CRAZY HORSE

DICK JOHNSON AND ROB HERROD ONCE TEAMED UP TO BUILD THE DJR 320 FALCON – AND NOW THEY’RE BACK AT IT AGAIN

- LOUIS CORDONY

I’VE ALWAYS LOVED SOMETHING that has plenty of grunt,” Dick Johnson tells MOTOR over the phone, perhaps stating the obvious. This is the man who in his late 40s called a 500kW-plus Ford Sierra Cosworth his office and, thanks to a turbocharger that woke like an exploding bomb, constantly drove it on opposite lock around places like Bathurst.

But that was on track, the place where he crafted his legend in Australian touring cars – and in the hearts of Ford fans. Right now, though, we have him talking about things off the circuit and, in particular, a special edition road car known as the Ford Mustang Dick Johnson Limited Edition.

Although his CV is short in this arena, it’s well known. Not fully able to get a couple of factory Falcon projects off the ground, Dick Johnson Racing went out and built its own BA Falconbased special edition back in 2004 known as the 320. Lauded for balance and refinement, it intended to lure the high-end HSV buyer, but in the end only 25 were made.

While hindsight might view that low production run as somewhat of a failure, today such exclusivity has been placed at the centre of the Mustang DJ LE (our abbreviation, not Johnson’s). “We thought initially we’d do 17,” Johnson says, referencing his famous race number, “but [we had] an opportunity to increase that to 30.” Buyers were signing up before they had so much as seen the car. Even at $180,000 each.

Why would anyone feel compelled to spend almost three times the price of a standard Mustang? Well, besides the rarity of road cars from the now 74-year-old Queensland racing legend, or his Supercars racing team’s recent domination with a Mustang, it might have something to do with the key players behind the project.