Thread: A slightly early birthday present..............

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..............from me, to me......
Yesterday Brother Ken (NTFDAY) posted up a thread about a significant event from 50 years ago. Of course, you have to be of a certain age to have lived the event and be able to relate to it first hand. Likewise, we're quickly approaching another significant 50 year event.............the birth and reveal of the Ford Mustang. Now, technically, a Mustang might not be exactly considered a "hot rod", but then we're pretty loose around here about that nomenclature anyway, so what the heck. If you weren't there to experience the unveil of the all new Mustang (okay, you've got to forget the Falcon underpinnings to completely buy that line), but it really was a BIG deal. Call it astute timing, or dumb luck, whichever, it was an immediate splash, and with broad appeal. We young bucks who were newly licensed to drive at the time almost unanimously lusted after one. Of course the hard reality of affordability kept most of us at bay, but a few fortunate souls were able to score one. My classmate Dave Davison was one such individual. His folks were generous enough to help him buy a black coupe with the A code 289 and 4 speed. What a sweet ride. We had a senior ditch day where we went up to Big Bear to play in the snow. Without too much detail I'll just say we were doing some "stunts" with a toboggan that ended up with Dave blowing out one of his knees. The small clinic in Big Bear was not equipped to handle that bad an injury so it was time to make a mad dash back home to get him adequate medical care. Of course I volunteered to drive (generous soul that I am) and we hit the desert highways that lay between the mountain and our homes in the Valley doing 100 mph, plus or minus, a good part of the way. That little Mustang would haul. And good for Dave, because we were able to get him treated without too much negative result.

Fast forward a little less than 4 years and I'm rotating back to the states from a year long visit to the jungles of SE Asia, which included a month long leave at home for the end of year holidays. Much to my surprise I find my Mom had bought a new car while I was fighting the yellow, commie, hoard....................a '67 Mustang 2+2, again an A code, but she had to have an automatic. Holy cow Mom, what's up with that!!! How often can you borrow Mommies car and not have people laugh at you..... Again a few years passed and I had moved back to So. Cal after completing the military hitch and got the opportunity to buy that 2+2.............albeit from the insurance company as salvage after she was involved in an intersection collision that resulted in totaling of the Stang. I kept the drive train for future use, parted out some pieces and sold the hulk to "some guy". Short version of a follow up; that resulted in mom getting a visit from the LAPD and a bunch of questions about a 7-11 robbery. OOOOpps, good thing I had the info on the buyer..........that's all I'm sayin'.

After that, Mustangs weren't part of my life. I did have a strong feeling for the '70 Mustangs, most especially the Boss 302s and Mach 1s, but after that, the huge growth in size, and then the weird little Mustang IIs (sorry Mike), I just didn't see the point of the car anymore. In fact, they lost me until 2004 (although I must admit a slight flirtation with an '84 SVO) when I was at SEMA and approached the massive Ford booth where they had the prototype of the 2005 Mustang on a rotating platform. I was totally enthrall..................as in TOTALLY. Some of you old timers may recall we had several discussions on here about the new version at that time. The somewhat retro styling was aimed at those of us of that certain age mentioned earlier. And to my eyes, it was nearly perfect. So much so that in '05 I stepped up to a new Saleen version (I liked the front and rear styling they did even better than the stock Ford version). I really enjoyed that car, the shape, the feel, the power of the mod motor, the snick snick of the Tremec 5 speed.............it was all a joy. But as so often happens in my garage, no matter how neat a car is, it has a limited life span, and after 4 years the Saleen went to a new owner. I thought, okay, you had your fling with a retro throw back relive of your youth, time for something new (even though all the toy cars since are actually older than me). And so we're up to where this thread started.

This wasn't planned so much as it's pretty much a matter of circumstance. The opportunity came about from a windfall compliments of my Mom. Perhaps I could even justify it as a tribute to her memory (when it comes to toys there's no end to rationalization possibilities)...........and that 2+2 she once owned that was so out of character for her. With her passing last month and the settling of the estate there was a chunk that was just begging to be had fun with............and I so enjoy fun, especially of the automotive kind. So a couple three weeks ago I began to hunt for something that had been gnawing at the back of my brain, but that had been out of reach at an earlier time. Remember that fondness for the '70 Boss 302 mentioned above? Well, I didn't go after one of those, that's more Mr. Bill's style. Remember my overwhelming fondness for the restyled Mustang debuted in 2005? Well, if you didn't know in 2013 Ford built a new version of the Boss, with contemporary flare, refinement, and power from a wicked version of the current 302 mod motor, 4 valves and all. I won't go into a bunch of technical blah blah, if you're interested Bing/Google 2013 Boss 302, pay particular attention to such things as quad exhaust, Trac-key, and especially Laguna Seca. These cars are a limited production, produced in only 2012 and 13. In ball park numbers there were 3500 "regular" Bosses, and 750 Laguna Secas done each of those two years. While there's an active speculation market in them, finding "a deal" is a bit more of a challenge. I think I was getting some help from above. For some reason, on a morning about a week and a half ago, the thought jumped in my head to check the ads on Auto Trader. As had been the case the whole time I was searching before that day, there were pretty much none up here in our corner of the continent. However, under the "new listings" there it was: a 2013 Boss 302 Laguna Seca, in School Bus Yellow (the only other color is black, about 2/3 of the 747 produced were black). It was priced more competitively than any I'd seen, had just over 1500 miles, and had a clean Carfax. In fact, it was so clean, it didn't show any previous owner. What's up with that?! I contacted the online sales guy for the dealership and learned that the car was "owned" by the 78 year old owner of the dealership..........in other words he'd held it as "inventory", drove it with dealer plates, and never registered it. I arranged for a quick inspection by a third party and got confirmation of it's near new condition, even the rear tires still had most of their tread! So now I'm an owner, but what about this birthday present stuff? My birthday is just over 3 weeks from now, but reality has raised it's ugly head. The car is all the way across the country, on Long Island, NY. Given the condition of the car I'm only hiring enclosed transport which reduces the options. Then I learned an "interesting" lesson.............about half the transport companies out there won't even go to Long Island........between tolls and traffic it's apparently at real pain to get in and out of there. Oh well, I did get a good company to swing me a deal (they haul show cars for Rousch for one), but of course, Thanksgiving family gatherings impinges on the scheduling (what's wrong with these people? Don't they know I want my new toy............now??) So, given the timing and distance looks like about a week before my birthday I'll be getting the new beast. Waiting is hell!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got a bunch of detail pictures of the actual car (which were more of a priority to me), but no well lit and well posed shots of the whole thing. So I found a nice pic of one of it's brothers that looks identical for your viewing.

So, thanks Mom.............this pretty much makes up for that Christmas when you gave my brother a new bicycle and me a crippled chicken.