of Europe had turned down my request for a new Mustang.
A smile crossed his face: "Rich, I hate to tell you this, but I turned down your request. You see, we only have three Mustangs in all of Europe, and they are booked up for months."
He added that he thought I was doing some interesting work and was impressed I'd been able to put together a project like the Corvette trip to Geneva the previous year all on my own: "I'd like to make it up to you. How would you like a Ford GT for a few days on your next trip to Europe?"
As you can imagine, Paul didn't need to twist my arm much. "I've been kicking around the idea of driving the new Ford GT to connect with some original GT40s," he said. "What do you think of the idea?"
When a PR guy gives you a great idea for a story, and offers you a Ford GT for a few days, it is smart to run with it. Besides, I thought the idea was an excellent one, too. We agreed to meet in Geneva to discuss things further.
The moment I got off the plane in Paris, I called my friend Clyde Madsen, who is active in the Shelby American club, and told him I needed to know where all the GT40s were in Europe. When I met Paul in Geneva in March, I presented him with a complete itinerary for May. On the same trip, I asked the DaimlerChrysler PR people if they had a Viper press vehicle in Europe? They did. What week was I looking at?
A few weeks later, Paul phoned with some bad news: His GT press car had been wrecked in Italy, and he was uncertain if it would be repaired. He'd let me know in a few weeks, but he wasn't too optimistic. As it turned out, the car was able to be repaired, and we rescheduled the trip for July.
With dates confirmed, I called Matt Malone, a friend from my car audio days who worked at Boston Acoustics. Matt's as big a "car guy" as I am, so you can imagine his response when I asked if he'd like to spend a week in Europe with me and a Ford GT. Chrysler's U.K. PR team e-mailed me just hours later to ask what week I wanted the Viper.
My dream trip went off without a hitch and was even better than I imagined it would be. I even had the opportunity to drive the Nürburgring Nordschleife and both the public and closed sections of the Circuit Bugatti at Le Mans. The chance to drive at Le Mans came almost through divine intervention, as the "Dream Drive" cover story on Page 8 explains.
To everyone connected with this adventure, I now wish to say a final thank you. To Armin Hanne, who gave me the line to navigate the Nürburgring safely. To Chris Jackson from Roush Engineering and to Zoran Hriberski from Ford, who chased us across Europe in a Ford Transit van with enough spares to build a second Ford GT. To Christophe Schwartz, who was instrumental in getting me on to the track at Le Mans. And, of course, to Paul Harrison, who even arranged for a chase vehicle to follow us to Italy and back --just in case.
And lastly, to my father. One of my best childhood memories is of a Saturday morning in June 1965 as the two of us watched a fuzzy black-and-white transmission bounced off an early communications satellite --Early Bird, I believe it was --of the start at Le Mans.
I told him someday I would drive at Le Mans. He told me, "Son, you can do whatever you set out to do." And 40 years later, I did just that.
Thanks, Dad.
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