Steeda Driving Experience 6 - Simply Mustangs UK 2019

We had another gloriously sunny day at North Weald airfield, for SDE6, with Simply Mustangs UK, who sent down a lovely batch of Mustangs to experience what they can (and can't) do!

The day took place on March 29th, and we had a couple of compulsory late excuses ("my car wasn't ready! Traffic on the M25!") but we pressed on with the signing in and car admiring, and got started on the left hand high speed bend. People had obviously taken the briefing to heart, and traction control was off and people were spinning with intent!

We had a great attendance on the day, with not only a lovely selection of cars from the S197 squad, but some cracking S550s including a brand new Bullitt and some supercharged monsters too. Nick Hall from Pilgrim Motorsports came along, as well as Ben Dunn, the bossman from Motorsport and Performance, both in their Steeda, Velgen and Whipple equipped beasts. In fact Benn was kind enough to give me the last run of the day in his 850 hp stg2 car and wow! Throttle = time warp! Steeda upgrades certainly make the car a LOT more controllable than stock but with that amount of power you need to give it respect at all times.

Also attending was Pete from Michelin who was kind enough to come down again and also Jason Dodds, who was not only representing Fast Ford mag and covering the event for the mag, but also taking part in his own car too! At the end of the day Alex, another good customer turned up in his project widebody car. Alex's car, the Steeda Q500 and Nick Halls car were all showing off the newly launched Steeda / Corbeau seats collaboration, a fantastic Mustang S550 sports seats which is fully customisable, and offers great weight savings and support as well.

ABOVE: New Corbeau Seats were revealed for first time
BELOW: Alex Wide Body Project car. Still a work in progress. Stay tuned for a feature car update!

After everyone had begun to get the feel of their rear end hanging out, speeds increased and confidence improved too. We finished off the morning session with a new feature which we deemed a service to the community at large. As every knows Mustang drivers can be lethal when leaving car shows, so our "Car Show Killer" contest aimed to separate the wheat from the chaff while keeping everyone safe. Much fun was had, especially by me anyway, and the imaginary ranks of car show viewers were frequently mowed down by wayward Mustang car show heroes.. Finally the top 3 emerged and after a decidedly shaky start in the earlier rounds, Amir emerged victorious in his gorgeous black on black S550, supercharged and equipped with Velgen Classic 5s. Let's just say the other 2 finalists would have ended up on youtube for all the wrong reasons...... 8)

Amir avoids civilian casualties to win!
Amir accepting his "Car Show Exit" award & his cracking car below

After a tasty lunch and basking in the sun, we set about 2 circuits and then unified them for an end of the day session on the MSA style Sprint circuit, a true test of bravery and skill!

With coaching from Mark and Steeda Robbie, both in and out of the cars, everyone (we hope!) improved and had fun. Learning circuit driving techniques are often the polar opposite of road driving techniques and that means that progress is as much in the mind as in the hands and feet! Chris earned the biggest improvement over a single lap after being taught to "aggressively brake" using a secret technique of Marks. Boom a 6 second improvement in his lap time!

Paul (below) in his S197 won the large circuit award, and then Steve (below second) who was increasingly getting into the Bullitt spirit took the honours on the MSA sprint setup with a nice run.

Steve's Bullitt:

Sometimes we dont have awards, but we can show appreciation and compassion!
Below Chris and below 2 Dave

All photos courtesy of Terry Ffrench-Graham Photography

If you were there attending and want to purchase any photography of your car etc, including framed and mounted images, please contact Terry via his website or instagram : @tffrench_graham

Thanks to Richard Harris for the "Car Show Killer" vids