This past weekend I had the opportunity to judge at the Concours event of the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. It is always an honor to be asked to judge at these events, and the best part of it was that I had the rare chance to judge in the Muscle Car class. The winner of Best in Class was one of my favorite 1970s cars, a 1973 Ford Mustang.
The 1971 to 1973 Mustang was very different than the earlier Mustangs in that it moved more upmarket, being both longer and heavier as a result, and ended up being more of a GT car that a sports or muscle car. Since my favorite cars are GTs, this generation Mustang is the one I find myself most drawn to. It also does not hurt that 007 drives one in “Diamonds are Forever.”
Another reason I like this generation of Mustang is that they tend to be among the most affordable of all the classic Mustangs on the market today.
The Pick of the Day is one of these more luxury-minded Mustangs, a 1971 Ford Mustang listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer located in Lutz, Florida.
It is finished in the wonderful combination of Medium Yellow Gold paint with a Medium Ginger vinyl interior, and the seller states that this car was built with the “Hardtop Special Value Package,” which was a spring promotion created to drive sales after a lean winter. In the case of this package, the base coupe received a hood with NASA-style scoops, a Mach 1 grille, color-matched front bumper and sport mirrors, and Boss side stripes. Only around 9,000 coupes were built with this package out of a total of almost 150,000 Mustangs built for 1971.
This vehicle, while receiving a recent repaint in its original color, is extremely stock, something rare for this generation of Mustang. It is powered by a numbers-matching 302 V8 and backed by a three-speed automatic transmission. The seller states that it is an all-around good driver with power steering, and power brakes with discs up front. The Mustang has a nice set of modern white-letter tires on Magnum 500 wheels, though the stock hubcaps and trim rings are included with the sale.
Finally, this Mustang comes with plenty of paperwork that includes the original window sticker, warranty cards and owner’s manual.
If you are looking for one of the last classic Mustang deals available, you might want to act on this one. I say this because with an asking price of only $24,995 this is a Pick of the Day I would consider buying myself.
Source: www.classiccars.com