Ford Mustang Rally Car? 50 years of this iconic model

Ford Motor Co celebrate 50 years of the Mustang this year and being fans of big motors, as a Mr. C. Shelby famously said “there is no substitute for pure grunt”, we at Paddock42 thought it only right to give mention to this great feat of model longevity.

When it comes to race pedigree the Ford Mustang has it by the bucket load. The legendary Ford/ Shelby partnership produced iconic race and street cars including the infamous ‘Hertz’ GT350’s which became affectionately known as ‘rent a racers’ – rent them on a Friday, race them on a weekend and hand ’em back on the Monday. These genuine ‘H’ cars now very sort after along with the GT350’s, GT500’s – especially original R models. The story starts with Holman Moody who helped Ford dominate in the NHRA competitions which they entered in late 1964 and from this very beginning the Mustang has gone on to have huge racing successes right up today with the latest fifth generation model.

This has been all been well documented but what about the Mustang competing in one of the most popular forms of motorsport, rally? A rally mustang I hear you say – heavy, rear wheel drive this is not a natural ‘stage winner’?

In 1999 a certain Ian Duncan won the 2009 Safari Classic Rally in a rally-raid-spec Ford Mustang. Duncan is one of Kenya’s most successful rally drivers as he was Kenyan Rally Champion six times 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2000 and 2011 and achieved outright victory in a World Rally Championship round when he won the 42nd Trustbank Safari Rally in 1994. The ‘stang was clearly in the right hands. Incidentally Ian Duncan won this event in 2013 in another Ford rally car this time the UK’s answer to the Ford Mustang, a Capri. These wins dethroned the famous Datsun 240Z and the legendary Porsche 911 rally cars that have historically always been the leading cars in this tough event.

In rally circles Ford have been dominant since the late 1970’s, with the Escort which remains a firm favourite in the historic rally paddock today. However in the early 1980’s, working with Ghia, Ford developed the Mustang RSX Rally Car Concept which clearly laid the foundations to the incredible RS200 which they later designed and built again with Ghia, to compete in group B in 1986. The car was basically a rear wheel drive Italian-bodied beauty, take a look at this and imagine this in 1980, people would have got pretty excited we think. Definitely got a Lancia 037 look at feel about it…

In the early ‘80’s, Ford owned Ghia, and we think it a shame they did not manage to get a few cars built and entered into the World Rally Championship. At the time the Dagenham boys were dominant in rallying with their Mk.2 Escorts, but if they had of got this car competing successfully under the Mustang name maybe they could have started building an American rally fan base in this period. It is only in recent years that rally has started to capture the US’s imagination…That said, in the early 1980’s Audi had opened up a whole can of ‘Quattro’ and released it on the rally scene. The Bavarian manufacturer promptly demonstrated what you could do with 4-wheel drive and turbos – win everything.

Ok that was then but what about now? Well you may have noticed a lack of Mustang muscle in WRC, well you wont find them there but with some digging around P42 found some interesting footage of a 5^th generation mustang being expertly driven by a chap called Riccardo Errani. Riccardo has plenty of experience in Lancias, Escorts, Evo’s and Subaru’s but here he is putting Detroit’s finest through its paces in the 2010 Rally Rubicone del Rubicone. Safe to say he has a fair idea of what he is doing and you get a chance to experience that mustang rally car sound.

In summary you cant argue, the Mustangs impact on the world of motorsport has been great and it continues to this day, ok its mostly on the circuits but we celebrate the fact drivers out there have put them on the dirt and they have had success. As the values of these newer models drop and with the tuning potential being massive and parts pretty cheap which paddock will we see the 5^th generation Mustangs next? Happy Birthday Mustang and well done Ford.

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