Motor City Marauders Regional Event - Ford Test Track/Proving Grounds Open House

[MI2QWK4U]

Motor City Marauders - Regional Event
Ford Test Track/Proving Grounds Open House
Thursday, June 24, 2004 @ 9:00am

Ford Proving Grounds
20600 Oakwood Blvd.
Dearborn, Michigan 48124

Ford has extended an invitation to Panther Platform clubs from CVN.net and the MM.net/Motor City Marauders to attend an open house at the Ford Proving Grounds the week of the St. Thomas Assembly Plant Tour and Trilogy Open house.

This is from an email from Ned Nuss, Ford Panther Platform, about the event.
"You have permission to drive in to the complex through the main gate to the track, and proceed to the PRC and park. Ford security personnel will direct you. We will meet starting with coffee at the PRC at around 9:30 AM. We will then shuttle you to the EVB (Experimental Vehicle Building) for a tour of the building which will take about 1 hour. Returning to the EVB for some presentations and discussions/questions till around noon, when lunch will be served. After lunch we will do the handling track rides in CVPI units or Mustang GTs - sorry just passengers. During this period we will have vendor displays such as the Tokico shock mobile tuning trailer, and possibly Goodrich / Michelin. I will open this up to Panther employees, so additional people from within Ford will arrive. The track personnel will supervise burnouts of CVN cars in front of the PRC on the East west straightway, or perhaps just demos from Trilogy Motorsports and some Ford stuff.
I would expect the event to be concluded around 2:00 PM so some could take in a tour of the Ford Rouge plant. Others could stay till say 4:00 PM. Tokico (Paul Carroll) has offered to pay for the Rouge tour. Others would be on their own if they wanted to go else where.
At 6:00 PM you would be invited to my house in Farmington Hills for a barbecue which would run till 10:00 PM. Plenty of soft drinks provided and recommended, but BYOB. Likely a firework display. Probably just hamburger stuff." "Remember the Trilogy (Jerry Barnes) open house is scheduled for June 26 for those that might return to the area after the STAP tour (June 25)." "I have meeting acceptance from the Panther guys, Ford GT guys, Mustang guys, Ford Racing guys, Steve Babcock, etc. The famous Hau Thai-Tang, who is the Chief Engineer of the 2005 Mustang Program, hopes to attend as well as many of the Panther management and marketing personnel."


As you can tell, this sounds like an awesome event! Ned indicates he lives in Farmington Hills in the 11 mile/Farmington road area. The Mercury Marauder.Net/Motor City Marauders will be free to join in with CVN.net folks on everything going on, should be a big day for the Panther cars! These plans are subject to change, but Ned was confident they will remain as stated. As a courtesy to Ned and all who have worked hard putting this together for us, please R.S.V.P. to mi2qwk4u@comcast.net by June 1st, 2004, and please put Ford Proving Ground in subject line in email. This is open to any Panther car, so Vics, Marauders, lets have a good time. I will attempt to attatch a map that Ned sent me.
For those going to St. Thomas and the Trilogy Open House, this is a great start to that 4 day weekend! For MM.net folks coming in from out of town, Jerry Barnes would be happy to recommend a good hotel in the area so you could attend all the events that week. Any questions or comments, please contact me.






Map of
20600 Oakwood Blvd
Dearborn, MI 48124-4076

[merc406]

That is a very nice event offer.

[metroplex]

Argh I have training for work that entire week.... I could put it off till next year tho.

[bigslim]

Count me in. I will take sometime off the 24th-27th. This should be a real good weekend.

[MikesMerc]

Man, I am running out of vacation days, but this one seems too good to pass up. I'll be there

[dwasson]

I gotta give it a miss. The new job won't allow it.

[Hack Goby]

Count me in,Theres not many times I get to hang with my fellow Vicsters.Plus the intrest over on CVN is huge so look for a bunch of CVN guys showing up.

[MarauderMike]

I'm in on this one to!

[REpson]

Dave,

I will be in attendance that day! Count me in buddy.

[bigslim]

Dang Robert, you have come on strong with the group. "I LOVE IT"!!! Hope to see you at every event.

[REpson]

Darryl,

I'm just want to have some fun this summer buddy! This will be the first time I ever hooked-up w/ a group of guys w/ a common interest in cars like myself.

Dang Robert, you have come on strong with the group. "I LOVE IT"!!! Hope to see you at every event.

[MikesMerc]

Darryl,

I'm just want to have some fun this summer buddy! This will be the first time I ever hooked-up w/ a group of guys w/ a common interest in cars like myself.

Me too! Looking forward to great summer

[MI2QWK4U]

We need a head count, so if you are attending, let us know how many will be there with you. thanks...

VOTE HERE!

[REpson]

Mike,

Unfortunately I won't be in attendance due work related issues. However, I'm taking Friday off to be w/ you guys visiting St. Thomas and the other weekend events.

[MI2QWK4U]

Here is a taste of the day at the proving grounds...
At the end of the day, after rides in Marauders on the Test Track, they allowed test drivers to do burnouts with a couple of the supercharged cars. Steve Babcock brought the S55 Marauder which has the M-90 Eaton on it. This vid is of a test driver doing a burnout with my Marauder, I missed getting the S55 Marauder on video when the did a burnout with it. The Driver was grinning ear to ear when he handed me back the keys! He couldnt believe the power and torque it had and didnt doubt the 453 RWHP.

BURNOUT!