Dick Johnson Mustang at Adelaide Motorsport Festival

The third-generation ‘Fox’ Mustang didn’t enjoy huge success in Australian touring car racing. But one important thing it do was to maintain a V8 Ford presence in local racing when Australia switched from local Group C rules to international Group A, because that was during the period when Ford wasn’t selling V8 Falcons.

Johnson campaigned Mustangs over two years before the now-legendary Ford Sierra Turbo came on stream for 1987. It took until the end of the first season for Johnson to score his first win in the 5.0-litre Windsor V8-powered Mustang – and it was a historic occasion, being the first Adelaide F1 street race meeting, and therefore the first touring car race ever held on the Adelaide Parklands Circuit.

Thirty-nine years later, one of Dick’s Greens-Tuf Mustangs from that early Group A era will again take to the streets of the city of churches in next March’s Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

The Terry Lawlor-owned machine is the first car announced for the Heritage Touring Cars category at event, with more classic touring cars to be announced soon. The Heritage Touring Cars category will run alongside the V8 Supercars and the PremiAir Hire Bathurst winners’ categories at the event, with the Bathurst-winning Nissan Skyline GT-R R32s and Holden VH Commodore SS already announced for the latter.

Visit AdelaideMotorsportFestival.com.au for more on the event.