GT350 Track Attack - Ford Performance Racing School at Utah Motorsports Campus

[Gumball]

When you buy a new GT350, Ford sends you out to Utah Motorsports Campus to participate in a free track-day with the Ford Performance Racing School. This past weekend, I attended the school with a friend who also has a new GT350. Having done a bunch of wheel-to-wheel racing, track days, and autocross over the last 25 years, I had low expectations - figuring that they would gear it to the least experienced participant and it'd just be some parade laps.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong - it was an awesome experience and I congratulate Ford for an outstanding program. Mrs. Gumball and I turned it into a long weekend and spent the first few days up in the mountains at Park City. After that, we drove down into the valley west of Salt Lake City to Tooele for the evening reception and dinner. Then, we returned early the next morning for the exciting part of the program. Ford supplies the car, a race suit, helmet (you can bring your own), and instructors. After a very typical driver's meeting, we headed out to get our assigned cars - complete with our last names on the windshields. We then spent the morning doing braking and heel / toe exercises, did a little autocross, then played with a skid car (one of those things up on hydraulic casters that simulate understeer or oversteer on the instructor's command). After a nice catered lunch, we headed out to the real track and did van tours for a couple laps. The class was split into two groups of eight and for the rest of the afternoon the groups alternated between on-track and classroom sessions. The first on-track session for each group was lead follow, with two or three students behind an instructor. I lucked into a fast group and the instructor kept going faster, as long as we kept it tight. The second session was with an instructor in-car for a few laps, then alone for the rest. The final session was all alone - but still with just eight cars on a track that is over two miles long... and they even allowed passing on the front straight.

The instructors were first class - lots of pro-drivers, engineering-type test drivers, and even a couple of stunt drivers. The guy who rode with me helped me out with a couple of great tips on footwork - getting on / off the brakes and gas in ways that made me just a little faster. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better day - really enjoyed myself, learned a little, and pushed the school's car way harder than I think I'd have the nerve to do with my own car.... especially since I paid for the track insurance so was only on the hook for $5k if I wadded up their GT350.

The cars have very minimal prep - camber plates (with around -2.5* camber), longer wheel studs (to avoid galling with all the off-and-on), higher-temp brake fluid (with stock pads and rotors), bolt in roll bars, four point harnesses for the driver and passenger, and a disconnected parking brake (to avoid heat sink by inadvertent application after coming off track).

I took my previous GT350 out for one track day last summer, but haven't had the R out yet since it still isn't broken in. But, I didn't push the old one very much and really couldn't believe just how much grip and balance these cars have - the limits are really, really high and way beyond my bravery threshold.

Here are a few pics of the event - they even had a professional photographer taking pics and gave all of us a flashdrive with hundreds of pictures of the day. If you bought a GT350 recently or are contemplating one, I highly recommend taking advantage of the school.

Classroom with Mustang GT instructor car -



Lead-follow session -



Havin' fun pulling the inside front tire a bit -



Class picture -

[Kool AC]

Very cool. My nephew took me for a few laps in his GT350 on the M1 concourse in Pontiac, MI. I could not believe the amount of grip these things have in the turns. Very impressive.

[cgundermann]

Awesome - so jealous, sounds like a hell of a good time! Interesting to hear how they track prep their cars/thanks,

Chris

[Jazzman]

That sounds amazing! Almost makes me want to buy a GT350! I don't know if they would have a race suit my size!! Thanks for the write up. You forgot to mark where you are in the group photo!!

[GoDadGo]

Very Cool & It Had To Be A Total Blast Thrashing On A Car That Wasn't Yours!

[Gumball]

Hey guys - yeah, it was a blast. I'm third from the left in the back row, right behind the trunk.

Here are a couple more pics - this was my first time to the Salt Lake area and I was really amazed by the difference in climate and landscape.

Here's a shot taken just south of Park City, with a one of the Deer Valley trails winding through the yellow aspen trees....



And just 30 miles or so west, this is the road in the valley heading to the track in Tooele....

[Gumball]

Very Cool & It Had To Be A Total Blast Thrashing On A Car That Wasn't Yours!

Resurrecting an old thread with this quote from GoDadGo because...... well......... the #14 car I drove back in Oct '18 actually now IS my car. Since 2020 was the last model year for the GT350, this past season was the last for the GT350 Track Attack owner program. Ford Performance Racing School decided to sell off most of their GT350s (pilot production and tooling trial cars were returned to Ford, as were the few later production cars). That left eighteen of the original 2016 Track Pack cars that were prepped for the school - minus one that was put into the wall a couple of months ago. They sold out pretty quickly, but I'd been pestering them since early 2021 about buying one (since I sold my R a couple years ago to a friend) and as luck would have it, I was the first person they called and was offered dibs on #14.

So, last week I made the trek to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the on-track parts of the school have been conducted for the past two seasons, and picked up my "new" GT350. It has 16k miles on it and was subject to a bunch of maintenance and repairs, including a fairly recent new Gen 2 Voodoo engine (incorporates lots of the GT500 architecture along with the R spec top end) and a recent transmission. It's going to stay in the school livery and be a dedicated track car. This winter it'll get a thorough going-over and some maintenance to ensure that it is safe and reliable next season. Then, after I have a few events of baseline performance data, I'll consider some upgrades and improvements.

[q4stix]

Very cool! I really like the license plate too haha

[RoadRacer]

Wow, congratulations.

[David Hodgkins]

So Rad. I'm completely jealous!