The Shelby GT 350 is a Mustang
unlike any other.. and Ford was cool enough to give me my own GT 350 for a
full day at the GT 350 Track Attack.
Now much like the Octane Academy, the GT 350 track attack day
is for the owners of these vehicles to come out to Utah.
And learn the limits of themselves and learn the limits of their awesome cars.
Well, the Octane Academy is much more of an experience.
The Shelby track attack is much more of a track training course.
You spend almost your entire day on track.
You go from trying to attempt to heel toe to slalom and breaking exercises.
And then the rest of the day you are on track.
I drove the Shelby nearly all day and the instructors were cool enough
to even let me drive their 2015 Mustang GT instructor car to show
the difference between the vehicles.
Little did I know that I was going to learn that the Shelby GT 350
is the best handling platform for a Mustang ever created.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Shelby GT 350.
This is the track pack version.
As you see, I have kind of a cage behind me.
Now this is my first weekend ever at a driving school or learning
how to drive better on a track.
So please forgive me if my apex are not that great or anything else,
but this is a learning experience.
I want to learn how to do these things with you.
So you're going to see that I'm completely human.
And let's hopefully see if it gets better down the road.
nobody's home until about 4,000 RPM after that all hell breaks loose.
All right.
So the first thing we learned today is breaking practice.
So we're going to see by baby step is how good the brakes are here.
(car engine)
Whoa, these breaks are good.
(car engine)
Oh, sounds so good.
(car engine)
it's so fun.
Like you don't.
Like you would never need to boost this thing, like how balanced it is and how fun
and how you just rev it out to the sky.
I was sitting eight grand, not 82 50 on the first pass.
And then I went to 82 50 and I'm like, it just, it just keeps going.
I'm so confused.
This is where I'm supposed to learn how to do heel-toe downshifting.
So don't laugh.
For me, I've never really attempted heel-toeing.
So we're going to have some fun.
You're going to laugh.
(car engine)
I missed, I missed the gear.
Oh, well.
Attempt one and there's a bird in the way.
Please move.
Get out of my voodoo
(car engine)
I pretty much did it.
It was really sloppy, but I did it.
I'm happy about that.
(car engine)
Uh, it was no surprise that I was terrible at the heel-toe.
After the heel-toe was over,
we moved on to the vision course where it teaches you to use your peripheral
vision, rather than just looking straight down at the cones ahead of you.
This is a very vital skill to race car driving, and even basic apexing.
Awesome.
And then it's going to be past the weather mode and then track.
There you go track you suddenly.
I'm sure people only do that.
I know, right.
People race to work every day.
Right.
So what, what are you feeling steering wise?
Any difference?
It feels a little bit more direct, like a little heavier, a little bit heavier.
The high speed with that helps you do as what slows your hands down
suspension is reacting quicker, eyes up looking past this corner up.
There you go.
Eyes up.
Look for your entry point of that corner.
Great.
Roll off.
Squeeze power.
Brake!
Turn, turn, eyes up.
happy tire.
Be patient getting a little more steering done.
Then squeeze and
unwind.
Now I would walk that wheel around.
I would toss it.
That's a very familiar drifting style, but on a track.
That yes.
More finesse.
So after this lap, we'll head back home and get them to try.
Cool.
Excellent.
Slow here.
Pick up that apex.
After the slalom course, we moved on to the main event,
the pure, awesome track time.
Seeing the GT 350s go by was like a symphony.
(car engine)
Alright guys, here's the best part going to do my hot laps all by myself.
(car engine)
annnd out of the corner, gooo!
towards here and apex!
We are moving, baby!
I screwed that one up guys.
this thing is
so fast!
I mean, it, as in just the way it balances it handles,
how is this a Mustang?
alright.
That
is amazing!
This is so much fun.
Holy crap guys, as a platform, I know there's the GT 350R, but guys
there's, there's not many of those.
They're really hard to have your hands on, but as a Mustang platform, this.
Is, this is the best Mustang handling wise of all time.
My day at the Shelby track attack was an incredible one.
I felt very much more at home behind a Mustang, again,
compared to the Focus and Fiesta ST
of the Octane Academy. Ford really did this car right.
And you cannot really argue that rubbing to 82 50 is an
intoxicating moment in your life.
And throughout the day I was breaking later and later and
accelerating the corners much faster.
It was a very satisfying day.
Ford Performance as an umbrella has changed a lot.
Ford racing and other companies all used to be separate divisions,
but now with Ford Performance, it's been the new umbrella.
Everything that has to do with performance, cars and Ford
is now under the same roof.
And for the Ford Performance driving school, you can drive
things like the 2015 Mustang GT.
Or 2016, or even the Boss 302 race cars, if you want to become a better
driver and you also want to be around really great people at Ford Performance,
I completely recommend this experience.
Thanks so much once again for watching and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Take it easy.