To be completely 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 as nothing more in the ad. Let’s see if that’s enough.
Last Friday – last year actually – we checked out an aging 1985.5 Porsche 944. According to the seller, this car was an unfulfilled project that now needed a new owner to get it across the finish line. The seller claimed that the price of $7,499 was set accordingly. The work required (both obvious and undisclosed) didn’t seem like too much of a hurdle for most of you, as the car took home a narrow 52 percent Nice Prize win. Way to show 2022 at the door folks!
Now it’s 2023. Hot off the press. It’s still sizzling out of the grille. It’s a brand new year, which means we have another year of used cars to inspect and appraise. That’s pretty awesome. Also pretty cool is all the nice stuff we have available now. Who would have thought that in 2023 we would have self-crashing cars and phones automatically calling emergency services after those accidents or in the middle of a roller coaster ride? We really do live on a strange timeline.
Considering how unappealing much of what 2023 could have in store, let’s instead look at a car from a simpler era, namely this 1966 Ford Mustang GT 350 Tribute Coupe.
Well, I look at the OG Mustang as a car model that many people could actually use as a daily driver despite its age. Parts and updates are rife, and the base cars are fairly comfortable and reasonably capable as they are.
My second car back then was a similar, albeit much more rickety ’66 coupe with a 289 CID V8 and an automatic. I used to drive the thing from gas station to gas station since I could only scrape together enough change for a few gallons at a time and the Mustang had pretty pathetic fuel economy. My driving habits probably didn’t help either.
This one is in far better shape, having seen a modest refresh with paint reminiscent of that of Shelby’s legendary GT 350 fastbacks. To be honest, Ol’ Shel probably should have based his massed Mustang on the coupe, given that it’s almost 100 pounds lighter than the hatchback in that it doesn’t have the latter’s large chunk of glass.
Other updates to this homage include 15-inch rally-style alloys, an Edelbrock 4BBL carburetor and electric fuel pump, and all-new Cooper Cobra white-lettered radial tires.
Aesthetically, the car looks good. The color pops and the stripes look good, albeit a little out of place on the sedan body. The air scoops on the hood and fenders also add a bit of boy racer flair.
Everything inside appears to be original and shows its age. This is a low spec car that lacks the center console but still has everything that is required. The only major issue here is the radio, which appears to be missing and has been replaced with something hanging out of the opening by a cord. The radio room is made up of three holes in the sheet metal dashboard and hopefully they haven’t been tampered with. It looks like the buttonholes may have been covered with electrical tape, so fingers crossed on that regard. Modern stereos are available to fit the factory openings without any cutting.
As mentioned, this appears to have been a lower spec model originally. It might not even have come out of the factory with a V8. That’s possible considering there’s no V8 badging on the front fenders. In 1966 the Mustang could have been ordered with either of two V8 engines, a 2BBL 289 CID engine good for 200 hp (gross) or a 4BBL High Output (HO) version of the same producing 225 hp.
This one has a later 4BBL carburetor and dual exhaust, so expect its output to be somewhere near 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 lot of loose connections. What is all this about?
According to the seller, the Mustang is a California car and therefore has no rust. It comes with a clean title and what the ad claims to be 10,000 miles on the clock. This obviously refers to a milestone as the odometer reads 54,595. The asking price is $22,500.
What do you think this classic Mustang is worth as much as it sits? Or isn’t this fake Shelby worth nearly as much in real money?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist. Or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me with NPOND. Contact me at [email protected] and send me a fixed price tip. Remember to include your Kinja grip.