After last week’s Ford Performance Mustang Supercar reveal, it’s been good to see the race teams do likewise themselves. The partnership of Tickford Racing and Monster Energy unveiled their challenger today looking every bit the contender in matt black with the Monster Claw logo.
At the same time, the much anticipated Shell V Power entry was also shown to the world for the first time.
This is of course the ride of last year’s championship winner Scott McLaughlin and his co-driver Fabian Coulthard.
The livery of the Mustang is only a very subtle departure from the style of last season’s Ford Falcon, with coloration intended to enhance the lines of the Mustang. In particular, the low nose and high rear wing which are both designed to maintain the car’s aerodynamics and on-track performance.
Both of those styling cues were the point of much debate, as was the high roof when the car was being tested under the camouflage.
As has been mentioned in our coverage of the Mustang development and reveals, the challenge for this year’s Ford Performance entry has been to fit the two-door coupe body over the V8Supercars control chassis which was designed and implemented in the days of the four-door sedans of Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore. As the Mustang is the first two-door coupe to test the compliance criteria, learnings will definitely be applied should the Camaro become a contender by a Holden or Chevrolet team in the future.
That remains to be seen, but I think the race teams of Tickford Monster Energy and Shell V Power have proven that the car can look good. It will however remain a tough sell to the Falcon fans who were not yet prepared to let go of the icon of Bathurst.
For this particular car though, McLaughlin is a fan of the appearance;
“It’s nice to see it with the proper colours on it,” McLaughlin said. “The rear wing is a big talking point between a lot of people, but once I’ve seen it with the stickers on it, it looks really cool. I think it looks tough.”
The quote of the season however, goes to Brian Novak from Ford Performance who said;
“There are no ugly cars in victory lane !”
Absolutely! Let’s see the Mustang there!
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