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Ford ST experience Asheville NC


vmaxbaby

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Just got back from the Ford Experience and I must say it is worth it.  I would recommend getting there a day or 2 early or stay a little longer to explore.  We arrived on Sunday and spent the day downtown eating and going through the shops.  That evening is the dinner that ford performance puts on.  All tables were at least 6 ft apart (covid) and the dinner was steak and chicken.  During the dinner everyone receives a Ford Racing Backpack with a few goodies in it along with new ST badges that are in black to replace the red ones from our vehicles.  Tuesday morning free breakfast at the hotel and then at 7:45 you go to the tent outside in the parking lot to have your temputure checked and sign in.  There is also where the Edge and Explorer ST's are located.   Sadly you can only drive what you own meaning I wanted to drive the Explorer but could not only explorer owners could drive a explorer.  After 15 minutes your off and running they have installed 2 way radios in the vehicles so the guides can talk to everyone at once during the drive.  The nav system is programmed so you know where your going or if some of you don't make it through a light you won't be lost but they do wait up for you and they have a lead car and a sweeper car to make sure.  Next 2 hours your driving in the mountains on a very windy twisty road with a great view of the mountains.  Blue-ridge mountains if I remember correctly.  After that you go to a another location and they have a car and course setup for doing controlled skid pad driving.  You and a Ford Racing Driver are in the car only (must have a mask on)  after each person gets out a person comes and wipes down the inside of the car.  After that you head out for lunch at a country club.  (all free)  while you are their they are setting up a road type course for you to come back to.  Now you spend another 2 hours doing the road course and also doing the crash avoidance exercises.  After that you head back to the hotel but on the way you will be taking a off road course which is more or less a goat trail on the back side of the property basically doing some minor 4 wheeling in the vehicle they provide you.  Everything you are doing is in their vehicle not yours FYI.  Once back to park the cars and you are given passes to tour the mansion.     ( we toured the day before so just tell them you want tickets early)  Ford did a really good job setting this up and besides the gas to get their and a couple meals you eat on your own it is all included.  For the money we spent on these cars we truly paid for all this LOL so if you have the vacation time and are close I would say do it.  

 

** Observation **

So all vehicles are 2020 and even though they are the same at the 2019 something was different with the transmission shifting from my 2019.  I just got my Trans flashed with the latest Jun 2 update a few week back and it made a world of difference.  No banging into reverse and the shifts are better...not seems better but are better.  However with that said driving the 2020 Escape it shifted even better in sport mode and normal drive mode.  I drove the car for 4 + hours and can tell you there is a difference so not sure what is different about the 2019 vs the 2020.  Is it the Torq converter ?  different flash than what I just got?  Not sure but it shifted better than mine it seemed to be smoother if I had to put it in words.  Had the wife drive it for about and hour and she said "yea it shifts better"   The cars had 4,500 miles on them and they get run hard for sure, on the slalom course they setup you are beating on the car gas and brakes for over an hour :) 

 

Anyhow wanted to give everyone my 2 cents are the event.

 

Your hotel:

https://www.biltmore.com/stay/village-hotel/

 

Biltmore Tour you take:

https://www.biltmore.com/

 

 

 

edge.jpg

explorer.jpg

hotel.jpg

sign.jpg

skid.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

The car I had was a 2019 with about 4500 miles on.  I knew it was a 19 because it had the cover/door on the center of dash.  Some of the cars still had dealer stickers from Utah where the school started last year. It was fun worth doing although  on the driving course we only got three runs that were around thirty seconds, would liked to have done a bunch more. 

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First for FINFAN you will need to wait because mask is required anywhere a group of people are.  So in the hotel (which is really nice) in the restaurants, etc.  While driving the car you don't need a mask.  When outside getting direction on the road course no you don't need the mask on but I feel your pain.   Next you got the cool ford racing backpack as I said.  Inside were new ST emblems to replace your factory ones.   These are Black and only given to people that have done the course or you could find on ebay I am sure if someone didn't put theirs on like me, I like the factory red so the next guy to buy my car can have them.  Also you get a Battery bank to charge your phone that is about the size of a iphone XR and it says Ford Performance on it.  A pen, chapstick, and notebook.  Nothing really great but the battery charger and back pack is really nice.  You have one year from the time you purchase your car to cash in on this however with Covid they have extended that but not sure how much longer.  For the road course we got to make 10 laps because our group was small about 10 Edge and 15 Explorer vehicles so we had plenty of time to beat up their car and believe me we did.  I tried to bend the ear of one of the instructurers from Ford Performance about the issues with the trans and he gave me a crap eating smile and said " Yea we know" but that was about as far as I got.  He didn't design it or make it so nothing much he could do about it but I had to tell someone lol.  I will say now that I have the newest TSB from june 2020 it does shift allot better but still doesn't shift as good as the 2020 I drove down their so something has changed but who knows what.  You should do it mask or no mask I know the mask thing is a waste (didn't help the people from china that much did it) but hey no big deal I wear a Terminator mask so at least it looks cool.   I bought a Fiesta ST Feb of 2020 and going to do that at Charlotte motor speed way in a few weeks so that will be even more fun because that car is a blast to drive and it doesn't hurt that there is hundreds of mods for that car..LOL  Mine from a 30mph roll will run with my Edge no problem till about 90mph then the Edge ST would over take it.  On a mountain road with twisties  the Edge wouldn't have a chance of course my Edge ST is stock but the Fiesta has (intake, tune, big intercooler, 3 inch downpipe, 3 inch exhaust) so maybe not a fair comparison :)

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  • 11 months later...

Did the one out in Utah last month. It was awesome. Had to fly from. Florida to Utah and rent a car but it was well worth it for the autocross event alone. Being at almost 8000 feet I could tell there was a performance loss vs here on a somewhat cold day in Florida. Ours were also 2019s, not only did it have the door on the dash (which I dislike) but it has a better shelf in the center console which I wish my 2020 had. 

 

In Utah we got to shoot Olympic  .22s from the biathlon (awesome). No offroading for the edges. We got to do the skid car and a self parking demonstration. 

 

Considering I got my car for 11k off sticker I'm super happy that it was still included. A real treat. 

 

No masks were required outside of the hotel which was was nice. Also, if you go by yourself you get to do more if the driving (or if your passenger doesn't want to) so I got 3 runs on the autocross and evasive driving course but if I was solo I would have gotten 6 runs on the autocross and 5 on the evasive. The people with the best times were obviously solos since they had more practice and less weight. 

 

They have a dashcam that records forwards and backwards and they give you the microSD card to take home which is a huge plus. I'm currently working on putting all the clips together to upload to YouTube. 

 

I'm not usually someone that goes out of my way to do things like this, usually I say "eh, it's a PITA" and getting to Utah and boarding my dog certainly were a PITA, but the trip was worth it. 

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