The global CEO of Ford, Jim Farley, has returned to the wheel of a V8 Supercar and taken Jimmy Fallon – host of The Tonight Show in the USA – for a wild ride around a test track in Detroit.

“How dangerous is this?”, Fallon asked before the ride began.

“Fantastic. Aaaarggghhh. Oh my god,” he then screamed from the passenger seat of the howling V8 race car.

“Wow. My palms are sweating. That was insane,” Mr Fallon said as collapsed to the ground after the ride.

The thrill ride was not as scary as it looked, as Mr Farley is a successful amateur racer who competes in his own classic Ford GT40.

He has also driven a V8 Supercar several times in the past, even demonstrating the Mustang at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK in 2021.

The new Mustang will be used as a ‘Gen3’ racer when V8 Supercars becomes a Ford Mustang-versus-Chevrolet Camaro competition next year.

The hot-lap car is the older S550 series and was never raced in Australia before it was shipped to the USA in 2015 for display and demonstration work.

Apart from the Goodwood runs in Britain, Mr Farley had driven it before at the Detroit test track in a shakedown ahead of the Festival of Speed.

Mr Farley also forged a new V8 Supercars connection last month when he met Cam Waters, who finished second with a Ford Mustang in this year’s Australian championship, when they were both taking a refresher course with a noted British racing driver trainer – Rob Wilson – at Goodwood in the UK.