If you’ve just spent roughly $325,000 on a Ford Mustang GTD—an 815-horsepower, carbon-fiber missile that looks like it escaped from Le Mans—you’d think the first thing you’d do is plant your right foot into the horizon.

But no. Ford would prefer you don’t drive it. Not for 30 days. Thirty. Whole. Days.

Why? Because the paint—slathered onto all that carbon fiber like icing on a very angry cake—is still “gassing out.” If you put paint protection film on too early, it can bubble, cloud, peel, or otherwise make your ultra-expensive bodywork look like it’s been steamed in a microwave. And those carbon panels? They cost more than a decent family hatchback each. So PPF is essential… once the paint stops breathing like a pot of chilli left out overnight.

Of course, this 30-day sit-and-stare period also dovetails nicely with Ford’s crusade to stop people flipping the GTD for profit. Buyers already have to sign a two-year no-sale clause, a strategy borrowed from the Ford GT days—when even John Cena got dragged into a legal arm-wrestle for selling too soon.

So for now, GTD owners tuck their cars away in climate-controlled bunkers, occasionally shuffle them around by trailer, and count down the days until the ceremonial First Drive. Meanwhile, forums buzz with PPF plans, storage tips, and people behaving as if they’re waiting for Christmas.

Other brands do this too—Porsche locks down its 911 S/T, Ferrari all but sends the mafia if you flip a special edition—but Ford’s goal is simple: make sure the GTD becomes a legend for its engineering, not because it briefly appeared on an auction site with 11 miles on the clock.

The Mustang GTD may be built for the spotlight, but Ford wants it to enter that spotlight with perfect paint, unchipped carbon, and an owner who’s learned the virtue of patience. After all, the first drive of a car like this isn’t just a drive. It’s an event.