The Blue Oval rubs elbows and connects with enthusiast base.
04-28-09: Ford Motor Company was a key player in the MCA 45 th Anniversary Celebration. The various divisions of the Blue Oval including Ford Performance Group, Ford Racing, Ford Vehicles and SVT were all represented as of course was the 2010 Ford Mustang.
Timing was everything. The 2010 Mustang arrived at dealerships the week before the big show at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham. Rental fleets got some early deliveries like the 45 or so that the Mustang Club of France rolled into the show with to fanfare and applause. Nice.
Ford had several of them in key display. They also saw that the car made special appearances such as the 2010 Ford Shelby GT-500 that paced the Mustangs Across America road trip from Las Vegas to Birmingham, and the one Vaughan Gittin Jr. drove himself to the show in along with that event.
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At the MCA 45 th Anniversary Celebration, Ford had a number of large display areas where enthusiasts could commune with the Blue Oval. None was more popular than the Mustang Garage which was a real-time take-off of the virtual garage that travelled the show circuit this year.
Mustang enthusiasts could choose genuine Ford and Ford Racing accessories on the spot and have them installed by Ford on their Mustang right then and there. It provided show participants the chance to mod up their car with the world watching and drive away with a show souvenir like no other.
Available modifications included things like Ford Racing Gears, Cold Air Intakes, High Performance Exhaust, and Body Enhancements. Watching the crews work was as much fun as seeing the glee of owner's anticipation as their cars got upgraded.
A friend of mine had a new Ford Racing Cold-Air Intake, ECU re-flash, and Cat-Back Exhaust installed on his 2005 Mustang GT. I was as excited as he was when he held his cell phone up to the revving engine with its new louder sound. Later we went for a ride and got to feel the new sound and urgency his car came home from the show with. How cool is that?
What really came out of this was a greater connection between Ford Motor Company and the enthusiast base. The top brass of Ford and Team Mustang were on hand to rub elbows and talk shop with Mustang owners, giving them a rare opportunity to see and hear how their car gets made. Ford CEO Alan Mullaly was there too, signing 2010 Mustang hoods right next to Mustang owners and show goers.
While the automobile business is in a tail-spin that nobody knows when or where is headed, Ford is providing its owners with a beacon of light. Ford was on scene with a smile on, shaking our hands and showing us they are still in business and plans to be for a long time. They were thanking us for sticking with Mustang and making the car what it is by virtue of our enthusiasm and loyalty.
As Ford Performance Groups Jamie Allison said to the cheering crowd at the Mustangs Across America dinner on Sunday night the 19th, "We chose to solve our own problems. We didn't ask the taxpayers for a bailout. We are thankful for all of you who support our company and we owe you our best". It was a sentiment that best summed up Ford's commitment to the Mustang Nation as part of the 45 th Anniversary festivities.
