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Okay so a little background..
I started saving for the possibility of a new Mustang when I heard the rumours that there could be a late model Mach 1 produced on the S550 platform and I was going to be the first one in line to place my order! Of course, they have stayed rumours (although now they will probably bring one out since I bought the Shelby lol). Anyways, I waited and waited, nothing came of it. Then last year I was flipping through Calendars and I came across the Official Ford Mustang Calendar, so I had a peak at it and what was on it??? That’s right, an 03 Red Mach 1 just like mine!! So, I thought cool, I’m going to buy this as a keepsake, it was cool that the ‘03 Mach 1 made the cut for 2018. I didn’t really pay much attention to what else was in it, till I was flipping through a couple months later and I came across the below picture, 2018 GT350R, I didn’t know what it was about that car at the time and basically knew nothing about it other than it was a Shelby but there was just something about that picture that kept drawing me back, obviously I had known about the car as I watched it’s debut and such but I really didn’t pay much attention to it until this picture and the stance and look of it and it became my new favourite Mustang.
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So…I few more months went by and was now March of 2019 and I was having a couple Caesars one night staring at the picture and just thought…hmmm, Fuck it, I’m going get me one of these things!! So, I set out on my journey in obtaining a GT350R!
First thing I did was bug the Hell out of fast Ed every wing night for a Month and a half! What were the differences between the regular GT350 vs. the R car, brakes suspension, coolers, packages etc. Everything I could think of (I think he stopped coming to wing night for a couple weeks! LOL). So, I decided that the regular GT350 was definitely more than enough car for me………..HOWEVER, there was still just something about that ‘R’ that had me absolutely tantalized over it!
So, I continued on once I had my mind set… and I knew they were rare cars going in but fuck me, the ‘R’ is next to impossible to get in Canada and I was not prepared for that! I called several dealers in Ontario that had ones listed, “no, sorry sold” every time but the listings had been left on the sites for months. Then I started looking Nationally and was willing to go to Vancouver just to look at one but again, turned out to be “not available”. Very frustrating…finally I found one and was assured that it was in fact for sale but had not been built yet and would take some time to arrive. Anyways, after initial e-mails, things went silent and then no replies and no call backs…so I went to the dealer in person to see what the status was… ANYWAYS I will not get into the all the details, only a few people know the full story but basically I got Effed around by the dealer and the car was actually not available. I won’t mention the dealer here but I will let you know that it is NOT one of our sponsors here.
So some more time had went by and frankly I was exhausted in trying to find a car, I was obsessing over it and got to the point where I basically gave up trying, even went to look at Corvettes one day LOL. So, then I went out to visit my Brother near the end of June of this year. Was a nice break and I hadn’t seen him in a long time. Some of you might have seen the thread about visiting Shelby Canada West. When we got there, I had sniffed out a 2016 GT350R sitting in the back of the show room minutes after we had arrived LOL. So, we went back to look at it, of course it had ‘do not touch’ cards sitting on it. My brother went over to the guy ordering parts at the front desk and asked if that car was for sale? The guy said no, it was the owner’s car! About 2 minutes later a guy walked into the front of the store through the front doors which I thought was just another customer but my Brother had a feeling for some reason that it was the owner… and it was, as my Brother went over and asked “You wouldn’t happen to be the owner would you?” and he replied “Yes I am, nice to meet you.” So, then my brother asked if he would be interested in selling the GT350R and the guy replied that for the right price everything is for sale… I asked if I could have a closer look and he said, “absolutely” and opened the car for us to see inside and under the hood and all. He gave me a price which wasn’t unreasonable and I probably could have haggled with him a bit on the price. The car was a 2016 with 17km on it, he drove it home from the dealer and it’s been in the showroom ever since. He gave me his card and said to give him a call if I was interested. We said thank you and he drove off in his Shelby F-150 lol. So, I thought about it the rest of the afternoon as now I’m back on the GT350 train.
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A day goes by and I’m sitting in a hotel in Banff thinking if I’m going to make an offer on the 2016 when I’m checking my e-mail and I had received an e-mail from someone that I didn’t know but the subject line was ‘Mustang’. So I clicked on it and it basically said that he had been speaking to Ed who had mentioned that I was looking for a GT350R and that he had allocation for 1 more ‘R’ and if I was interested, would put my name on it right away. It was the owner of Parkway Ford that had contacted me as he had talked to Ed who knew my story and how I had been treated the other dealer. So, I showed my brother kinda in disbelief at first. And I replied back with an “Absolutely I’m interested!”
I’d like to take a moment to thank Ed Nicholson (fast Ed) without his help, this would not have happened and also Dan Deboer owner of Parkway Ford who personally stayed in touch with me and even gave me his personal cell# and I also just received an e-mail from him just today to see how I was liking the car! So, from one extreme to the other as far as dealership experiences go and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Parkway in the future!
On an interesting note… the Friday night before I was going to pick up the car on that Saturday morning, I was closing the garage just like I do every night when I heard something crash down in the closet. I was like WTF was that? I turned on the light and opened the closet and laying on the floor was my Shelby jacket that my Dad had bought me before he passed away. I have never even worn the jacket once and I’m in and out of that closet daily and it’s never fallen off it’s hook before. So, I pulled it out and had a look at it, it’s mostly geared towards Super Snake but it does have a GT350 logo on the sleeve, so I thought that was kinda cool!
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Anyways, the rest you kinda know, I trailered the car home from Waterloo and I’ve put almost 400km on it since last Saturday! It’s a very cool Machine!
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