What to make of the muscle car? I got it a long time ago, I don’t anymore. People go ga-ga over ridiculously over-priced, over-restored cars that really can’t be driven or used in any enjoyable manner. If you watch enough high-dollar auctions and get an endless drumbeat of Chargers, Camaros Chevelles, Mustangs, etc. you’ll eventually want to strangle yourself just to get away from the insanity of it all. But what about the basic pedestrian version of a car that had a high-performance variant? A case in point is this very restrained 1968 Ford Mustang coupe – we had to have it before we could have anything more exalted – it’s worthy of review. This Ford is located in Alexandria, Virginia and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of  $4,500, twenty-five bids tendered as of this writing.

There were about 317K Mustangs produced in 1968 and the coupe version, such as our example, was responsible for 249K or about 79% of the total. How many of those were six-cylinder powered? The numbers are sketchy but several Ford Mustang sources claim 42% of those 249K coupes were so equipped, or about 104K coupes. Are they really remembered? Not when the star of the ’68 Mustang fleet was a Highland Green fastback known for making San Francisco high-jumps. The lowly six-banger just gets pushed off to a quiet corner.

You want original, here’s original, a ’68 coupe sporting a 115 gross HP, 200 CI, in-line six-cylinder engine. No nod to modernity here, it even works through a three-speed manual transmission. The seller states, “The engine start, transmission and clutch good“.  The mileage is recorded as 45K miles but it’s easy to imagine that the odometer has been once around. The seller mentions that the brakes, which appear to be manual, need work and there is no sign of power steering. This one is a stripper!

The seller suggests that this Mustang, “needs restoration and bodywork“. Well, the Brittany Blue (code Q) paint is obviously flaking away and there is an abundance of surface rust but it’s hard to tell how invasive it may be. The seller does mention that the driver’s side footwell has rust and even the bumpers haven’t escaped the start of corrosion. There is no reference made as to this Mustang’s storage quarters but it’s easy to imagine that it was a damp environment. Nevertheless, the exterior is not showing signs of crash damage.

Comments frequently abound about a car’s presentation for sale purposes. This one isn’t too bad but I always find it odd that sellers don’t remove everything from the interior before commencing with photographs – it seems a no-brainer. There is some detritus lying on the passenger seat but the view is pretty clear. The seat upholstery seams are starting to split but beyond that, it is mostly a faded and/or dirty interior environment. The seller states, “seats and door panel original in a good condition“. The door panels are OK but the top steel edge of the doors is starting to rust – the driver’s seat speaks for itself.

There you have it, this Mustang, for all intents and purposes, absent a radio, is about as no-option a pony car as you will ever find. While it is an important component of ’60s motoring and the introductory base for muscle-cardom it is the existential nature of it that will probably hold it back. It would be nice to see it restored for what it is but then the whole value proposition has to be taken into consideration. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see this second-gen Mustang turned into something other than what was initially intended. Where do you see it going?