Peter & Lisa Mitsopoulos 07 Shelby GT 500
This is my first Mustang I have ever owned. Honestly I wasn’t looking to buy a mustang, I was looking at other high performance cars, until the announcement came out that Ford was teaming up with Carroll Shelby to build a new version of the GT500. When the GT500 went on sale in June of 06 I was excited and bummed at the same time, I was excited because it was a limited production car and that it had everything I was looking for in a sports car, but I was bummed about how much the dealerships were marking up the price. It wasn’t until September of 2006 that I found a dealership that was willing to sell a GT500 at the price I was willing to pay.
After putting in my order for a Torch Red, GT500, with the stripe delete option, and upgraded interior, the waiting game began. I drove Lisa crazy every week saying “when are they going to call and tell me that my car is coming”, after numerous phone calls to Ford and the dealership I was able to find out when my car was due to arrive.
After waiting six weeks my dream car arrived, on a cold overcast day in November, November 13, 2006 to be exact. Lisa and I pulled into the dealership we get out of the truck and as we look across the parking lot we see the car carrier pulling into the dealership with my dream car hanging off the back like a shinny red beacon, saying “look at me I am the almighty GT500”, we both looked at each other with big smiles and ran into the dealership to tell the salesman who sold us the car that it’s here! Lisa, myself, and the salesman all pile into the truck and chase the car carrier down, we spot it down the street just as the driver is getting ready to unload my car. As we pull up with video and digital cameras in hand, we get out and begin documenting the delivery as if it were our first born child. The car is carefully unloaded from the truck and driven into the service center for inspection and then off to the detail shop.
As some of you know, Lisa can not drive due to her having seizures, so in order to get my new GT500 and my truck home, I had to wait for my friend to come with his girlfriend so he could drive my truck home. As we all drove home from the dealership, Lisa and I in the Shelby, my friend in my truck, and his girlfriend in his car, we encountered some of the heaviest rainfall one could ever drive in. I was nervous about driving a 500 horsepower car in the rain, but I can say that the Shelby is an absolutely stable car in the rain. After what seemed like an eternity to get home, we pull into the garage, exhausted and happy.
The next day, Lisa tells me that if this is our baby then it should have a name. Lisa and I decide to name the GT500 “Maggie”. The name comes from my mom who past away last year, her name was Margaret, and Lisa’s mom who is also named Margaret, we decide that is a perfect name, and that is how a car named Shelby became “Maggie”.