Bonneville Mustang
After seeing a documentary about the Bonneville Speedweek only recently I wondered about the history of the Mustang at that same event. I know they’re all highly modified cars but surely in the past some Mustangs with ‘slightly’ moderated engines must have made it to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Here’s Mario Andretti in the 1967 Autolite Mustang for instance, one that I found here. The Indy Ford engine they used had around 480hp.
“This was a project done on a stock bodied 1967 Mustang to see how fast it would go at Bonneville Salt Flats. Chickie was working for Autolite Sparkplugs and the car was driven by Mario Andretti. He recorded a best speed of 175.875 mph. They had a piston go away and the runs were ended.”
And here’s another one:
"The Mach could hold its own against the competition in any theater. Racing veteran Mickey Thompson flogged a couple of specially prepared Mach 1s at the Bonneville Salt Flats in some of the heaviest endurance testing ever performed on a production automobile."
More vintage sightings on the Mustang at the Bonneville Salt Flats? Let me know in the comments.
Ford Mustang Gran Turismo
At the Gran Turismo Awards at this year’s SEMA, this 1970’s Ford Mustang “Trans-Cammer” took home the award. And what does that mean exactly? Well that means it’ll get the digital treatment to feature in the 5th edition of the Gran Turismo game… so you’ll be able to drive it, quite literally (albeit still virtually) :)
Game on!
[Via Gamedaily]
Great Mustangs from racing history
Jalopnik recently did a post about the so-called 8 greatest Mustangs from racing history and obviously there were some real classics in the list, if you know what I’m saying.
Take a look at this 1965 Ford Mustang A/FX for instance, a Mustang that was commissioned by Ford and built with express intent of drag racing. Exactly 11 were built, half with 427 cammers, and sold to drag racers for a princely sum of $1.
Or what do you think of this 1965 Ford Mustang GT-350R that raced in the SCCA series from 1965-1967.
And of course not to miss a 1970 Mustang BOSS 302, that raced the Trans Am from 1970 to 1973. Not my personal favorite Stang but sure looks mean ;)
And one commenter shows us this Coca-Cola BOSS 302 that got 101 wins out of 150 odd starts when it was still racing.
And last but not least – a little bit more extreme – this ‘Trojan Horse’ another commenter on Jalopnik asks: “How did you forget this one?”
Don’t tell me you don’t fancy a good old classic race now ;)
Check Jalopnik for the other – more recent – great Mustangs from racing history.
Mustang Ranch
After the Mustang Forest… we got the Mustang Ranch, and it can be yours for $700.000 (well if it ain’t sold already that is).
It’s a shame to see such a collection of fine cars rot away, anyway here’s the story on how it was discovered by a reader of Jalopnik:
“I have just returned from a vacation somewhere tropical. On the way back form a day excursion I chose an alternate way back to the highway. Ok, I made wrong turn somewhere and rolled with it. This "scenic route" brought us upon what was recorded by these images. It was my wife who first saw them. "Oh look, Mustangs!" I turned my head in time to see a metric shitload of vintage ponies. I immediately turned around and pulled into the driveway. There was a gentleman in the yard who turned out to be the caretaker for the owner of the house/treasure trove. It turns out that the guy who collected all these cars recently succumbed to cancer and his wife wants all these pretty ponies sold en masse for what is by local standards the princely sum of $700 large (I think there plenty of room for negotiation here).”
Mustang specials ‘64 – ‘73
Only a couple of days ago I wrote about the Ford Mustang Indy 500 Coupes that were built in 1964, and on my search for more info I found this page created by the Mustangdrivers (fellow countrymen of mine nevertheless) which you might find interesting as well.
This page has all the Mustang special editions that were build between 1964 and 1973, some you might now and some you will have never heard of before. Here’s a short outtake, visit the page to see all.
This is the badge from the ‘67 Ski Country Special for instance, which included a ski-rack for instance. Duh! (Only from Denver dealerships at the time).
Find out more about the ‘67 Mustang Stallion, the ‘67 Indy Pace Setter, the ‘68 California Special, the ‘69 Limited Edition 600 and many more right here! Although I must admit that the original Indy 500 beats them all though ;)
Mustang forest!
So you’re scanning through your RSS reader as usual and then you read this: [Secret Garden] Massive Secret Junkyard found in Rhode Island Forest. Worth investigating don’t you think?
“Imagine a secret junkyard frozen in time somewhere around the 70′s with every bit of vintage hardware stretching for hundreds of acres. Classic Mustangs, Camaros, Cadillacs, Hemis; you name it, it’s here. But not for long: The law man’s saying to crush ‘em. Massive mega-gallery below along with the location and what you can do to save them.”
Look at a selection of photos to get a taste of what is in the ‘Mustang forest’:
Seriously, this beats about everything I’ve written about on this blog. Here is what the guy who took all the photos (a ton of them) had to say about this:
“Thousands of these classics will go to waste. Here is mostly mustang pictures I took . There us Hundreds of 64-71 Mutangs. Boss, mach 1, many many convertibles, K codes, fastbacks.. Maybe Shelbys? The owner is crazy. He’s always drunk is very hard to deal with. He’s in another world. He said he personally DROVE nearly all the cars in a field in the 60′s-70 and left them there for dead. Many are rusted beyond repair. But there still many parts cars. It will take about two weeks of walking 5 hours a day to see all the cars here. Plus many of them are so buried in overgrown trees and prickers there is no way to see them. I seen a dozen complete 392 hemi cars. This guy refuses to advertise, so nobody knows about it. Believe it or not the guy is still buying cars and driving them in the woods. The last time i was there the owner bought a running 60′s mustang and drove it in the woods to be left for dead.”
Want to save a Mustang… and a forest at the same time? Here’s where you need to go. I looked it up on Live Maps and this is what it looks like from above:
Unbelievable! I have no other words for it.
Finest Mustang photos
As you might have noticed I started a new series last week called: Mustang of the week. This series is set up to highlight the most gorgeous Mustang photos on Flickr. I already had some favorites ready for posting but since I need one per week I decided to search for more… preparation right ;) Result? I found at least enough photos for the next 2 years, so I set up a Flickr group for these photos inviting everyone in that I found.
So here’s your choice. Check out the Mustang of the week post every Friday, check out the Flickr group… or do both :) Some really great photos in there, seriously! And if you have a photo you think fits well in here, let me know. I must admit I am quite picky though.
Most popular Mustangs ever?
Mustang Monthly picks the most popular Mustangs ever based on what they’ve seen and heard from their readers. Not a very scientific way to do this but given their Mustang knowledge it’s definitely worth checking out.
5. 1969 Mach 1
I have no idea what these 2 eighties models (7 and 8) are doing in the list, those are models we are all trying to forget no? And I sure don’t know what the ‘93 Mustang Cobra is doing at number 3?! But then again, I sort of gave up in the early seventies and only happily look at the Mustang again since they re-launched the model in 2005. And I think the ‘67 Mustang GT 390 deserves better than number 6 etc etc…
Anyway, take a look for yourself (part 1 / part 2) and let me know in the comments about your personal Mustang top 3 or top 5. Maybe we can do our own list someday.
Boss & Mach 1 [AdClassix Week]
This entry belongs to the AdClassix special we’re organizing here this week – all in honor of some great classic Mustang ads. You can find the full collection here at the end of the week.
Thank god it’s Friday, you’re getting a double treat today – the 1970 ads for both the Boss and the Mach 1. First the ‘70 Boss 302 or Son of Trans-Am as they’re calling it, referring to the Boss Mustang winning Trans-Am races year after year.
Same year, same style of ad: the Mach 1 – pronounced Mach Won! Now that’s a nice way to say you’re a winner, this time referring to the 1969 Manufacturer’s Rally Championship.
Two more days of AdClassix, keep coming.
Barret-Jackson 2008
Want to drive the 1966 Mustang coupe owned by James Earl Ray (who assisinated Martin Luther King) or the 1980 Mustang owned by Bette Davis? Or are you looking for another georgous yet less famous (or infamous) classic Mustang then the 2008 Barret-Jackson collector car auction in Las Vegas is where you need to be. The auction is held in the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino from October 15th to October 18th, as in ‘next week’ :)
The auction is about a lot more than just about Mustangs but there are some 30+ Mustangs on the list and Mustangblog.com looked them all up. The event will apparently be broadcasted live on the Speed channel in case you can’t be there (and in case you know what the Speed channel is… because I don’t).
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