Torquenstein Ford GT

Published Apr 5, 2006 in Gumball 2006, Gumball 3000, Gumball 3000 Pictures, Gumballers

At the moment Torquensteins Ford GT is on it’s way to Europe. Before it was ready to ship the car is equiped with a big amount of gadgets that would make James Bond jealous. Read the full story about the car below.

The interior of the Ford GT:

Torquenstein, who drives a GT40, was driving to Houston, Texas, when he noticed he was having problems with some countermeasures he had installed from another shop in northwestern USA. His co-pilot got on the WEB and located Tiger Lily Products in the Denver, Colorado area. Torquenstein and I spoke on the 4th of March, scheduled a visit on the afternoon of the 5th with Kustom Kar Audio in Boulder, Colorado. Torquenstein had M40 laser jammers, M20 Laser Jammers, Lidatek LE30 Laser Jammers, Valentine One Radar Detector, Bel 990 International Radar Detector. We added a VF2 photo Jammer and an STi DRIVER Radar Detector. Torquenstein needed 100% invisibility to RDD in Europe and Asia. The STi DRIVER is the only detector capable of this.

Clay Watson, owner Kustom Kar Audio, agreed to take a look at the GT40 and see what the issues were. Clay opened up the front and rear hatches and started finding wires and cables strung all over the place, cables draped near or on hot surfaces. Good products had been installed incorrectly, causing product defects. Torquenstein and Clay agreed to allow Kustom Kar Audio two days to get the GT40 race worthy for high speed countermeasure operation.

Clay decided that major issues had to be resolved first:
1) get loose cables bundled properly; shorten as required;
2) get wire harnesses away from vibration and hot spots;
3) repair broken cables already damaged;
4) make sure all products work as specified

Working from 6AM until 10:PM for two days, Clay was able to get all major problems resolved to ensure that the countermeasures installed would stay in operation over a long race at high speeds, high engine temperatures, and lots of road vibration.

At 10:30PM on the 8th, Torquenstein packed up and fired that GT40 up. We tested all the radar detectors, laser jammers, siren, strobe lights, CB radio, laptop connections, the whole ten yards. Torquenstein found everything installed correctly and off he went to Houston to load the GT40 onto a ship headed for London. He had 15 hours to get to Houston from Boulder, atleast a 20 hour drive. I have no doubt he got down there in 12-14 hours, because it is now on the boat in Houston, headed for London to start the Gumball 3000 Rally in early May 2006.

The GT40 has a variety of products to protect Torquenstein and his co-pilot, Eric von Mad Maxx. The cockpit has GPS, CB Radio, Siren, high intensity, blue/amber strobe lights installed. The seats have 5 point safety harness and holds the driver and co-pilot very well for high speed driving.

On the rear of the GT40 is a Blinder M20 Laser Jammer, Lidatek LE30 Laser Jammer, digital camera, VF2 Photo Jammer. If a laser gun is used from the rear, there is no way to get the vehicle speed. If the GT40 goes through a photo speed trap, to bad, so sad, there is no way to get the photograph of the rear license plate on the GT40. You can see where the license plate has been jammed from the camera.

The control panel the co-pilot can play with: