The Ford Mustang could live forever.

The hero car for the blue oval brand has received a string of go-faster upgrades and updates in recent times with support from the highest levels of Ford management in Detroit. Company president Jim Farley has raced in the Mustang Cup at Le Mans and vice-president Jim Baumbick, on a rapid-fire visit to Australia, could not contain his enthusiasm for the historic performance car.

“I can’t imagine a Ford Motor Company without a Mustang,” Baumbick, told WhichCar by Wheels in an exclusive interview.

Baumbick was visiting Ford’s product development hub at Broadmeadows on one of his final stops as head of advanced product development, cycling planning and programs for FoMoCo, before taking up a new job as president of Ford Europe in November.

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He has been closely tied to the Product Development Centre in Melbourne for a decade, eventually rising to the top of the engineering division at the company and helping to drive the renewed emphasis on internal-combustion models.

He showed enthusiasm for everything around the Mustang program, from right-hand drive development to Supercars racing.

“We’re going to keep the pedal down on Mustang,” Baumbick said. He confirmed the Mustang would continue as a key model for the company, to the extent that future planning around electrification and emissions was done to ensure it would not be threatened.

“I’ve been doing the (product) cycle plan for the company since 2017-2016 and we always had a product-led approach to our emissions and CO2. Ours was designed to ensure that we could continue to lean on Mustang. “And that’s why you have a Dark Horse.”

Ford Mustang GTD

Baumbick said some of Ford’s rivals – “I’ll let you decide who those are” – had “run out of juice” in their efforts to protect their combustion hero cars.

“Our was always product led,” he emphasised. “I think there is a lot of opportunity, a huge amount of value, and a wild following of passionate customers on Mustang.”

According to Baumbick, Ford’s use of the Mustang in motorsport — from Supercars to NASCAR stock cars and GT sports car racing at Le Mans – was key to polishing the badge. He had watched the Gold Coast street race and could not contain his enthusiasm. “I was transfixed watching the 500,” he said.

But Baumbick emphasised that Ford’s motorsport programs with the Mustang are linked to showrooms. “We’re augmenting that with our ‘Race to Road’ strategy. You’re seeing it play out here if you watch the (Supercars) race.”

He also highlighted development of the latest Mustang GTD, even though the race-ready road car is a sell-out in the USA and not coming to Australia.

“You can see that ladder all the way up. The creation of the GTD was inspired by the GT3 (race car),” he said. “The GTD is an incredible apex representation of Mustang. Some of those cars you can buy, as a customer, and some you can’t. We just wanted to unleash engineers, without constraint, to show them what we could do with that vehicle.”