After all the singing and dancing, theorising and speculating regarding looks, the first of Ford's Mustang Supercars Championship entrants was revealed late last week. And, by and large, the two-door coupe is a better looker in full motorsport livery than it was without.
The new bodyshell was unveiled over the weekend in Cameron Waters' Monster colours, and then yesterday in the Shell V-Power Racing colours of DJR Team Penske for Kiwi drivers Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard.
Read more: Scott McLaughlin gives first impressions of his Mustang Supercar
There are still some odd proportions and angles. It still strikes a somewhat bulbous silhouette from side-on (underlined best by the tapered in rear profile, tall glass-house, and snubby nose). But in front and rear three-quarter stance — in these Shell colours at least — the Mustang is an attractive beast.
“I think it was always going to be a little bit polarising, just in terms of the decisions that we had to make to ensure that we met the rules of Supercars and effectively fitting the Mustang onto the control chassis," said DJRTP boss Ryan Story.
"It was always going to be challenging. I think there’s some things in hindsight with the camo livery, it did almost too good of a job of hiding some elements of the car.
“But it certainly made for a great unveil today, and Ford’s soft release last week was pretty exciting for people to see the car for real for the first time. We certainly kept a few things up our sleeve, which is good.
"Thankfully we had an incredible team of people involved, and I must single out Sriram Pakkam and Brian Novak at Ford Performance, along with our very own Perry Kapper and Ludo Lacroix, who have been instrumental in getting the car to where it is today.
"We have put many thousands of man hours into the design and construction of this car, and we now look forward to seeing it take to the racetrack in Australia and New Zealand to fly the Ford flag and hopefully do the ‘Blue Oval’ proud."
As we've mentioned, there's not a lot of change under the skin for Ford's pilots. The Mustang is still based on the same Car of the Future platform as the Falcon FG-X that it replaces, and is powered by the same engine. The biggest difference will be its aero profile — even if, in theory, many of its elements are the same from car to car.
"We’ve spent a lot of time developing this new car, and to now see it in Shell V-Power colours is awesome," said defending champion McLaughlin. "It looks fast standing still, so I can’t wait to see how it performs on the streets of Adelaide in a couple of weeks."
"I’ve been around the sport for a long time now, and I can’t remember a build-up to a season as big as this," added teammate Coulthard. "We’ve got a fantastic new car, and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel."