1965 | Ford Mustang 289

The Ford Mustang was the brainchild of Lee Iacocca and was branded as the first 'Pony Car', it was born out of a need to compete with the flood of European sports cars coming into the USA in the sixties. The first production Mustang rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9th 1964 and was introduced to the public at the New York World's Fair on April 17th 1964. The Mustang was only available as a hardtop coupé and convertible until September 1964, it was the fastback that drew the interest of Carroll Shelby which extended the iconic reach of the Ford Mustang and firmly put it into the category of motoring legends. The Mustang sold over one million units in its first 18 months on the market and became a popular car to customise, from engine upgrades to racing stripes, no two Mustangs are often found the same. Ford kept the Mustang relatively cheap with a list price of $2,368, making the car extremely popular.

This example has been restored in the style of a Shelby GT350, believed to be less than 1000 miles ago, but likely around 10 years ago. It is understood the specification of the engine was a rebuilt 302cui, bored .30 over and fitted with GT40 heads and mild camshafts. The interior was also refinished at the time, along with virtually everything else… The bodywork does now need some attention, photos are available of the car when it was imported into the UK by our vendor in 2016, it looked absolutely superb at the time and was clearly a fresh restoration, but after seven years in storage, it would benefit from some tidying up. The same can be said for the engine, some surface corrosion has appeared on the surfaces and some detailing and recommissioning would bring it up in excellent order again.

This Mustang will make a very worthy project, most of the heavy lifting has already been carried out previously and with a refresh, it will be an excellent example once again. The fastback Mustangs are for many, the ones to have, and this example looks to be very good value indeed. Consigned by Fraser Smith