Parnelli Jones is an American racing legend and a guy who drove a Mustang in Trans-Am action during the early 1970’s. Nelly is a rap star who apparently has an endorsement deal with Ford. Guess which one the blue oval clan chose to unveil the 2011 Mustang at the Detroit Auto Show. Hint: It’s the guy who is better at rhyming, not driving.
We know that Rufus Parnelli Jones is an old dude. As legendary as he is in the annals of American racing, he’s not selling rap albums to young hipsters. On the plus side for Jones, he’d never be caught dead in the bling-mobile that Nelly appeared with at the show. Sporting 22- and 24-inch wheels, gloss black paint with flat black stripes (how played out is that getting?), some stupidly huge stereo system, and “tinted” tailights, we wouldn’t either.
We guess that Mustang has an extremely varied potential customer crowd. Considering that Ford is building the bitchin’ Cobra Jets, we guess that there has to be something on the other end of the scale for everything to balance out, but man, this thing sounds like a heap.
Like any rapper worth his salt, Nelly is not going to miss out on a promotional opportunity, so he announced that the car he was appearing with will be on his forthcoming album cover, set to hit the shelves in the spring.
In 2007 there was a Parnelli Jones special edition Mustang. In 2011 perhaps there will be a Nelly bling-tastic special edition on the way. We can only hope not.
