Advanced Powertrain Fine Tunes Tiger Racing Mustang

By: Lynn Waldsmith | Ford Communications Network

Tiger Racing's driver Carol Hollfelder hits the race track in her Ford Mustang with an advanced electro-hydraulic actuated transmission from the Aston Martin Vanquish in the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT Championship.

DEARBORN, Mich., July 19, 2004 -- It is not surprising that the driver of a supercharged Ford Mustang GT racing in the Speed World Challenge is a woman. After all, the number of women in professional racing continues to accelerate. But it might be surprising to learn that the driver, Carol Hollfelder, is a paraplegic. Hollfelder and her team recently were in Dearborn to showcase their Tiger Racing Mustang. Tiger Racing is a professional and vintage motorsport team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, Calif. Ford Advanced Powertrain continues to help Hollfelder and her crew with ongoing technical support.

Hollfelder, 35, finds the power and control that accompanies racing appealing. “It really tests your limits, your competition, your determination," she said. "It just pushes you in a whole lot of directions.”

Hollfelder grew up in a family that loved cars. Her mother collected Sunbeam Tigers. In the early 1990s, both of her parents began racing vintage cars under the Tiger Racing banner, which was named for her mother’s passion for the classic British sports car. Hollfelder was not only a car lover, but also a horse lover. She rode hunters and jumpers until she was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1987 at the age of 18. Due to a spinal cord injury, she could no longer compete as an equestrian so her father helped her channel her competitive spirit into motorsports.

The Tiger Racing Mustang GT is loosely based on the 2003 Ford Mustang. But it has a hand controls system and other significant design features that make it unlike any other Mustang in the world.

Hollfelder began racing in a Ferrari 355 Challenge car. But when she moved up to the Pro Series Speed World Challenge, the Ferrari didn’t have enough power. Ford’s Advanced Powertrain Division took the Aston Martin Vanquish transmission and specially developed it for Hollfelder in a Mustang GT. The car has a unique paddle shift gearbox clutch system that allows the driver to shift speeds with two simple thumb switches located on the steering wheel.

According to John S. Kozar, product development engineer for Advanced Powertrain, the Tiger Racing Mustang is a work in progress.

Hollfelder hopes to show other people with disabilities that nothing is beyond their reach, not even the ultra competitive world of motorsports. “The car is continually being updated,” Kozar said. “For instance, now we’ve put a new clutch system into the transmission, and we just did some head work and fuel system work on the car to give it a little bit more power so Carol could compete at a higher level.”

The Tiger Racing Mustang also has a unique brake and throttle system that was designed by her father, Tom Hollfelder. The driver pulls on a ring behind the steering wheel for throttle and pushes on the steering wheel to brake. Paul Brown, crew chief and general manager, said driving the Mustang feels similar to playing a video game.

“It’s a pretty straightforward system,” Brown commented. “It’s very intuitive, very easy to drive.”

The Tiger Racing Mustang is also equipped with a floor brake in case an able-bodied person drives the car. “We put that in because there were so many of us initially driving the car. If we were in a panic situation and had to suddenly stop, naturally you go for the (floor) brake,” Kozar explained.

Hollfelder started out with the Ferrari Challenge and moved on to club racing for a few years. She won the southern California T1 regional championship in 1999 before moving up to the Speed World Challenge GT series. She already has her sights set on even greater challenges.

“I’m learning as I go along,” Hollfelder said. “I’d like to move up to endurance racing. Eventually we’ll probably do Grand Am and someday I’d like to learn the 24-hours at Daytona. But those are big steps and I need experience first.”

Besides racing, Hollfelder works as a spokesperson for Ford Mobility Motoring. The program provides up to $1,000 toward the cost of adaptive equipment or up to $200 for alerting devices, lumbar support or running boards when installed on new Ford, Mercury or Lincoln vehicles.

“It’s such a great program,” Hollfelder said. “In fact, I used the program in 1995 when I bought a new Mustang GT before I had any association with Ford.”

Hollfelder hopes to show other people with disabilities that nothing is beyond their reach, not even the ultra competitive world of motorsports.

“I try to set a good example for people who have disabilities, but then again, I don’t think about doing that all the time,” she said. “I do what I do because I enjoy it and I try to do it well.”

In the meantime, Hollfelder and Brown, her crew chief, are enjoying the fact that they soon will be getting married, though they haven’t yet set a date. After all, with a busy racing schedule this year, planning a wedding has not been a top priority.

“Who knows when?” Brown says. “We’ve got racing to do.”