DEARBORN - Here at Ford Performance, we fully encourage our customers to get out into the world and experience the full capabilities of our product line. Whether it’s taking an extended road trip, exploring mountain roads, or taking it to the track, the opportunities are plentiful.

With regards to the track, we’ve already discussed experiencing the high speed thrills of drag racing, as well as the tight and aggressive landscape of an autocross course. What if you wanted to combine those activities, in a matter of speaking? Crank up the speed but add winding twists and turns?

What you’re looking for is a road course.

Many think of professional racing when road courses come to mind, be it series such as NASCAR or IMSA, as well as club racing hosted by the likes of SCCA and NASA (the latter of which Ford supports with a contingency program for competing Mustangs). Furthermore, you don’t even need a race car to get started on a full size track. That brand-new Mustang GT you have sitting in your garage is a great beginning point for your own driving adventure.

Most race tracks have track days available where you can bring your own car, pay a fee, and drive your car to the limit in an environment perfectly mixing fun and safety. Most of these events are hosted by a third party “track day company” that rents the track and manages the proceedings for a group of entrants. Race tracks will typically have a calendar of these rentals on their websites so you can find out when they are and what you’ll need. Typically your initial needs are an approved helmet, a car in good mechanical condition, a roll bar for convertibles and the entry fee. 

The most common form of track day is HPDE – High Performance Driver Education. These events feature instructors that ride along with you (sometimes required, always recommended) to help you learn the track, show you how to drive fast in a safe manner and teach you track etiquette. Why etiquette? Because you’re not out there on your own. Only half of the battle is learning how to drive your car quickly around the track. The other half is constantly being vigilant of both what’s ahead and in your mirrors.

All participants are split into run groups based on their skill level, where other drivers of similar skill levels will join them. These run groups vary depending on the host, but as a good general rule of thumb:

• Novice: You’re new this. You have less than a handful of track days under your belt, this might even be your first one. Most of the time, you’ll need an instructor riding with you to help you out. If there’s passing, it’s only on the longer straightaways.

• Intermediate: You have an actual handful of track days under your belt, but you still have a lot to learn. Instructors will usually take a ride to see if you can handle it, then send you off on your own. Passing is typically expanded to include the shorter straightaways as well.

• Advanced: You are highly experienced, one with your car and you don’t need an instructor, though many still take them from time to time – you can never learn too much! Passing is allowed anywhere (within reason).

Drivers can get started with just about any car, but due to the more extreme conditions that come into play when playing on a road course, additional prep is highly advised. In the case of that aforementioned Mustang GT in your garage, we have some particularly well-suited options:

• Lap after lap, accelerating and slowing down over and over can take a toll on any brake setup. If you want to maintain streetability while also achieving a great performance increase, consider swapping to our GT350R Brake Kit.

• Keeping an engine cool is also important in these conditions, and building off the first option, you may want to look into installing a GT350 Radiator to help minimize the risk of overheating.

• Help your engine run at peak performance and efficiency while at speed with our Coyote Oil-Air Separator, designed to extend the life of your engine through more extreme conditions.

• Amp up the best-selling sports coupe‘s handling even further for the track with our Track Handling Pack, intended to create a great handling and easy to drive Mustang for the track that is still friendly to drive on the street.

• Last but not least, there’s no better place than a racetrack to listen to a Coyote howl. A Cat Back Extreme Exhaust System** will pair nicely with the rest of your track mods, or give your aggressive sound a unique flair by picking up our Side Exit Exhaust System.

                                    **Extreme exhaust system not intended for road use.
                                           Please confirm decibel requirements of intended
                                                                        tracks if this part is installed.

As always, the experts at Ford Performance are willing and able to help you in any of your performance goals.