-cars and in this video The Racer Channel puts us on pit-lane and out on the track as if you were standing there!

The Racer Channel

 

DeltaWing In-Car Roar 2016

Holy mother, the DeltaWing just launching past the Ford GT like it's nothing new, the team should have a sign on the back of the car "Sorry Ford we're just testing here."  Just goes to show ya the difference in power and speed in the classes racing in this series.  This monster is just hooking up, makes the chicane seem like a modest turn and spools up like a 2 cycle engine, how about that turbo dump after the long straight! 

The Racer Channel

 

2015 Project Cars In Game Experience

Been having fun with this, sometimes we don't see ourselves as gamers until we feel it. The video here was created from inside the game from my experience as a driver.  Inside the game on a PC, the graphics and physics are out in front. Full damage was set along with normal tire wear (medium slicks were chosen) and mechanical failures, you need 2 laps to warm the tires. Don't be afraid of banging around a little the Mustang Cobra TransAm from the Ford GT series, takes it! I'll show that in the clip, once the car is tweaked from many setups and aids anyone can get a feel for this sim.

Tire pressure, ride height, spring rate and bump info can be set for each individual wheel and front and rear down-force, toe angle, and sway bar settings can be dialed in.  Globally, players can set brake pressure and balance along with wastegate pressure, gear and steering ratios, and engine brake mapping amongst much more. The Pit Engineer speaks to you via Pit2Car radio informing you of weather changes, incidents around the track, changes in race position, timings, corner information and more!

In Car Experience

"Project Cars" is the new wave bud, crashing on your screen in 4K and even 12K visuals!  Going to have to upgrade!  I don't have 4K running, clip was rendered in 1080P AVI.

projectcarsgame

All The Goods

Globe Backyard TV