1° Ford Performance Day 17 Aprile 2016

VAIRANO PATENORA, ITALY – While racing fans all over the globe are focused on the Ford GT’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans this week, some 50 years after Ford’s historic 1-2-3 finish back in 1966, our 2016 celebration of the Ford brand actully began in Europe a couple of months ago. That’s when MustangMania.IT teamed up with the Mustang Club of Italy to host the first-ever “Ford Performance Day.”

We are no strangers to the Ford Performance enthusiast communications team. We made friends quickly during our first trip to Detroit last winter when MustangMania.IT experienced a bucket-list tour of The Motor City, USA. After a summer back home it Italy, we decided to celebrate our newfound Dearborn connection by hosting our own “European Pony Wars” event late last year, which proved very successful. After we again flew to the States this year to attend the Detroit Auto Show (more commonly known as NAIAS) during a 10-day New York-to-Detroit-to-New York driving tour, we knew we had to again do something special for all of our Mustang and Ford owners and fans back home.

So what would we do to celebrate a Ford Performance Day? That part was easy: It seems that from the European Pony Wars that we had organized in conjunction with the Mustang Club of Italy and Ford of Italy, we found a good formula for a Ford automotive party. Many attendees said that we were certainly heading in the right direction to make our Ford event bigger and better.

So we decided our 2016 Ford show event would have many attractions: Drifting, Drag Racing, Burnouts and Autocrossing. Plus we’d invite families and their children for a day of fun, music and food. Those are just the main activities to summarize the very first Italian event dedicated to Ford Performance.

The event took place Vairano Patenora, near Milan, at one of the most popular Italian circuits dedicated to car tests and safe driving schools. We were already familiar with this location – we were here in 2015 for the European Pony Wars. But this time we had new reasons for another Ford celebration, and one of them involved the date itself.

Of course, any Ford fan should know the importance of the 17^th of April. That is the Ford Mustang’s official birthday. The famed Pony Car turned 52 years old in 2016 — Congrats! For this special day, the Mustang Club of Italy was there with 100+ Mustangs, ranging from the 1^st to the 6^th generation.

Then there was an exclusive preview planned of the new Ford Focus RS, a future rally monster. Ford of Italy presented attendees the chance to see the new RS in person, which was a special moment for all the racing fans who had some knowledge of Ford’s Rally glory in Europe. From my perspective, it reminded me of some of the cars from the glorious B Group.

Ford also made many different new cars available for test drives, including the 2016 Ford Mustang in both EcoBoost and GT trim, plus both the Fiesta ST and Focus ST, just to name the headliners.

This time, we also set up an area completely dedicated to activities and entertainment for children, complete with a mini-car driving circuit and a slot-car competition. We also included a vendor stand that featured a display to preview of all the official Ford and Mustang merchandising, with many of the items available for purchase.

Perhaps most important for the car owners was the fact that the on-track driving circuit was made available to them the whole day. And to get re-charged after all that driving, there were live stage shows with dancers, rock bands and DJ’s. Better still, it was a lovely, mild sunny day. And as most racing guys know, a mild sunny day, not too hot, is the best kind of weather for a track day.

There were four key areas assigned to handle all of the driving activity

–          1.) The Main Circuit, dedicated the whole day to on-track performance driving of the participants cars on the road course, with a 1-hour session completely dedicated to the members of the Mustang Club of Italy;

–          2.) A Handling and Autocross area, with two professional drivers available as instructors, to help enthusiasts with learning in their own cars or the test cars available;

–          3.) A Drag Racing area, with a ¼-mile timed section, and two Sixth Generation Ford Mustang GTs available for testing the use of Line Lock and the Launch Control;

–          4.) A Drifting Area, where a professional driver gave a real drifting experience to all the enthusiasts in an Export Model 6^th Gen Mustang.

The lineup to register for a test drive started in the very early morning, and stayed long for the whole day. Even with an online pre-registration, the attendance exceeded all expectations.

The number of people we saw during our 1^st Ford Performance Day was uncommon for a single-marque automotive event in Italy. Yet we honestly think we could see something much bigger next year, especially if we host it in a more historical location, like Monza or Imola, with hopefully all of Ford of Italy and Ford Performance involved, with we hope many more of our favorite Ford models available for test drives (such as Fiesta, Taunus, Capri, Escort, Sierra, Scorpio, Puma, Focus, and yes, the Ford F-150).

Our motto and inspiration for the next one? Well, let’s put it this way: In the words of Mario Andretti, “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”