Cobra Mustangs at VIR - A Fast Test Day

[MikeLane]

SVT Mustang Cobra Owners Club

15 Year Anniversary Meet

VIR 31 May 08

By

Mike Lane

GFN - F1 Correspondent

Here at Gofastnews we try to get to cover as many events as we can and so David Vizard, Dusty Kennett and I took a ride up to VIR a couple of weeks ago to check out a Mustang/Cobra owners day meeting.

For those of you who have not been to Virginia International Racetrack (VIR), this is one beautiful venue. The track is situated in the midst of a wooded area and reminded me of my home in England.

These types of event are fun days out because you get to race your car on a great track with fellow enthusiasts and it doesn’t matter what standard you are because everyone is catered for.

There are even instructors there to help you out if you need some pointers from the experts. One such expert we had the pleasure of spending time with was Chris Brannon who is a professional race driver.

Chris Brannon with Shelby Mustang GT700KR

Chris currently races in the SCCA series in sports racing cars and recorded the first road racing win in history in a production GTO car at Memphis, Tennessee in 2006.

Chris Brannon at work in his Pontiac GTO

He is a busy guy with his company trmclassics@yahoo.com and his other love, motorcycles, which involves tours in Arkansas.

Such is the popularity of these events that Chris had driven from Arkansas for the event at the invitation of Shelby owner, John O’Donnell.

Now John is the proud owner of a black Shelby GT 700KR shown here and not only loves to see the car used as intended at this kind of event, but drives it daily to work!

Owner John O'Donnell standing proudly with his Shelby GT

John’s Shelby was prepared by Performance Autosport of Richmond (Performance Auto Sport in Richmond, Virginia) and features suspension by Griggs Racing of California.

John with the guys from Performance Autosport

Shot showing the Griggs Suspension setup

The engine normally puts out 618 BHP at the wheels but had been detuned to 550 BHP for this event.

To say the car is a rocket ship doesn’t really do it justice, as we found out when John generously offered us the opportunity to experience a session each with Chris at the helm.

If you can’t drive the car yourself, it’s the next best thing to be driven by someone with Chris’s experience. What impressed me was the car’s docile ability to soak up the undulations in the track without drama whilst carrying awesome speed through the turns.

The Shelby Cobra at work racing past a marshall with everything under control

This ability demonstrated the competence of the Griggs suspension when racing but also showed why John is able to use the car daily for work.

It goes without saying that with 550 BHP at the wheels the car was fast around here and the only difficulty was trying to negotiate slower traffic with restrictions on overtaking through the turns. That said it still gave a good indication of what it would be like if unimpeded.

These guys are doing great but the Shelby Mustang is in a hurry!

After our exciting rides John extended his generosity and allowed DV to take the helm for a few laps.

DV gets set for his run as Chris makes sure his helmet is really tight!

Fortunately, DV brought the car home in one piece and so we could relax again and enjoy the rest of the day. I have not included photographs of John, whilst DV was out on track!!

Beautiful Ford GT poses for the camera. It knows it looks great!

Now it goes to work like it was meant to.

Some of the other owners have fun on this great track at VIR

At the end of our session we left for our next task when DV was booked to give an ‘after dinner talk’ to the owners club there at VIR.

As we left this beautiful track and headed back to Charlotte we were left with great memories of a fun day.

Our thanks to John and Chris for their patience and generosity, which made the day more special.

We hope to bring a story on the Griggs suspension and Performance Autosport, later when we visit them in Richmond, Virginia.

Mike Lane - GFN - F1 Correspondent