We're gonna need a bigger winch....

So Ford gave me a 2013 Raptor to play with for a week. I have been waiting for a while to get my greasy hands on one of these bad boys and finally I get one. We had plans to take it out to the sand dunes at Little Sahara in Waynoka, OK, but an ill-timed stomach virus derailed my plans (though I did shave 10 pounds in 3 days, so that was nice). I had to get some cool GoPro shots of the Raptor off road, and since the weather gods had been kind enough to soak the ground over the last week with 6 inches of snow that quickly melted, there was plenty of mud. We took the Raptor out and had some fun times doing high-speed donuts around Lone Chimney Lake in Glencoe, OK. We even managed to get the 434-hp SVT dirt demon airborne, it handled that quite well (unlike those other guys).

Hauling ass through the mud and brush is the most fun you can have in a Raptor, period. Getting stuck, however, sucks. On the way out of the area, we thought it would be cool to splash through the water. There were recent tracks going through the same spot, so it looked safe. Wrong. Apparently, this was actually really soft clay and the 6,000-pound sank. To the frame. It pretty much just came to grinding halt in the thick clay. We tried diggin it out, no dice. We broke a 10,ooo-pound winch off its mounts on Jeep. This sucker was plain buried and it was not coming out. With a massive snow storm on the way, we knew the clock was ticking. With a 4×4 tractor on the way, we had one last opportunity to get the Raptor out- a 1-ton dually 4×4 diesel with 5.32 gears and lockers on the both ends. Using a snatch block and a heavy cable, we were finally able to get the Raptor out of the mud and back in the action. Luckily we caught the action on the GoPro. Classic Redneck.

By the way, the Raptor is my favorite new truck. This thing has the most room of any big truck I have driven, ever. My three kids were actually comfortable in the back seat, with tons of leg room. Who cares if it only gets 13 MPGs, it’s a hell of lot of fun.

I also saw one of the coolest new cleaning products I have come across in a long time. It is called the Tornador and is basically an air gun that shoots air mixed with a little water to remove stains, dirt, dust, etc from upholstery, paint and even tires. I have some more video of this in action, but again- it’s sitting in the rental and I am hungry, it will have to wait till later.

Update- Youtube finally loaded my drift video! Enjoy watching me make silly faces.

Till then, here are some pics-

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to hang out with the Hot Rod Magazine crew on the Tulsa leg of the 2011 Drag Week. Drag Week is a week-long journey of high-octane cross-country cruising with drag racing each day. These cars started out in Topeka Kansas, with stops in Great Bend, Amarillo, Tulsa and back to Topeka. Each day the drivers have to post at least one drag time and they can’t be trailered. There were numerous 7-second 1/4 drag cars that made the entire 1200-mile trip. If you break down, you have to fix it or you are done. I saw a few of the drivers on their way to Tulsa, and I even let one of the teams leave their twin-turbo Mustang in my shop overnight after its computer fried.

I managed to snag a couple of cool videos while at Tulsa Raceway Park. This track is notorious for breaking parts, and Drag Week was no exception. You could barely get through 3-5 cars before somebody broke or oiled down the track. Couple that with the off-and-on rain, and the best track of the event became a nightmare scenario. But hey, that’s just racin’.

Here is the back story:
We used the truck to tow the car (1974 Plymouth Scamp) from the shop about 200 yards up a short hill on a gravel road. After shooting the scenes we needed for our video entry into MoVenture, we had to get the car back to the shop. I thought about hooking up the chain to the truck and dragging it. But then I was like, “Hey, let’s just roll it down to the shop , it’ll slow down, then we can drag it back.” Yeah. right. For the historical record and, as it turned out, comical accuracy, we set up the GoPro on the front fender and the wife was shooting the Canon T1i for the exterior shot.

The results were not as I had hoped, but its ok. I can fix it…. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!

Its Mopar or No Car!

OK, so we heard about this really cool road rally with Mopar. The idea is to take 10 teams and have them drive from Detroit to Golden, CO in a scavenger hunt. The winner gets some cool gear from Mopar Performance. To enter, you have to make a video talking about your love of social media and Mopar.

So my brother in law Chris and I decided this was for us. We spent 2 days planning, filming and editing our entry video. It is up on Youtube and has been registered with Mopar Moventure. Here is what we need you to do- Follow this link and vote on our video. CLICK HERE!!!!

UPDATE: They corrected the name to “Jefferson & Chris”. Just click HERE!!! and go watch the video and vote–one vote per email account! As my brother in law, Chris, said earlier today, “so make sure your pets’ email gives us a vote too!”

VOTING ENDS JUNE 29th at 11:59:59 ET. Spread the word!

This was not my first experience with Gary driving a Shelby, I have been in a Super Snake and a prototype car on this same track, as well as at Shelby’s home track at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If you ever have the opportunity, take it. You may have to change your shorts, but you will never forget it.

The GT350 from Shelby takes all the great things about new 5.0 Mustang and turns it up a notch. With three different power levels and up to 625 horsepower, the GT350 has the ability to keep up with track-prepped race cars.  On street tires no less. Sure, they are special Goodyear tires formulated just for Shelby, but they are not track stickies. The one shown in this video is the 525-hp version, and we were passing these race cars with ease.

When looking at Shelby cars, one tends to gravitate towards the holy grail:  the Super Snake.  It is an over-the-top beast that deserves the recognition. Having personally driven both–on and off the track–I have to say that the GT350 is more fun. The Super Snake can get out of hand REALLY quick, 800 horsepower can do that. But the GT350 has more than enough power to get you around the track (or to the grocery store) in a hurry without putting permanent brown stains on the leather… unless you’re riding with Gary.

P.S. No, I didn’t poop my pants, I had an ear to ear grin on my face the whole time. CFO? I think mad man is more appropriate. Thanks for the ride, Gary.

When Ford released the 2005 Mustang, I was all over it. I really liked it, it had a real retro flare and it was so much better than the fox body and the aging SN95 platform (1993-2004). Then the 2010 came out and refined the rough edges of the new platform, along with the Coyote 5.0, and I find myself dreaming of owning a Mustang. Of course, if I did buy one, it would have to be either a Boss 302 or a Shelby GT350. I had the opportunity to drive the new GT350 this weekend, and I absolutely love it. This thing can plain rip it. We had street tires and 525 horsepower and had no issue overtaking track-prepped race cars in the most advanced class (Class 1) at the Mid-America event. More on the GT350 later, this post is all about the Boss.

New for 2012, the Boss 302 is just as nasty. It comes with 2 keys; a street key and a track key. You don’t want to try to drive with the track key on the street, the 600+ parameters that get tweaked include the idle, timing, fuel map, and handling characteristics of the car. As much fun as that sounds (and it is), the track key can get you in trouble quickly on the street (ask me how I know), so keep the track key on the dresser for track days. At the dragstrip on Saturday (Tulsa Raceway Park), Gary Patterson of Shelby American took the Track key and a Boss 302 to the line and laid down a 12.79 second pass at 108 MPH. This type of performance on street tires came from an off-the-showroom-floor car. Damn.

I finally got the wagon running and driving. It is officially back from a long slumber. I shot a little video using my GoPro Hero HD video camera of the drive to the exhaust shop. Enjoy. 

I will have better video of the completed car soon.