Your Ridiculously Awesome Martini Mustang Wallpaper Is Here
Not every car we feature for our Weekend Wallpaper has a backstory, and very few of them have one that's fictional. This Martini Racing Mustang definitely has one of those though, and it's a nice yarn of Italian racing and American ponies.
The nice folks over at Mustangs Daily sent this one in, and though the car itself was built by Pure Vision Design, its fake backstory is one of those things that sounds plausible and would've been great if it did happen:
The year was 1965. Having successfully launched the Mustang in the United States the previous year, Ford was hoping to promoate the car in Europe through motorsports. Already the Mustang had taken a 1-2 class victory at the Tour de France Automobile road rally the year before with the support of Holman & Moody, and Ford's top brass held a meeting to discuss how to become further involved in racing in Europe. After a chance meeting with executives Martini & Rossi (who would form Martini Racing a few years later), the two companies decided to join forces to build a Mustang race car that would compete in road rallies. With Martini & Rossi providing the sponsorship funds, Ford shipped over a 1966 Mustang fastback fitted with parts from the Shelby GT350R as well as Ford's Indy 4-cam engine for the purpose of endurance testing. Since the export version of the Mustang was known as the T-5, the new race car was dubbed the T-5R.
Too bad the tale isn't real. The "Martini Mustang" is fully equipped like a rally car, with lots of the thoughtful little details like a vintage flashlight for night racing, a navigator's footrest, and a custom chronometer. Head over to MustangsDaily.net for the full story, and plenty more absolutely stunning pictures.
Photo credit Mustangs Daily. Used with permission. For a giganto-desktop version, click here.
Weekend Wallpapers are featured on Saturdays. Got one you'd like us to run? Send it to ballaban@jalopnik.com with the subject "Weekend Wallpaper." Just make sure you have the rights to use it.