Mustang at Daytona
Forget electric for now, and forget the old muscle car rivalry – Ford is aiming for Europe’s sports car elite with its new V8 Mustang, on road and track. We join the team at Daytona for the car’s GT3 debut
It’s been a tough night for Ford at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and now factory driver Harry Tincknell is preparing for the final stint in the sole surviving Mustang GT3 on its competitive debut.
Dark shades shield eyes weary after just 45 minutes’ sleep, and Tincknell flinches when I shake his hand – it’s blistered from gripping the Mustang’s steering wheel at 175mph through Daytona’s heavily banked curves, then hustling it through the tighter infield that punctuates this 3.56-mile lap.
Despite the pain, the fatigue and the journalist, the Englishman wears the pressure lightly, seeming as alert and relaxed as when we first chatted two days earlier.
‘Now we just need to bring it home,’ says the 32-year-old, shouting over cars that buzz past the pit garage. ‘Some big championship rivals went out early, so we need to get the points, but the Corvette is 18 seconds up the road – catching that would be amazing.’
Next thing the number 64 Mustang rumbles in, team-mate Christopher Mies jumps out and Tincknell folds his lanky frame into aweb of tubes, bars and netting like he’s wandered into a Spider-Man versus Doctor Octopus fight scene.
Aswarm of activity from his pit crew, a spin of slicks and flare of V8 and he’s gone into the searing Florida heat, Corvette on his kill list.
Much as a GM scalp appeals, Ford will do more than chase domestic makers round domestic racetracks with its new Mustang motorsport programme.
Now its Camaro and Challenger road-car rivals have ended production, the world’s best-selling sports car is taking on European royalty including the Ferrari 296 GTB, Porsche 911, Aston Vantage and Lamborghini Huracan everywhere from Le Mans to Bathurst, the Nürburgring to Spa. ‘Elevating Mustang’ is a common refrain.
Daytona marks the start of all that in the Mustang’s 60th anniversary year –a day-long baptism of fire that doubles as round one of the 11-round IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship.
Midday Friday, a little over 24 hours before the race begins and I’m tiptoeing around expensive carbonfibre body panels on the floor of the Ford pit garage.
Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook is here, so too Larry Holt, the dreadlocked boss of independent outfit Multimatic, which is charged with building the car and running the race programme.
A SPIN OF SLICKS AND FLARE OF V8 AND HE’S GONE INTO THE SEARING FLORIDA HEAT
Nearby I bump into
