This is a photo collection I posted on our Roaring Season Facebook page recently, showing the many different changes the great New Zealand racing PDL Mustang went through during its long career.

The car started life as a 1970 Boss 429 road car, one of just 499 built that year. It was stolen not long after it was first sold, and recovered soon after, though the thieves had removed its motor and gearbox.

New Zealand car dealer and race car driver Paul Fahey took a trip to the US in late 1970 to purchase a new race car, to replace his highly successful Alan Mann Racing Escort FVA/C. His first choice was an existing SCCA Trans-Am car, but when he found none fitting his requirements were available, he began looking at other options. In the Los Angeles Times, he spotted a stolen/recovered 1970 Boss 429 Mustang that was to be sold at a theft recovery auction. He attended, bid on the car, and won the auction, paying just $500 for it.

Next, he arranged with fellow Kiwi Ron Butler, to go through the remains of the recently closed Shelby Racing workshop at LAX, and bought up the huge stockpile of Trans-Am Mustang and Ford endurance sports car parts that remained. He then had everything shipped back to New Zealand, where the Mustang was converted into a race car.

The new Mustang made its race debut in November 1970, painted up in Cambridge cigarettes colours. Fahey ran the Mustang in its debut season as an allcomer car, using his Escort as his championship contender, with which he won the 1971/72 NZ Saloon Car Championship.

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Photo by Allan Cameron