2022 Carlisle Ford Nationals Re-cap

The 2022 Carlisle Ford Nationals ended 10 days ago but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to document and share my experience. It wouldn’t be Carlisle without rain! Right? Except, the only rain we experienced was on the trip down. We hit heavy rain for the first hour of the trip. The triple white has brand new General G-MAX tires and did great. I pride myself that this car is never babied, never trailered, and always driven rain or shine to Carlisle. This was its 11th trip. Over 10% of the miles on the car have been added as part of travel to, from and at Carlisle.

Here’s a breakdown of the stats for the trip –

• 641 miles driven
• 23.7 miles/gallon
• $149.48 spent on gas

We had a green tent this year. Obviously, you can tell from this site that I have a thing for the color green so this was perfect. We were farther away from the action than ever located on the western edge of the fairgrounds and not quite in the class for 90-93 Mustang LX stock where many feature cars fall. Attendance for the club was a little down this year due to family and work commitments. But, we still had a great time even without the cookout.

I wasn’t looking for this, but they had a presentation on the 2022 Ice White Edition Mustang on Friday. Luckily, I heard the announcement for this as it was only done once the entire weekend. In the introduction, they referenced the 1993 triple white feature car and I couldn’t help but think that what was missing in this presentation was a 1993 triple white displayed on the stage as a backdrop for the new car. This was certainly a missed opportunity.

They mentioned that the expected production run of Ice White editions will be around 1,500 which is in line with the 1993 white feature car production number. My guess is that they will sell as many as they can and won’t stop at 1,500 if orders are coming in. But, will the orders come in? I’m not sure. It definitely looked better in person than from what I’ve seen online. Especially, the wheels. In person, they have a look that I could live with.

I approached the Ford person doing the presentation, introduced myself and suggested that a photo of both cars would be awesome. He thought so too and invited me to a photoshoot for the following morning!

The rest of Friday went pretty smoothly. On Saturday, I got up extra early to get to the fairgrounds to prepare for the 8:00 AM photoshoot. While they have a car washing area at the fairgrounds, I decided that a rinse-less wash was the way to go. Less water on the car and an easier time to dry it. And, it was really not dirty because I had fully washed it Friday morning. It only had a light covering of dust and pollen.

Spending time in the car washing area and observing, I’m pretty sure most there don’t take the proper steps to wash their cars. It got me thinking that they need a car washing clinic as part of the show. And, it also got me thinking that maybe I need to share car detailing tips here on this site. I’m kind of a car cleaning and detailing nut

They had me drive into the Ford display and park next to the Ice White edition. The official Ford photographer took a bunch of pictures, had me sign a release and said they might use them on social media and in newsletters. So far, I haven’t seen or heard anything at the time I write this. Even if they don’t ever do anything, I still got some great pics and an experience to add to list of unique things I’ve been able to do by going to Carlisle.

The signage at the Ford display had clear mention of the “1993 Triple White Fox body Feature Mustang” that served as inspiration for this new special edition. I thought this was a nice recognition.

I tried to up my game this year on the display of the triple white. I’ve been chasing a reproduction window sticker. There’s a good story there that I’m saving for a future post as I am still working through the process and I don’t want to comment on challenges with it until it’s a done deal. Regardless, I displayed a decent facsimile of the original window sticker for my car. I did see it get some attention at the show. I next need to focus on mounting options for it. The blue tape approach was a little less than ideal.

I also broke out the period-correct blue license plate that would have been issued for a 1993 car. This particular plate is the actual plate I had on my first car, a 1991 Mustang LX hatchback. In my state, we can get permission to use the period-correct license plate as long as we already have Classic Vehicle plates and possess the correct plates from the year. It just takes a form and a visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles to show them the plates and get the approval. The problem is that one of our daily drivers uses the latest plate design with this same lettering. I will have to get a new plate for that car before I can officially get approval to use this blue version on the triple white. I think it looks pretty awesome and would love to be driving around with this full time.

Like last year, I was invited to be a celebrity judge. The car I picked was this 1993 Mustang GT Hatchback. It was a great car that, admittedly, has won lots of awards already (I usually like an underdog) but it called out to me. I have a liking for black hatches and this is a great example of a stock car that has been well preserved by it’s owner.

As a side note, we didn’t stay at the usual Comfort Suites Downtown Carlisle due to being waitlisted by some large car club that took a block of rooms leaving us frequent guests out in the cold. The word was that there were cancellations and some were able to book the hotel only a few days before the show. We never got a call despite being on the wait list. This was disappointing and I’m not sure we will go back.

We stayed at the brand new Homewood Suites right near the fairgrounds. It was their opening weekend so there were some glitches. We were down sized to a smaller room due to an issue with the room we booked, the parking lot was roughly paved and did not have the finish layer of paving and some things in the room didn’t work. Overall, I think this will become a great place to stay. It has some interesting artwork in the lobby, halls and rooms. Various human figures with alternate heads. Pineapples, sloths and cats were all represented.

The weekend was capped off on Sunday when the awards were announced. My triple white won 1st place in the 90-93 Mustang LX Stock class. I only counted 7 cars in the class on Saturday so the competition was less than previous years. Still, the second and third place cars were strong competitors that I am thrilled to have finished in front of.