Ambrose to drive NASCAR in Adelaide Mustang demo

Marcos Ambrose and Dick Johnson will join Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin in a special Ford Mustang demonstration at next week's Superloop Adelaide 500.

Marking Ford's official return to Supercars and the debut of its two-door racer, three variants of Mustang will take to the street circuit.

The new-for-2019 Ford Performance Mustang NASCAR and road-going Mustang GT accompany the Supercar.

Ambrose gets back behind the wheel of a NASCAR for the Ford Performance ‘Parade of Champions’ on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Johnson in the Supercar and McLaughlin the road car.

Two-time Supercars champion Ambrose spent nine seasons in the US racing NASCARs, with a brief DJR Team Penske tenure back in Australia including the 2015 Adelaide event.

"It’s a great pleasure to come back to Adelaide as a part of this great Ford initiative," Ambrose, whose last race was the Gold Coast in 2015, said.

"It’s a track that I remember very fondly, having won a few races there in the past.

"Doing it in a NASCAR is going to be completely different for me, but I’m really looking forward to it.

"The run-up Bartels Road and into Turn 8 is going to be pretty eye-opening, I reckon.

"We’ll go out there, have some fun and put on a great show for the crowd.

"DJ and I have been out of the game for a while, but I have a feeling the red mist will descend when we pull the helmets on."

A Cup Series Mustang is being transported to Australia for the occasion, following the model's debut in Monday's Daytona 500.

Supercars Hall of Famer Johnson – who raced a Group A Mustang in the 1980s – retired at the end of the 1999 season, and this will be his maiden outing in a current-generation car.

"When I was approached with the concept, the first question I asked was ‘what’s the lap record?’" he joked.

"But seriously, it’s been a long time since I’ve been behind the wheel of a full-spec Supercar, and to get the chance to drive the new Mustang is something I’m very much looking forward to.

"Scott and Fabian [Coulthard] have been saying plenty of great things about the new car, so it’s going to be an honour and a privilege to once again hit the track in Adelaide, for the first time in nearly 20 years.

"Doing it alongside Marcos and Scott is just the icing on the cake."

Six Mustang Supercars will enter the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship run by DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing.

The incoming model swept the top-three places in last week's Phillip Island test.