I was tempted to put on a rugged, rebellious act. Instead, I opted to be grateful, recycle my plastic water bottles and read a book patiently while the shots were set up.
Back at base camp, I stepped out of the car, still charged from the drive and told anyone in earshot about how fast I'd just driven and how cool it was. The crew on a shoot is usually quite masculine and, with this being a car commercial, it was even more so. The guys really dug this car. Many of them got their pictures taken with the car during the downtime. I doubt these same guys would be pulling out their cameras on a Jetta commercial.
The JWT guys were pleased to hear how much I liked the car. They were proud to be in charge of the product and several times after watching the playback asked for more speed from their baby. Most of this set full of guys were jealous that I got to drive the car. So, in a way they did want to BE me ... and I didn't have to throw tantrums or be Steve McQueen for them to feel that way.
2007 Shelby Mustang GT500
Specifications
Engine
Ford 5.4-liter DOHC V-8
Engine Specifics
90-degree V8, cast-iron block with aluminum heads; forged crank and rods; dual overhead cams per cylinder bank; four valves per cylinder; 8.4:1 compression pistons; dual 60mm throttle-body, sequential electronic fuel injection; aluminum intake manifold with Roots positive displacement twin rotor supercharger; coil on plug ignition, dual cast iron exhaust manifolds
Engine Management
Ford 'Spanish Oak' processor with specific Shelby programming
Driveline
- Tremec T6060 six-speed manual gearbox
- live 8.8" rear axle with 3.31:1 final drive
Numbers*
436 RWHP
451 RWTQ
*based on bone stock baseline run, using a car with less than 500 miles
Chris Kennedy was the lead actor in Ford's recent Bold Moves commercial, 'Germany'. You can see more about Chris at his web site, www.geocities.com/chrisrkennedy/
You can see the commercial online at http://media.ford.com/digital/GT_GERMANY.mpg