Virginia Beach in the house

 

There can't be but so many Mystics in the area, so I bet it was yours I saw in downtown Norfolk some time back!

 

First real road trip huh? Be sure to keep yourself busy so you don't go to sleep. The car drives sooo good that on long trips that can happen

I know I took a road trip to Florida last March!

 

Welcome

 

Shouldn't be a problem at all. My bride and I routinely spell each other every two hours on these trips. But if we get tired or start to zone behind the wheel, we just pull over and switch then.

 

Could have been. I haven't seen any other Mystics in the area. I usuall take her to Mac Carthur for a movie on Fri or babe watching on Saturdays. The rest of the time I take the 05.

- Jess

PS you coming to the Stang show IVO Beach ford on the 20th of May?
Virginia Beach, VA - Southeastern Virginia Mustang Club Annual Spring Show. This is a Mustang and Ford Powered show with classes for cars and trucks on Saturday, May 20, 2006, behind the Foundry United Methodist Church, 2801 Virginia Beach Blvd, adjacent to our sponsor, Beach Ford. Registration from 9-noon. Our goal is to complete judging and awards presentation by 3:00. Entry is $15 in advance or $20 the day of the show. We will have door prizes, a raffle and a silent auction. Food will be available on site. Co-Chairpersons are Doug Warner, Amy Wingfield and Glenn Hair. Contact them at springshow@sevmc.org.

 

I wish I could but CVMC has a function here in Richmond plus I have a wedding to go to.

 

We'll be at our Skip Barber class in Lime Rock, CT. so we'll miss it this time, but we'll catch the next one! Hope we can meet some time in the near future - want to admire that Mystic close up.

 

ok, sorry to jump threads, but I figured I wasn't getting any responses because of the login problems until I saw this thread. Do any of you sons of virginia have a dealer rec. for service in NOVA?

 

Battlefield Ford in Manassas, only 50 miles outside of DC! Four stars!

Great service dept. IMO.

 

Hey Mark!!! Good to see ya again.

 

Tony!

I have been very busy of late.

This new board looks strange, but all this is just deja vu all over again.

How is your 06?

 

OK, more details on our Skip Barber experience..

DAY 1 - We broke the class of 17 people into three groups. The groups went to the skidpad, threshold braking exercise, and vehicle dynamics class. We went to the skidpad first, and all classes rotated through all three activities.

Keeping the skidpad wetted down, the instructors worked us around the pad, had us come off the throttle, and would randomly pull the parking brake, sending us into skids. They taught us skid "CPR" - correct, pause, recover.

In the vehicle dynamics class, we discussed loads on the suspension from acceleration, deceleration and cornering. Then we factored in driver input at the throttle, brakes and steering wheel.

They had a great way of demonstrating that with a steering wheel that had a string attached to it, and a loop at the bottom that went around your right foot. With your foot up off the pedals, you can apply 100% steering. As soon as you put your foot down on a pedal, the string tightens and you have to give up some steering. It effectively explained the relationship between them, which came in real handy on the threshold braking, and especially the second day activities.

In the afternoon we did more of these exercises, including an on-track exercise on heel-and-toe-downshifting. I learned why I was having so much trouble with it - I had the last part of the sequence on the pedals wrong. Now I gotta break that habit!

DAY 2 - We split up again, between "brake and turn" maneuvers, skidpad (with turn ins, apex and turnout targets), and class on the autocross, focusing on figuring your line and using the cars' energy to max your speed on the course. We rotated through these in the morning.

In the afternoon we rotated through driving responsibilities and safety (a dynamic lecture on the subject the likes of which most people have never had), the "champagne slalom", emergency lane change, and the autocross.

The champagne slalom had us driving school cars through a course with decreasing radius turns, compromise turns, increasing radius and a chicane, as well as specific gates. On the hood a bowl was attached magnetically, and a tennis ball was attached to the bowl with a string. (OK, so it was a tennis ball slalom.) We worked in driving teams of two, and you had to lap the course as fast as possible without taking out any cones (2 second penalty) or dumping the tennis ball out of the bowl. If you did, you had to stop, unbuckle, get out, put the ball back in, buckle back in, and finish the course. So losing the ball was basically death to your time.

In emergency lane change, your first tossing one lane, then two, into cone boxes separated by about 50 feet, from about 35-37mph. The taught us "toss, recover, brake." Even though instinct tells you to go for the brake, you HAVE TO use 100% steering to make the maneuver, then threshold brake into the second box.

The autocross, was of course, the best. Instructors ride with you, talking you through the line and encouraging you to push the limit harder and harder. You drive like you never thought you possibly could (at least I did!) First this was in the Neons, and then in the Vipers.

The Viper. It listens to everything you tell it, and will do EXACTLY what you tell it to do. You tell it to do good things - it does them REALLY WELL. If you tell it to do bad things - it does those REALLY WELL too. Extraordinary brakes, and very fast steering. Acceleration - well that goes without saying. An incredible car.

Then it was time. We signed the waiver, and ran the course in the Mustang. We had upped the tire presasure to 40PSI that morning, so she was ready. With the instructors taslking us through the line, we both drove her like we stole her. And she did incredible stuff! The Mustang has a MUCH higher handling limit than I imagined. Overall performance was absolutely terrific. Weakest point, as I expected, was the stock brakes. They slowed us just fine and didn't fade through the laps we did. But we worked the ABS hard, and the stock pads would not have put up with that for very long. Steering was good, and acceleration of course was right on the money. It was a short enough course that you simply remained in second gear (in all the cars) and focused on the vehicle dynamics.

It's not cheap. But I cannot recommend the experience strongly enough. Just incredible.

 

The 06 is doing fine except for the scrape someone gave in a parking lot Other than that it is doing fine

 

Hello all,

I'm moving to Virginia Beach from San Antonio next month. I'm originally from Wilmington, North Carolina and this is the closest I've lived to hometown since I went on active duty in the Air Force back in 1988.

My wife and I really like the area. Reminds me of home, except that there's a lot more to do in Hampton Roads.

 

Welcome back to the area AFBlue!

Hope you can make it up to Richmond for some of our events!!!