The Mustang is making its Bathurst 12 Hour debut this weekend with German squad Haupt Racing Team fielding a single car for Broc Feeney, Chris Mies and Dennis Olsen.
While there is only one Ford in the race, there is a second Mustang on hand as either a spare or donor car should the HRT entry run into trouble.
The spare Mustang is the car that was imported to Australia by Tony Quinn and is brand new, to the point that it has never been fired up and still has the plastic wrapping on the rear window.
Should it be required today (Saturday) it will also need to be plucked out of Ford’s hospitality area half way down Conrod Straight where it is on display to the public.
It will, however, be shifted to the paddock tonight so it is in easy reach of the team during tomorrow’s race.
The deal for Quinn to loan his car to HRT was brokered by Ford’s Australian arm.
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“It was one of those very easy conversations,” Quinn told Speedcafe.
“[Ford] asked if they could use it as a spare and said they would pay to freight it to Bathurst. We were taking the truck down anyway, but I said they can pay for the diesel.
“And so here it is. And if the Ford wins, I’m taking a bit of the prize money!”
Despite owning the brand new Mustang, Quinn is actually racing a Melbourne Performance Centre-run Audi alongside sons Klark and Kent and grandson Ryder in the 12 Hour.
The decision to go with a customer program, rather than run his own car, came down to the complicated nature of modern GT3 hardware.
“The Mustang has never been started and that’s because I’m selling it,” added Quinn.
“I don’t have 20 people to run the car and they are very complicated nowadays. That’s why we went with MPC because if anything happens to the car, they’ve got all of the spares.
“And now Ford have got my car they’ll be fine [on spares] too.”
Both the Quinn Audi and the HRT Ford will take part in the top 50 percent qualifying session later today thanks to Ryder Quinn going fourth fastest and Feeney 11th in Practice 6
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