Mustang Fastback: Automobile Therapy for Ford Lovers Everywhere
Experience of owning and driving a Mustang, Fastback or otherwise, never leaves your body or your soul, even after you’ve sold your car.
Once a Mustanger, always a Mustanger. Ask anyone who’s ever owned one, and they’re tell you as much. In this video from Petrolicious, we meet one such enthusiast. He tells us the story of how his life came full circle with a Ford Mustang.
Nathan Cali bought his first car — his first Mustang — at the age of 15. It was a 1966, and he paid just $1,500 for it. As you can imagine, it was a disaster. It broke frequently, and as a poor teenager, he’d have to scrimp and save money just to be able to keep it going. He’d often park the car for weeks at a time while he saved up the money for necessary repairs.
For him, there was always something special about Mustangs. Cali says, “I really was passionate about finding something that matched my personality, which was probably aggressively way too loud and obnoxious for most of my neighbors, and friends and family!”
Cali spent all of his time and money on his Mustang, but when he went off to college, he discovered a new love — filmmaking. Inspired by car chase films and road movies of the 1970s, he set about learning his craft with the same single-minded determination he once reserved for his beloved Mustang.
Reunited With Destiny
After spending the next decade focusing on his career, the itch was back. The search began for another classic Mustang, and he found one — a 1965 fastback in Arizona, owned by the same man for over 30 years.
Something about the bond between that car and its owner drew him to it, and a deal was struck. However, Cali’s new ride needed a lot of attention. “It was a mess — it barely drove.” He continues, “Everything needed to be fixed.”
He set about a sort of sympathetic restomod, rebuilding and replacing components as needs while still preserving the original character of the car. He rebuilt the original 289 cubic inch V8. Cali says, “We wanted to take what we had, and give it more life.”
That’s not to say that Cali didn’t subtly personalize the car to suit his tastes. He removed all of the badging from the sides of the car, giving his Fastback Mustang a clean, pure look. He upgraded the brakes with a Wilwood kit to make the car safer and more fun to drive.
Cali describes driving his Mustang as “therapeutic.” Anyone who has ever owned a Mustang will understand.
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