Mustang History: Henry Ford II’s Personal Mustang
How would you like to find a piece of history? It would be awesome, right? Picturing yourself on the cover of Time, or the Wall Street Journal, holding some long-dead Egyptian mummy’s head? So maybe that will never happen, but it happened to Art Cairo. He somehow got his hands on Henry Ford II’s personal 1964 Mustang.
Art picked the car up directly from Ford in 1974 for a cool $1,000; obviously, no one knew this car was one of a kind … and I mean one of a kind. There are features on this car, which is a pre-production model, that never made it to the consumer Mustang. This ‘Stang has a teak steering wheel, leather, a few pieces on the dash and console, and a few other flourishes in the paint of the body. The company had built the car specifically for Henry because he was still on the fence whether to put the Mustang into production.
The story of this car is also remarkable in how it came into Art’s hands. The company had given it to Ford II who drove it around for a while. Ford II had his own personal chauffeur who took a real liking to the car, so Ford gave it to him. The chauffeur then drove it for a while before selling it to one of his friends who worked for the company. That’s where Art comes in. He bought it from the chauffeur’s friend without the knowledge that it had been Ford II’s personal car.
In 1981, Art got a chance to meet Edsel Ford who is the son of Henry Ford II. Art had Edsel sign the glove box of the car and had the company authenticate the car as a real Mustang pre-production model, but Art didn’t know the real history of the car. Edsel did, and informed Art that this was actually his dad’s personal car.
Art has since lovingly restored the entire vehicle, stating that every single bolt and nut has been stripped and redone to perfection. The only problem? He doesn’t drive the car anymore, which is a real shame, and it seems he understands that, too. “I created a museum piece,” he said smiling. “I shouldn’t be driving it now. Any time it goes anywhere now it goes in a trailer.”
via [Oakland Press] images [Mustang 360]