My son and I took the ST on a road trip from Portland to Park City, UT for Ford's ST experience. So glad we did it! I am really impressed with how the explorer handles...it's not tippy at all.
Park City is nice. it was the site of the 2002 winter olympics. Ford puts you up in a pretty sweet hotel Hyatt Centric and provides dinner and breakfast at the hotel restaurant and lunch at the event site. I had the NY strip steak and it was pretty damn good.
They give you some goodies at check-in (Ford performance backpack with some black ST badges, wireless phone charger..some other stuff) and they assign you your car for the day. We left the hotel around 8:45am and took a scenic drive to the event location, Soldier Hollow. We spent the day doing the events below and were back at the hotel by 4:30pm. If you go with a guest you will both have plenty of wheel time!
Events:
-aggressive lane change/avoidance maneuver - they have you get up to 30mph and do an aggressive left turn immediately followed by an aggressive right, then slam on the breaks to trigger ABS. The idea is to simulate a situation where you'd have to dodge something in the road at the last second. each driver gets 3 runs and you naturally get more aggressive with each run. i had the back end kick out a bit on my 3rd run, enough so that the stability control kicked in.
-automatic emergency braking - they have you get up to 20mph and drive straight at an inflatable car. the point is to demonstrate the automatic emergency braking system. you get up to 20mph and then put both feet on the floor and let the car do the rest. It stopped us within inches of the balloon car every time. 3 runs per driver
-Off-road/trail driving - i was surprised they offered this but glad they did. they demonstrated some of the explorer's trail/off-road features (hill descent control, trail mode) It was a nice drive with a few steep grades and they stopped at a view point for an optional driver switch.
-biathlon shooting (ST experience location was Soldier Hollow - 2002 winter Olympics biathalone course) - we got to shoot a bunch of rounds at targets using the biathlon guns..was nice to shoot
-autocross - the best part. they have a course setup and each driver gets 4 runs; they time the final run. these big heavy SUVs handle a lot better than you think. you can throw them into the corners pretty hard. don't hit the cones though, 2sec penalty per cone.
Park City is nice. it was the site of the 2002 winter olympics. Ford puts you up in a pretty sweet hotel Hyatt Centric and provides dinner and breakfast at the hotel restaurant and lunch at the event site. I had the NY strip steak and it was pretty damn good.
They give you some goodies at check-in (Ford performance backpack with some black ST badges, wireless phone charger..some other stuff) and they assign you your car for the day. We left the hotel around 8:45am and took a scenic drive to the event location, Soldier Hollow. We spent the day doing the events below and were back at the hotel by 4:30pm. If you go with a guest you will both have plenty of wheel time!
Events:
-aggressive lane change/avoidance maneuver - they have you get up to 30mph and do an aggressive left turn immediately followed by an aggressive right, then slam on the breaks to trigger ABS. The idea is to simulate a situation where you'd have to dodge something in the road at the last second. each driver gets 3 runs and you naturally get more aggressive with each run. i had the back end kick out a bit on my 3rd run, enough so that the stability control kicked in.
-automatic emergency braking - they have you get up to 20mph and drive straight at an inflatable car. the point is to demonstrate the automatic emergency braking system. you get up to 20mph and then put both feet on the floor and let the car do the rest. It stopped us within inches of the balloon car every time. 3 runs per driver
-Off-road/trail driving - i was surprised they offered this but glad they did. they demonstrated some of the explorer's trail/off-road features (hill descent control, trail mode) It was a nice drive with a few steep grades and they stopped at a view point for an optional driver switch.
-biathlon shooting (ST experience location was Soldier Hollow - 2002 winter Olympics biathalone course) - we got to shoot a bunch of rounds at targets using the biathlon guns..was nice to shoot
-autocross - the best part. they have a course setup and each driver gets 4 runs; they time the final run. these big heavy SUVs handle a lot better than you think. you can throw them into the corners pretty hard. don't hit the cones though, 2sec penalty per cone.
- 5
- Show All