Sought After Lee Iacocca 45th Anniversary Mustang Headed to Auction
The man who is responsible for convincing the man in charge to take a chance on a sporty coupe way back in the sixties finally got some recognition for his debating skills. Check out this limited Mustang that is coming up to auction soon.
Paying homage
The Ford Mustang has a long history of offering special models of the pony car for blue oval enthusiasts who would desire something a little less vanilla as the normal production cars. These special models include monikers like King of the Road, Shelby Cobra, Bullitt, and the rarest of them all, one named after the man who is the father of the Mustang.
For those of you who don't know who Lee Iacocca is, he's the former Ford executive who helped to push the Mustang into production among other automotive endeavors. To celebrate this automotive icon, Ford got together with Galpin Motors and built a special car to honor him in 2009 along with the 45th anniversary of the Mustang. It was named the Iacocca Silver Edition Mustang.
Barely driven
Under the hood is an optional supercharged 4.6-liter V8 with 400 horsepower on tap upgraded from the 320 that was standard at the time. This one that will roll across the auction block at Barrett Jackson is the 20th example and comes with a five-speed manual transmission. As is normal practice with an auction of this high-price nature, lots of documentation will also be on hand to prove its authenticity. What makes this Mustang even more special is that there are only 500 miles on the odometer with the VIN 1ZVHT82H395123560.
That's quite the car
Just 45 of these special edition 2009 Mustang GTs were made, making it one of the rarer special editions of the model. Designed by Michael Leon, who is mostly known for creating the Eleanor Mustang for the film Gone in 60 Seconds, each one of these special Mustangs bearing Iacocca's name was painted in bright silver. The car was handcrafted by Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters, and features an exterior with sunken headlights, and blanked out rear quarter windows.
The rest was history
The cars also featured 20-inch alloy wheels, diamond stitched leather seats and special badging on the dashboard and under the hood.
Iacocca revealed in an interview some years ago that he had to make many trips down the hall to the office of longtime Ford Chairman and CEO Henry Ford II before finally getting approval for the Mustang. This was back in a time when the company was still coming off the debacle that was the Edsel, so risk-taking was not on the menu. Ford warned Iacocca that the Mustang had better be a success... or else!
In rare company
When the car was new and sold exclusively by the Southern California dealership Galpin, it had a sticker price of $89,950. However, the last time that this car traded hands during the 2013 Scottsdale auction it ended up going for $352,000 with all proceeds benefiting charity.
If you're curious enough about what this Mustang could go for this time or maybe even want to bid on it yourself just click here. The auction goes down in Palm Beach at the South Florida Fairgrounds from April 12-15th.
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