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Factory Five at 2005 All-Fords Car Show |
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Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The summer season got off to an early and dramatic start as FFR’s Mark Dougherty attended the 2005 Carlisle All-Fords car show with the team from Ford’s SVT group and the engineers from Kumho tires. At this year’s show we had a secret weapon in our arsenal… One that would enable us to not only win the annual “Burn-out contest”, but would make everyone go crazy with a never before seen stunt!
Some background first…
Earlier in the week FFR crew Mark Dougherty, Jim Schenck, and Dave Riha attended an exclusive press-only tire test where the guys from Kuhmo Tires (sponsor for the Challenge Series) used FFR challenge cars to debut some new street tires for the auto press. The two day test was conducted at Beaver Run Raceway in Pennsylvania and the FFR cars provided one of the most exciting platforms ever for a manufacturers tire test (click here for full story on Kumho tire test with killer burnout and track photos). |
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While we were at the event we tested a secret new tire that Kuhmo had developed. This tire produces blue and red smoke when the tires spin… Tire spin is sorta our specialty here and so we were anxious to try them out. We have some video of the first test (lame compared to the Carlisle clip later in this article!).
Wednesday night before the All-Fords show, we tested the tires successfully in front of a group of 50 or so journalists, and they all went wild! Huge plumes of blue and red smoke billowed from the red FFR challenge car. We knew the contest at the All-Fords show would be a lock!
Jim and Dave headed back to Boston while Mark Dougherty headed for the All-Fords Show at Carlisle PA. Mark was attending the show with the guys from Ford SVT and their huge 52’ show trailer would be home to some exclusive Ford Mustangs as well as a Factory Five Coupe that was showcasing Ford Performance Parts. |
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The show was a huge success and folks filtered past the display all day Friday and Saturday. By the time Saturday night came along, Mark was itching to try out the new tires. Mark staged the FFR roadster at the very end of the line. Car after car came and did their thing, each car that did a good, long burn got the crowd on their feet. The contest was almost over as Mark staged the Red roadster. The crowd was already going nuts since these kind of cars rarely do burn-out contest type stuff. The car is red #55, a challenge series racer driven by Dave Smith (FFR Owner). The biggest problem with the car is the rear suspension is really well set up for roadracing and during practice the car would actually drive forward with the front tires locked up! |
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When Mark tried the first burn-out the car began to drift sideways and he had to get off the gas early. The second time the tries were warmer and the car started pushing! Mark was going to give up until the announcer told him to give it one more try. The third time was a charm as the tires erupted into a 5,000 rpm cloud of red and blue smoke. The wind drove the smoke backwards, giving the car the illusion of driving! It was a show-stopper and the crowd went nuts! |
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Third try gets the perfect spin, the cars stays put and the crowd goes to their feet! |
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The All Fords Carlisle show is a MASSIVE Ford Car show with every imaginable Ford-related thing to see and do! We’ll be there next year.
Special thanks to the crew from Ford SVT and the excellent engineers at Kumho Tires! Check out the fun video before you exit!
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