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 | Reprinted with permission of the author
editor's note
MUSCLECAR REVIEW MARCH, 2008
The $5.5 Million Mustang
This sounds like the result of some frenzied Arizona auction bidding, but it’s actually something quite different.
ClassicMuscleCars.com, a musclecar dealership located north of Chicago, has in its inventory a very special ‘64-1/2 Mustang convertible.
Wearing a VIN that ends in 100212, this car is, according to Randy Paddock, ClassicMuscleCars.com’s general manager, the first convertible Mustang built for sale to the public, and also the first Mustang sold to the public. Visit the dealership’s Web site (www.classicmusclecars.com), and you’ll see this car available for sale, with a $5,500,000 price tag—or $1,000,000 down and payments of just
$42,064.26 per month. (It actually says that on the Web site. We can’t tell if they’re kidding about the payments or not.)
Paddock has a sheaf of documentation supporting the car’s history, including the original bill of sale, window sticker, MSO, copies of every
title it’s had (the car has passed through seven owners) and even a transcript of an interview with the car’s original salesman.
This car didn’t suddenly come out of someone’s shed. It’s well known to the Mustang community and has been in the same owner’s hands since 1982. It spent about 10 years in the Towe Museum, has been featured
in magazines and books and was even loaned to William Clay Ford for his grand-daughter’s 2006 wedding.
The owner, getting on in years, had reached the point where he “just couldn’t enjoy the car anymore,” said Paddock. After decades of
ownership, he put the special Mustang up for sale. Paddock learned about the car’s availability from another broker and bought it.
Now, provenance is a mighty thing when it comes to musclecars. Just ask anyone who bought a 1-of-almost-none Hemi ‘Cuda convertible, or a car once owned by a muscle superstar—thelikes of Carroll Shelby or Arnie Beswick. The right pedigree, whether it’s celebrity ownership, extreme rarity or-being considered the “first” or “last” of anything, can make a car that originally sold for $2,400 worth a lot of money.
Maybe even $5.5 million.
This kind of provenance claim can also attract denials, and such is the case with Number 212. Long-held Mustang history says the first Mustang built, with serial number 100001 on its VIN, was sent on a promotional
tour to Canada and was accidentally sold by a dealer who didn’t know the car was anything special. The Ford Motor Company spent a year getting that car back, and it is now in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.
So how can Paddock claim his Mustang is the first Mustang sold? It’s all in the wording of the claim. Number 001 now in Ford’s museum was
indeed the first Mustang built, but it was a pre-production model, one of between 185 and 200 built to be used for crash testing, promotions,
advertising, display at the World’s Fair and to be given to select racing teams.
Those cars were never meant to be sold. Number 212, on the other hand, was among the first built on March 9, 1964, when production for retail
sale began. The Mustang was pre-ordered by its first owner, who took delivery on the evening of March 16, 1964 (actually, April 16th – correction by C.M.C.), the day before Mustangs officially went on sale.
“No matter what some naysayers say, there is a dividing line between pre-production cars that were not originally manufactured for retail sale and cars built for sale,” Paddock told us.
“Pré-production is pre-production; built for retail sale is built for retail sale. That’s what ours is.”
Number 212 is one of eight very early Mustangs on display at ClassicMuscleCars.com’s showroom, located at 25084 West Old Rand Rd. in Wauconda, Illinois.
Others include Number 093, a pre-production convertible; the 40th Mustang to come off the San Jose assembly line; four pace car coupes and the Mustero, “a combination of the Mustang and Ranchero,”
Paddock explained.
Why has a car dealer amassed such a collection? “Our primary purpose is to get the word out about early, early Mustangs. Unlike with Hemi cars, say, or Chevelle Super Sports, very few know anything about the early Mustangs,” said Paddock. “We’ve seen this from contact we’ve had with people from around the world. They don’t know this story existed. We have a piece of important, historical information in the Number 212 car. It’s an iconic automobile, but no one knows the true history surrounding the beginnings of this vehicle.
“Our goal is to wake up the public about these early Mustangs, to set the bar on early-Mustang history,” Paddock said.
Well, the $5.5 million price tag sure woke me up. I may have some trouble making that monthly payment, though.
Drew Hardin
drew.hardin@sourceintertink.com
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