It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Seriously, it requires a lot of skill, but it sounds pretty awesome as well. If you are going to sell vehicles that perform at the highest level, you have to test them. Fortunately, Ford has in-house test drivers that are qualified to push these cars to the edge and give engineers the feedback they need to maximize the performance.

Not only are these elite Ford Performance drivers the best of the best, many of their peers believe they have the company’s coolest jobs… — Ben Maher, Ford

“We are fortunate to have such fire-breathing enthusiasts who live to make our Ford Performance vehicles world-class, then can take that know-how to our mainstream offerings so all of our customers benefit,” Hermann Salenbauch, global director, Ford Performance vehicle programs, said. “It’s an age-old industry mindset. You can’t create great-performing products without the commitment and passion of the people behind them.”

There are plenty of test drivers at Ford. In fact, 10,000 or so Blue Oval employees are qualified to drive development vehicles. However, only about 20 in the entire company carry the elite Tier Four qualification needed to push the performance vehicles on the track at over 190 MPH. These drivers are drafted from the worthy lot of Tier Three drivers at the company and receive more training to move to the elite level. And these drivers rotate around from production to performance programs so they can cross-pollinate the things they learn.

“Not only are these elite Ford Performance drivers the best of the best, many of their peers believe they have the company’s coolest jobs in that they get to bring their enthusiasm, technical know-how and racing expertise to work every day,” Ben Maher, technical specialist, global driver safety and leader of Ford’s internal driver qualification program, said.

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The latest vehicle used to train Ford drivers for the company’s elite, Tier Four qualification is the limited-edition Mustang FP350S turn-key track car.

One of the latest to benefit from this testing is the Mustang FP350S, which Ford Performance equipped with a roll cage, a passenger seat, and a 50-channel datalogger that tracks parameters like steering wheel angle, brake pressure and even the transition time between throttle and brake pedal. This feedback not only helps improve the car, but also allows instructors to give the feedback needed to train new Tier Four test drivers.

“The performance limits of the FP350S are so high that to master it, vehicle control needs to become automatic,” Ben said. “High-limit driving becomes intuitive to the point that when one of these drivers gets in another vehicle, they are freed up to observe more of what’s happening at the vehicle level.”

While most of us will never be lucky enough to become a Ford test driver, anyone has a shot at picking up one of the 50 Mustang FP350S. For more on the this turnkey track star, you can check out its official page right here.