True (?) Driver: 1966 Mustang GT Fastback

Wanting something snazzy but not insanely pricey? This 1966 Mustang Fastback might be your ticket. Of course, that partly depends on two things: where the pricing goes for the listing here on eBay and whether what you see is what you get, or not. In any event, the car sits in Terre Haute, Indiana waiting for a new owner. The price with three days left in the auction is just past $31K. Where it goes from here will determine whether it’s a value buy or an extravagance.

What do I mean about what you see is what you get? Well, what you see appears to be a GT Fastback, but let’s just say that through the 1980s and 90s particularly, but also more recently, it seemed like every second Mustang was GT-ized. The claim for the car then would be that it was a “dealer GT”—one that was created as a (to use muscle-car speak) “Day Two” conversion using parts sourced directly from a Ford shop. This supposedly legitimized the car as a GT. Sorta. The stuff you’d put on would be the exterior adornments including side stripe and GT badge, fog lights (though with clear lenses, not the amber ones this car has), M-U-S-T-A-N-G lettering on the front fenders, exhaust trumpets, and unique GT gas cap. The car might or might not have the styled steel wheels, which are often mistakenly called the “GT wheels” but were not part of the GT package. Inside, the “Pony” interior (Interior Décor Group) would often be found, with the running horse embossed on the seats, fancy door panels, and other features, though it was not necessary to have that for a car to be a GT, either. An accessory steering wheel was available. The one in the car is not it.

There are ways to tell a real GT from an owner-created one, and the easiest with this year of car is to look at the engine code. No A (or K for a hi-po model) in the fifth digit of the VIN, no GT. A C-code V8 is never going to be the engine of a factory GT. Another telltale: a true GT has to have factory disc brakes on the front. So does this one pass muster? We don’t know because that information is not provided. Of equal concern might be that there are no shots of the underside or in the trunk, and no claim is made as to the quality of the paint or any body repair that might lurk in the car’s past. What appears in the photos looks fine, though there’s a high rake on the rear end, perhaps from having springs installed recently.

That leaves the buyer to decide whether having a car that looks convincingly like a GT (and probably is one) is enough to justify the price. In fact, one other little clue as to authenticity might be sitting just under the cigarette lighter and the ignition key spot: there’s a seatbelt warning light barely visible. I’m just thinking that nobody adds that as an accessory. So if the car  has that, it is well equipped. From there, work backwards, and maybe the whole car is legit. It would have been so simple to give the VIN in the ad and clear this up. But maybe buyers don’t care about whether this Fastback came out of the factory with this stuff on it or had it added. In that case, this is a sharp little car to drive and enjoy, providing the price is even close to right when the auction closes.