Hubris
I went to work the day after the thing. No big deal, really. It's like having your car come close to spinning out, but not actually losing it altogether and hitting a wall: Sure, it was a bit of a fright, but it's over and everything's fine, so it's best if I just get back to business.
In other news, my boss has elevated me to Golden God status. Not for refusing to miss any work, but for selling not one, but two Ford GTs to the same customer. I took him on a test drive at the track, which is pretty much the only place the GT is really going to make its full presence known with any kind of safety whatsoever. Since the car is really a street-legal racecar, it makes sense to let a racecar driver handle it for a little bit. It also gave me a chance to get the tires warmed up to prevent annoying little handling quirks that come with cold tires. Then he got a chance to play with it, and said he'd take it after three laps. Yes, the GT is really that good. Of course, at $175k a pop, they'd better be that good.
We were going over the paperwork in my office when he spied a little model I'd made of the current GT in the now-optional Gulf Le Mans racecar livery, baby-blue and orange (a very attractive combo, actually). He asked about it, and I said that you can get them like that, but we'd have to order it. Then he asked if the GT was legal for track races, which it is; it competes in the Sports Car Club of America Touring Class (SCCA, the governing body for most track and rally races here in the States), on the same level as Dodge Vipers and Saleen S7s, and that it's competitive with those cars. Although, to say it's competitive with the current Viper SRT-10 is a disservice to the Ford, which will simply blow the Snake out of the water every time.
And just like that, he said he'd like one in the Le Mans trim. Boom. Another $180k down the tubes. The extra five grand covers the fancy paint and the order charges and the nice rims. At this point, it's already a grand slam, $355k in sales, maybe fifty grand in profits for us, and a certain four-digit cut for me.
But we talked for a little bit while I did even more paperwork and I ended up hooking him up with a friend of mine who does truly superb graphics work, who's going to perfectly recreate the sponsor decals from the old Le Mans car and apply it to this one. That's maybe $2500 for my buddy, who's going to owe me one for the business. And anothe buddy will owe me when he gets the in-car electronics work on the street GT.
To even things out, I talked to the boss and dropped five grand off the deal for friendship's sake (and repeat business is a wonderful thing). Then I placed a call to a nice woman at Ford that I met in Japan and had a quick fling with to see if she could get me the Le Mans GT in a hurry, which she could.
Now my New Best Friend in the Whole Wide World has a GT for the street and a GT for the track, I have two favors in my pocket, and another contribution to the Engagement Ring Fund. Yeah, I'm still thinking about that.
In other news, my boss has elevated me to Golden God status. Not for refusing to miss any work, but for selling not one, but two Ford GTs to the same customer. I took him on a test drive at the track, which is pretty much the only place the GT is really going to make its full presence known with any kind of safety whatsoever. Since the car is really a street-legal racecar, it makes sense to let a racecar driver handle it for a little bit. It also gave me a chance to get the tires warmed up to prevent annoying little handling quirks that come with cold tires. Then he got a chance to play with it, and said he'd take it after three laps. Yes, the GT is really that good. Of course, at $175k a pop, they'd better be that good.
We were going over the paperwork in my office when he spied a little model I'd made of the current GT in the now-optional Gulf Le Mans racecar livery, baby-blue and orange (a very attractive combo, actually). He asked about it, and I said that you can get them like that, but we'd have to order it. Then he asked if the GT was legal for track races, which it is; it competes in the Sports Car Club of America Touring Class (SCCA, the governing body for most track and rally races here in the States), on the same level as Dodge Vipers and Saleen S7s, and that it's competitive with those cars. Although, to say it's competitive with the current Viper SRT-10 is a disservice to the Ford, which will simply blow the Snake out of the water every time.
And just like that, he said he'd like one in the Le Mans trim. Boom. Another $180k down the tubes. The extra five grand covers the fancy paint and the order charges and the nice rims. At this point, it's already a grand slam, $355k in sales, maybe fifty grand in profits for us, and a certain four-digit cut for me.
But we talked for a little bit while I did even more paperwork and I ended up hooking him up with a friend of mine who does truly superb graphics work, who's going to perfectly recreate the sponsor decals from the old Le Mans car and apply it to this one. That's maybe $2500 for my buddy, who's going to owe me one for the business. And anothe buddy will owe me when he gets the in-car electronics work on the street GT.
To even things out, I talked to the boss and dropped five grand off the deal for friendship's sake (and repeat business is a wonderful thing). Then I placed a call to a nice woman at Ford that I met in Japan and had a quick fling with to see if she could get me the Le Mans GT in a hurry, which she could.
Now my New Best Friend in the Whole Wide World has a GT for the street and a GT for the track, I have two favors in my pocket, and another contribution to the Engagement Ring Fund. Yeah, I'm still thinking about that.
posted by Jack Red at 1:40 AM
1 Comments:
That's impressive stuff man. But did you mention that the car only does 4 miles to the gallon? Which roughly means you need a full tank of petrol just to reverse it out of the driveway onto the street. hehe..
But don't get me wrong, love this machine. It's absolutely brilliant. Personally I prefer the looks on the F430, but I guess that's just the old man in me putting words in my mouth. Sheesh, I'm only 25!
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