A TRANS-Am Ford Mustang raced in the 1990s by both Dick and Steve Johnson has come onto the market.
The Trans-Am Series enjoyed a boom period in its native United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the spaceframe formula also spread to New Zealand where its Chevrolet vs Ford V8-engined formula proved extremely popular.
In the mid-1990s, promoters attracted Australian-based racers like the Johnsons, Peter Brock, Jim Richards and Paul Morris to take on local aces like Kayne Scott, Ashley Stichbury and Mark Pedersen during the category’s summer season.
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While the Johnsons later campaigned an ENZED-sponsored Chevrolet Camaro, Dick’s first Trans-Am summer came aboard a Ford Mustang.
According to the listing on Kiwi online auction site TradeMe, the car was originally built by Riley & Scott for US Trans-Am squad Tom Gloy Racing before going to New Zealand in the early 1990s, where it was originally raced in Shell colours by Kayne Scott.
Dick and Steve Johnson campaigned the car in later seasons, as did Pedersen and a host of other Kiwi racers before the car was sold to South Africa in the early 2000s.
It returned to New Zealand in 2019 and has since undergone a comprehensive restoration to put it back in the period-correct specification from when Dick Johnson raced the car.
The livery has yet to be applied and is currently without an engine or gearbox, but among the parts that come with the car is the original set of body panels that were originally on the car in Scott’s Shell colours.
At the time of writing, the car is listed on TradeMe with an asking price of NZ$85,000 (approx. AU$78,140).
