"Mom's GT" is inscribed on Gina Durr's license plates, showing the pride she has in her Grabber Blue 2013 GT Mustang. She displayed it in the annual Shelbyfest car show among hundreds of others for the first time Saturday.
For most of her life, the Jefferson City woman has been deeply fascinated with the type of car. When Gina's sister, who is six years older, started admiring Mustangs, so did she.
Though Gina was a young girl when the car first caught her eye, she never lost her interest in the American-made vehicle - known for sight, sound and speed. Any time she spots one in public, she has to take a closer look and listen.
"There's no better sound than listening to the exhaust of a Mustang," Gina, 42, said.
At 15, the Maryland native learned to drive in a four-speed Mustang, operated by stick shift. She married her husband Paul, once an Army man who now works for the Missouri National Guard, in 1992, and the couple traded in his truck to buy a Mustang. Gina's time with that car was short lived, though, as motherhood became the forefront of her life.
Her first child, Celeste, was born in 1996.
From 1996 to 2013, Gina said she drove a "mom car" while she was a stay-at-home mom, getting Celeste and her youngest daughter Sierra to their school activities and sporting events.
She and her husband were searching for a new truck for him at a local car show when they peaked at a Mustang. Inside a dealership tent, a salesman encouraged Gina to take a seat.
"I sat in it, and instantly I was like, 'I want another Mustang,'" Gina said. "I was in love with it."
However, she turned away from the car, thinking about what was best for the family.
Paul had other plans. When Gina came home from work the following day, a used black, six-speed Mustang was in the driveway, waiting for her approval.
She said goodbye to her "mom car," a Pilot SUV, and hello again to a Mustang - the third in her life. The switch was the more affordable option and made her husband's vehicle the designated family car.
Gina, an accountant at Modern Litho, eventually upgraded to her current model - painted in a blue bright enough it's recognizable from afar.
"I don't want to blend in," she said. "I want to stand out."
The Durrs enjoy taking the car on Highway 94 and viewing the countryside. They will celebrate their third year owning it in July.
Gina's Mustang, she said, is her stress reliever.
"If I have a long, busy, hard day at work, as soon as I get in my car and roll down the windows and just listen to the car rumble, it takes me to a whole other place," she said.
Celeste, 19, and Sierra, 11, are well aware of their mother's passion for Mustangs. The eldest daughter, a student at University of Missouri-Kansas City, will text her mother photos of Mustangs she sees in public. Celeste also jokes Gina's Mustang is her third child.
"She always wanted a Mustang, and when she finally got one, there was no explanation to how happy she was," she said.
When Shelbyfest came to Jefferson City last year, Gina said she was overjoyed. As a full-time mom and employee, she found it difficult to make the drive to Hermann, where the event was previously located. She calls the event "her Christmas" and her "favorite weekend of the year."
"This is what my heaven looks like," she said about the Shelbyfest car show.
Gina plans to drive Mustangs for the rest of her life and hopes to someday be the owner of a 1968 red convertible Mustang.
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