Ford GT owners gathering in Newport Beach,CA

[Historybuff]

There is a website called the FordGTForum.com
which has details of a convention
in Orange County,CA, they have planneed, specifically Newport Beach
Here's the schedule of events, and I quote:
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"Wednesday August 1st
Enjoy a welcome cocktail party at the Fairmont Newport Beach with GT owners from around the country. For all who love great swag, in addition to other items, attendees will receive a high-quality Camilo Pardo lithograph of a one-off original commissioned for National Rally II attendees only. Item can be shipped for those who do not wish to take it with them.

Thursday August 2nd
A full day of tours, rides and drives at the Saleen Headquarters in Irvine, California. Guests of the 2006 Rally can attest to Saleen’s ability to throw a fantastic party with loads of food, music and fun. Ever wanted to ride in a 750hp Saleen S7 Twin Turbo or watch a 550hp S281E be assembled beginning to end? Now’s the time! Owners can also take advantage and make appointments for factory authorized service within the facility. Nobody knows the Ford GT better than the good folks at Saleen, and what better place to have routine maintenance or touch ups done?

Just beyond the fence of Saleen Headquarters rests the now idle El Toro Field. Home to more than 8 million square feet of former airport runway, El Toro is nationally known amongst magazines and auto clubs like the PCA as the ideal location for everything from straight line acceleration tests, auto cross, and driving dynamics lessons. The Saleen School of Speed will play host to Ford GT owners at El Toro Field. A great opportunity to exercise your GT safely!

Friday August 3rd
The Rally! Take your GT and let it do what it does best! Enjoy your GT as you tackle some of the most challenging and exciting roads in the U.S. Amongst the beautiful scenery of Southern California, enjoy sweeping turns, hairpins, dramatic elevation changes and more. Full route will be available for the most adventurous with smaller scale route available as well.

All paths will lead to Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum for tours and a dinner and cocktail party. Take a tour to see over 300,000 square feet dedicated to the interpretive study of the automobile and its influence on our culture and lives. Attendees will again get a chance to meet and greet with members of the GT team during an evening dinner and listen to guest speakers tell the story of the GT.

Saturday August 4th
Every Saturday morning a triple digit number of exotics, muscle cars, and all manner of other automotive mania descend on Ford’s Premier Automotive Group facility in Irvine for Cars and Coffee. Each week, a featured marque gets put on display for enthusiasts of all kinds to enjoy. Think a couple hundred Ford GT’s would fit the bill? We'll be there to represent the GT for all to see in this Ford sponsored event. This will be the largest gathering of Ford GT's in their history, outdoing the some 85 we had in 2006. Get a chance to get up close and personal with Ford products like the GT500, GT500KR, and Super Duty for towing your GT.

In the evening, attendees will make the short journey to Newport Bay where they will board a spectacular luxury 400-person yacht for a 4-hour cruise and dinner. Relax and enjoy the journey amongst fellow GT owners and team members along the beautiful California coast. Great scenery, great food, and great friends to end a week of GT-filled action.

Event registration is $520 U.S per person. "
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Although the event as listed July 23rd had a cutoff date of June 15th, 2007 one could always go to their website and see it if's still possible to register. And although they say in the above description later on "To attend events you must be a registered participant with proper event credentials," that wouldn't be true of the conventioner's appearance in the Ford Motor Company parking lot

( just off the 5 fwy about 5 minutes drive S. of the 55 fwy)

because that is a car event open to anybody, free, and occurs every Saturday. That replaces the Crystal Cove gathering on PCH, which reportedly ended because someone did a burnout. Let's hope the participants now can "keep their foot out of it" so the event keeps on going.

[RedBarchetta]

I plan to be at Cars & Coffee that morning. Will plan to get there very early (around 6am or so), as that day's crowd will be unbelievable.

Most people leaving the parking lot give the crowd a fair dose of first gear but you rarely see anyone stay in it too long or hit the gears hard. There are usually police on patrol just to keep things orderly, plus there are way too many pedestrians lining the curbs to do something stupid (i.e. too many video cameras...you will end up on YouTube if you fail).

-Dean

[427Aggie]

I can promise you other than the public locations for the events...if something is setup and you are required to have a pass to get in..your not getting in. We had too much of it in Detroit and its been very well told that it won't happen this time.

Dean look forward to meeting you in CA...David has said you would be around..he bought his car after I let him drive mine

matt

[RedBarchetta]

Looking forward to meeting you, Matt. I guess I will just look for the #6 and #9 Heritage versions parked next to each other? Maybe David will let me sit in his and make vroom-vroom sounds?

-Dean