California Driving
Typically, when hitting the West Coast for business, it's a one- or two-day business trip with no need for our own ground transportation. Since we would be spending a solid week in California and needed a set of wheels, we called upon Ford's media fleet for something fun to drive. It was a no-brainer to pick the '07 Mustang GT/CS. The California Special features custom touches like exterior graphics, and different wheels and interior trim. We spent a solid week in the Mustang driving the Pacific Coast Highway, hitting the Bob's Big Boy cruise night in Burbank, and more. Even in car-jaded Southern California, the car received plenty of attention. The GT/CS is one nice option group, that's for sure.
As mentioned in January's editorial column, during this trip we had the opportunity to try out Pioneer's new AVIC-S1 portable navigation system. Whether we were trying to find a local restaurant or the best route from Huntington Beach up to Burbank, the AVIC-S1 never let us down. The AVIC-S1 features the continental U.S. maps built right in, so there's no need to download or insert any memory into the unit. It simply plugs right into your power port for charging (its onboard battery is great for taking the AVIC-S1 handheld, which we did several times during our walking tour of downtown Hollywood). The screen was easy to read, day or night, and the voice-prompted directions gave us plenty of time for upcoming turns, lane merges, and more. You've got to try one of these.
Here are some more images we couldn't fit into the magazine.
We'd like to thank Bud Brutsman and Misty Gray with BCII; Chip Foose, Chris Jacobs, AJ, and the whole Overhaulin' crew for allowing us to be on the set for the magic of TV production. We hope we didn't get in the way too much, guys!