At $22,500, Would you Corral This 1966 Ford Mustang ‘GT 350 Tribute’?
To be fully transparent, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mustang has nothing to do with Carroll Shelby other than honoring his legacy, and the car is presented in the ad as nothing more. Let’s see if that’s enough.
Last Friday — last year, in fact — we looked at a long-in-the-tooth 1985.5 Porsche 944. According to the seller, that car was an unfulfilled project that now needed a new owner to carry it across the finish line. The seller claimed that the $7,499 price was set accordingly. The work needed (both obvious and undisclosed) didn’t seem too much of a hurdle for most of you, with the car taking home a narrow 52 percent Nice Price win. Way to show 2022 out the door, folks!
Now it’s 2023. Hot off the press. Still sizzling from the grille. It’s a brand new year, which means one more year of used cars available for us to consider and judge. That’s pretty cool. Also pretty cool is all the neat stuff we now have at our avail. Who would have guessed that in 2023 we’d have self-crashing cars and phones that auto-dial emergency services after those crashes or in the midst of a roller coaster ride? We’re truly living on a weird timeline.
Considering how actually unappealing a lot of what 2023 might have to offer, let’s instead look at a car from a simpler time, that being this 1966 Ford Mustang GT 350 tribute coupe.
Now, I consider the OG Mustang to be a model of car that many people might actually consider using as a daily driver despite its age. Parts and updates are widely available, and the basic cars are pretty comfortable and reasonably capable just as they are.
My very second car back in the day was a similar, albeit far rattier ’66 coupe with a 289 CID V8 and an automatic. I used to drive that thing from gas station to gas station as I could only ever scrape up enough change for a couple of gallons at a time and the Mustang got pretty execrable fuel economy. My driving habits probably didn’t help any either.
This one is in far better shape, having seen a modest refresh with paint that echoes that of Shelby’s legendary GT 350 fastbacks. Truth be told, Ol’ Shel should have probably based his massaged Mustang on the coupe since it’s nearly 100 pounds lighter than the fastback owing to it not having the latter’s honkin’ big piece of glass out back.
Other updates on this homage include 15-inch replica Rallye style alloys, an Edelbrock 4BBL carb and electric fuel pump, as well as brand-new white-letter Cooper Cobra radials.
Aesthetically, the car looks the part. The paint pops and the stripes look good even if a little inappropriate on the notchback body. The scoops on the hood and fenders add a bit of boy-racer panache too.
Inside, it’s all seemingly original and showing its age. This is a low-spec car, lacking the center console, but still offering everything that’s required. The only major issue in here is the radio which seems to be missing and replaced by something hanging out of the opening by a cable. The radio space is three holes in the sheet metal dashboard and hopefully, those haven’t been monkeyed with. It looks like the knob holes may have been covered by electrical tape so fingers crossed on that account. Modern stereos are available to fit the factory openings without any cutting.
As noted, this looks to originally have been a lower-spec’d model. It may not have even come with a V8 out of the factory. That’s possible considering the absence of badging on the front fenders denoting the V8. IN 1966, the Mustang could have been ordered with one of two V8 engines, a 2BBL 289 CID unit that was good for 200 (gross) horsepower or a 4BBL High Output (H.O.) version of the same with 225 horses.
This one has a later 4BBL carb and dual exhaust so figure on its power to be somewhere around those numbers. A three-speed C4 automatic backs that up. It also appears to have one of those generic aluminum radiators and an electric fan to keep things cool. Somewhat alarmingly, the engine bay photos show the battery disconnected and a slew of loose connections. What’s up with all that?
According to the seller, the Mustang is a California car and thus suffers no rust. It comes with a clean title and what’s claimed in the ad to be 10,000 miles on the clock. That is obviously referencing some milestone since the odometer reads 54,595. The asking price is $22,500.
What do you think, is this classic Mustang worth that much as it sits? Or, is this pretend Shelby not worth anything close to that in real money?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist. Or go here if the ad disappears.
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