Few cars have had the success of the Ford Mustang. You would be hard-pressed to find any domestic automobiles that would best the sales year that the Mustang had in 1966 – 607,568 units. That works out to 1,665 Mustangs being delivered every day of the week on average. This 2+2 fastback is in exceptional condition and has a laundry list of some rather obscure options which surely made this a specially ordered car. And, yet the buyer opted for the standard inline-six engine rather than go for at least a 289. Located in Wyandotte, Michigan, this Candy Apple Red survivor is offered here on eBay where the bidding has reached an impressive $25,200. But the reserve has yet to be triggered.
Everything that goes up must eventually come down, and sales of the Mustang would trickle down from 1967-on as competition flooded the market and the novelty of a sporty compact car would begin to wear thin. But in 1966, Ford could do no wrong. While the coupe was the clear favorite of the body styles the Mustang come in, 34,708 of them would be the fastback, and of those 7,889 were considered the luxury edition with a fancier interior. We believe the seller’s car falls into that last bucket.
When the original owner went into the Ford showroom to buy this 1966 car, he either found just this one car that happened to be on the lot, or he placed an order for it. I, too, had a ’66 Mustang and my car didn’t have any of this stuff. The list of rather specific “nice-to-have” kinds of items include the following, although some could have been added by the dealer:
- Pony emblem in the front grille that lights up, along with bumper-mounted fog lights
- Mustang hood ornament and fender-mounted turn signal indicators
- Lights under the hood and inside the trunk
- Rally Pac instrument cluster
- Pony interior with headrests (never saw those before)
The air conditioning could have been dealer-added as they were both under-the-dash units either way through 1968. The seller has repaired or replaced several items before putting the 96,000-mile car up for sale. That includes a Flowmaster dual exhaust (does that help an inline engine?), completely new brakes, alternator, water pump, bearings, and voltage regulator, to name a few.
This is a very solid-looking car inside and out. The seller, who has owned the Mustang for about five years, tells us the car received a repaint about 20 years ago. Since he’s had it, it’s primarily been used for car shows and the like. I still can’t get over my surprise to find the six under the hood. Not that it’s a bad engine. My Mustang had the same motor and I put tens of thousands of miles on it. In Excellent condition, Hagerty pegs one of these cars at about where the bidding currently lies. I suppose all the extras could help goose the value a bit, but a 289 under the hood would put it in a different kind of territory, I believe.
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