Dick’s super ‘stang
Its a car with a wordy name, but then the Dick Johnson Limited Edition by Herrod Performance is also probably the last word in Ford Mustang high performance
Dick Johnson believes he has just created the best Ford Mustang anywhere in the world. And he is not alone. Thirty eager owners turned his super ‘Stang into a sell-out success in less than a fortnight, despite a six-figure price tag.
Nothing was left on the shelf as Johnson and his skunkworks crew, led by DJR Team Penske team principal Ryan Story, with Rob and Chris Herrod on the mechanical side, went all-out – and even created a full suite of very special bespoke pieces – to ensure this car, the Dick Johnson Limited Edition by Herrod Performance, to give it its full title, was the very best of the best.
The key to the car’s creation is a supercharged V8 engine that unleashes a whacking 635kW, more than 850 old-school horsepower, in a fullcustom package that changes everything for the classic American pony car. Even the puddle lights, which project a picture on the ground when the doors are opened, are unique to the car.
“It would have been easy to do a body kit and some stickers, maybe bigger brakes and
more power, but that’s not me,” Johnson tells AMC. “This program was always about hitting the summit.
“I can promise that there is no other Mustang on the road quite like this one.”
The key character in the creation of the Dick Johnson Mustang is Ryan Story, who pulled the project together and ensured the Mustangs went to the right homes despite his heavy workload running the show at DJR Team Penske.
“We only got one shot at this thing,” says Story. “We’d been talking about it for a long time and finally the time was right.
“The biggest bonus is that Ford gave us the green light for the project. That meant a lot because Kay Hart, the president of Ford Australia, really understands what we wanted to do. She could see the benefit of having a Mustang with Dick’s name on, especially after all the success in Supercars through 2019.”
For people who think the DJ ‘stang could be just a re-work and re-badge of something already existing in the US, or a mild tickle on the 500-run R-Spec Mustang that Herrod is doing in 2020 as a special project for Ford Australia, Johnson has the answer.
“This is a one-off project,” he says.
“The first and the last. We believe it’s the king of the hill for Mustang and we’re happy to leave it that way.”
How it happened
As Scott McLaughlin tore through the Supercars series in 2019 with a record series of race wins and pole positions, and DJR Team Penske dominated Bathurst as well as the drivers and teams championships,
Just when you thought Ford had delivered the last word on high performance Mustangs with the recent release of the supercharged R-Spec, up pops Dick Johnson with his own limited edition supercharged ‘stang. The Ford race ace’s aim was to produce the ‘king of the hill’ of Mustangs – and with the engine package tuned to deliver more than 600kW, this Mustang will see off pretty much any car up any hill. But that’s only part of what makes the new Dick Johnson Mustang so special.
a couple of key people knew they had a unique opportunity.
With Dick Johnson Racing also set for its 40th anniversary in 2020, it was an easy decision to push the button on a limited-edition Mustang road car wearing a DJ badge. It was, according to Dick, a no brainer:
“The Mustang was doing the job on the track and I wanted something that would do the job on the road.”
But it took some doing, as project boss Ryan Story recalls.
“It all started coming together with the Mustang’s model refresh in 2017. It brought the 10-speed auto and refined the original right-hand drive package. And it made sense to use that as the base for something new and special with DJ.
“But we knew we had to do something very special, above and beyond.”
The mechanical key to the project was Rob Herrod, who is more than just a long-term friend and collaborator with Dick Johnson. He is also the biggest Ford Performance dealer outside the USA, rating top-10 world-wide with multi-milliondollar sales, and also has the right connections at every level in the muscle car family at Ford in the USA.
“Rob is the best Mustang tuner outside the USA,” Johnson says simply.
With Ford Australia also on board, and plenty of interest from potential buyers, Story got to work.
“Dick was hell-bent on the car being supercharged,” Story says. “That was his initial direction. Then Rob and I started nutting things out.”
“It would have been easy to do a body kit and some stickers, maybe bigger brakes and more power, but that’s not me” - Dick Johnson
That meant finding and sourcing the right parts, many of them coming from the USA, to ensure a balanced package that would work on the road but also have enough spice for owners who want to hit the track.
Even the tiniest details were considered, but there were also the big-ticket items including signature forged alloy wheels, subtle side stripes that were designed for the car, and the unique carbon fibre rear wing.
All 30 cars begin their life as a right-hand-drive Mustang GT with Magnaride suspension. There are only two colours, black or white, with a mix of manuals and autos.
One of the few options in the program is a rollcage, although its installation means removing the rear seats.
“The cars have been sourced through dealers that we work with regularly and who are great friends, specifically Tony Blake at Metro Ford and Stuart Lanham from Lanham Ford, who has also been a great supporter,” Johnson says.
“The cars are then modified by Herrod separately once the donor car has been registered and pre-delivered. Each car has specific engineering sign-off for its state of registration.”
The cars are fully warranted, with regular Ford coverage supplemented by Herrod on the bespoke parts.
The build for each car takes a minimum of two weeks, with a dedicated crew of six Mustang specialists working at Herrod Performance in Thomastown, about 15 minutes from Ford Australia’s headquarters at Broadmeadows.
The mechanical key to the project was Rob Herrod, who is more than just a long-term friend and collaborator with Dick Johnson. He is also the biggest Ford Performance dealer outside the USA
Under the skin
There are so many bespoke parts in the Dick Johnson Mustang that Rob Herrod, who pulled the package together with his son Chris working alongside him, hardly knows where to start.
But he had a clear mantra for all his work, as well as experience in collaboration with Johnson thanks to their previous DJR 320 Falcon project and his many weekends in the DJR pit at Supercars events.
“What I really didn’t want to do was build an e-Bay car. Or a sticker car,” Herrod reports.
“There is nothing on this car that you can buy. Everything is bespoke.
“Even the supercharger, which comes from Whipple in the ‘states, is built special for us with some custom tweaks. The radiator is manufactured by PWR in Queensland, but it’s a Herrod part done speci cally for us.”
Herrod, soon to turn 60, is highly regarded in the Blue Oval world and is one of the very rare Tier One parts suppliers to Ford Australia.
“I knew what was needed to make the car really, really good. I knew all the right parts to put the car together, and with the last two or three years working with the Mustang and Ford, I knew all the right people to source the right parts.”
His approach is obvious from the car’s signature item in the engine room.
“Yes, we use a 3-litre Whipple supercharger, but I got Dustin Whipple on the phone to talk to him about it and what we wanted. We wanted some special race-style ttings and a unique lid for it made from billet aluminium.”
The nished item also incorporates the unique DJ #17 logo developed for the car, as well as the car’s individual VIN and build numbers.
“Everything with this car is VIN numbered and build numbered. It is all machined into the parts,” Herrod adds.
“Even if you could get some of the parts, which you can’t, you couldn’t clone one of the cars because you wouldn’t have the numbers.
“It’s on each conrod, and on the crown of the JE pistons. These are true matching-numbers cars, because the numbers are on every part for each car.”
Herrod says his in-house testing in Melbourne with a rear-wheel dyno backs the performance claims for the car.
“It will make 850 horsepower, all day long. In the USA, with a similar con guration, there are people claiming over 1000 horsepower. Running on Shell V-Power fuel, we know we are making over 850 at the ywheel, with over 700 at the rear axle.”
The attention to detail on the project is obvious from the $10,000 bill for the tooling for badges, and Herrod smiles as he runs through the speci cation sheet.
“The suspension is a development with Ford
Performance, it’s the Magnaride system with a unique spring and sway bay, with a unique calibration. It’s not an off-the-shelf calibration, and Ford Performance beefs different areas up for the track work.
“The brakes are from the Mustang GT350R, with Brembo 6-piston calipers on the front and four-pots on the rear, with directional 15.5-inch cross-drilled front rotors and 14.9-inch crossdrilled rear rotors.
“The wheels are Forgestar from the USA, 20x10 on the front and 20x11 on the rear, with 275x35 front and 305x30 rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.”
There is a plumbed-in differential cooler, engine and transmission coolers, and a Borla three-inch stainless exhaust system.
On the visual side, there are new upper and
lower front grilles, icks on the front corners and the very special carbon bre rear wing.
The seats are re-trimmed in Italian leather, which a Vee shape to the pleating that mirrors the design on top of the supercharger.
Herrod likes talking about the unique puddle lamps on the car, but even the service stickers in the engine bay, including a special one for the oil cap, are bespoke items.
“It’s a horn car. And the sound of the thing, with the supercharger and the exhaust.”
But the project is not just about the performance, or the individual pieces.
“What I’ve learned from doing the R-Spec Mustang from Ford is that we’ve put the manufacturing process into the car. It’s stuff that other people can’t do.
“To me, this is ultimate road car. You turn the key each day, and it starts and runs like a normal everyday road car. But when you push the pedal harder it makes you go – well, just WOW.”
But why do the car at all, when his plate is over-full with R-Spec, and the order bank at Herrod Performance stretches well into 2020, and there are some other top-secret projects in the works?
“Dick has been very good to me for a long time,” Herrod says. “He cared about me when times were tough. “He is loving it. And that gives me pleasure.”
Formula Johnson
Dick Johnson is not done yet. Even as his signature Mustangs hit the road he is deeply into a new set of challenges for his DJR anniversary year in 2020 and beyond.
They are wrapped up in Formula Johnson, a joint project with Ryan Story that is seeing the resurrection and re-birth of some of the most iconic cars in the history of Dick Johnson Racing.
“Formula Johnson is effectively a motorsport, automotive and investment company,” Story reports.
“Dick still has an enormous following and it’s something he never takes for granted. To see the happiness and joy this project has brought him is the most satisfying thing of our friendship.”
First up is the XD, which tracks back to the True Blu days, to be followed by a Shell Sierra. Just like the Mustang road cars, excellence is expected.
“The rst project we’ve tackled is the building of the TCM Ford Falcon that Steve Johnson will race in 2020.
“The car has taken a lot of time, more than we expected, because it was engineered by Paul Ceprnich at Pace Innovations. That thing is a piece of beauty. It’s all Dick’s memories of the halcyon days of the 1980s, and that’s why it was a no-brainer.
“The XD is built to TCM speci cations but pays homage to the 1980 to 1982 Falcons. It will be ready for Steve for this year’s series.”
Ceprnich is a motorsport veteran and his two most-recent projects, the Brabham BT62 supercar and the MARC Mustang racers, have both achieved widespread acclaim.
“That’s now led to Project Sierra. We’re building two Sierra RS500 and they should be nished by the middle of 2020.
“They will be very special, they will be modern-day monsters.
“One is a former DJR show car and has history from 1987. The other is a brand-new shell.”
But that’s just the start.
“We have a number of other motoring projects
on the go to build that business. There are number of on and off-road projects,” says Story.
“The XD and Sierra are just the public-facing things we have. At the end of the day, you want to do things you enjoy.
“It’s an investment business that focusses on automotive and motorsport projects, and it’s something that Dick and I enjoy.
“It’s also the 20th anniversary of Dick Johnson Racing in 2020, which is a very big deal, so we’ll have a number of events. It’s still considered to be the people’s team, which is pretty unique, so we’ll make sure we have a very special celebration.”
The sell-out success of the Johnson Mustang has had a surprising twist. A single car is now set for auction. It is build number #001, with white paintwork, auto transmission and roll cage. Formula Johnson has teamed up with Graysonline for the auction, which opens on February 21 and ends on Feb 26. For all Auction enquiries phone 1300 CLASSIC.