Puerto Rican pony con Señor Frijole!

PUERTO RICAN PONY CON SEÑOR FRIJOLE!

I was walking into Red Hook from the area around the Hugh Carey Tunnel (that's the Brooklyn Battery to you ol' timers) when I saw the most Puerto Ricanist car ever!

¡Mano! This is a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach-1 in flat black with the Puerto Rican flag straight-up painted onto the hood.

The Mach-1 gave you a spoiler, this double scoop hood, a wing, and some graphics. Who's that behind the wheel?

BWAHH HA HA HA yes! Mr. Bean's face was hanging down from the visor in a supreme move of goofy humor.

I've featured all kinds of Mustangs lately because it seems that they're head to head with old Cadillacs in sheer numbers on the Brooklyn streets. I won't bother with too much in the way of actual information on this ride.

Around the time of the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC you see cars draped with flags. There are always a few folks who take an entire flag and wrap their hood but I've never seen it painted on until now.

Back in 2014 I featured a '71 Mach-1 in the factory color Anti Establish Mint (a type of mint green). *This year/make/model was also the star of 2 very different car chases. The first was piloted by James Bond in Diamonds are Forever. Bumbling yokel cops frantically try to catch up on the old Las Vegas strip circa 1971.
The other is one of the longest (if not the longest) car chase ever! The LOW budget original Gone in 60 Seconds finishes up with a 45 minute extravaganza through the whole of Southern California. Over 200 cars are wrecked in the process. When I was 12 years old I bowed down before 2 gods: this terrible movie and the Road Warrior.

What do you get when you mix a deadly viper with a fox? COBRA!

HISSSSSSSSS! DEADLY COBRA STRIKES!

Yesterday I featured a faded raspberry Mustang GT from the early '80s. Providence Pete snapped these pics recently and sent them along to me. This is the exact model that yesterdays GT replaced!

This is a 1979 Ford Mustang Cobra in White with a fantastically awesome decal on the hood. We know it's a '79 due to this egg crate grill that lasted for only 1 year.

Turbo?!? Yes indeed Ford got into the turbocharging game along with GM at the end of the Malaise Era. In this case it's a 2.3 liter 4 cylinder. The overall horsepower was a low 117 with only 135 lbs of torque. This was not a sprightly car by any stretch, reaching a top speed of only 112mph! However the 5.0 liter 302 V8 available for this year was detuned and lethargic, sipping too much gas through its carb while delivering a pitiful 140 horsepower. Top speed on the V8 was just 120mph (116 with the auto trans). The one thing the Turbo Cobra delivered was better gas mileage.  

These Fox Body Mustangs are looking better by the year though. The crisp, angular styling is pre-'80s appropriate without being too severe. I dig the original rims on this ride too. Every '79 Cobra had the bottom half of the body and bumpers blacked out like this.

The Cobra option package added a cool $1,200 to the base price of the Mustang; no small cost in 1979. That decal on the hood didn't even come with it but was an additional $78. How could you not order it if you were already ordering the Cobra package?

Inside we see the floor mounted 4 speed manual transmission. It looks like this not only has an 8 track player installed, but there's a tape hanging out of it too! The steering wheel is sporty enough but that center cap is not where the horn is located. Like the Fairmont the horn is activated by pressing the turn signal stalk in towards the column. Frustrating in an actual emergency to be slamming on the steering wheel in silent fury!

Who knows why this car is so immaculate? It's not the sort of classic that will give you a big return on your investment if you restore it. There might be a clue in this pic though; even though the original purchaser opted for a rear window wiper there doesn't seem to be a rear defroster on the glass. My guess is that this car comes from somewhere warm and dry like SoCal.

Another 1 year only Cobra detail are the lower headrests on the front seats. Starting in '80 they were much higher, basically framing the shape of your head as opposed to bracing your neck.

These faux louvers behind the rear window were black on all non-Cobra Mustangs.

This interior view shows the TURBOCHARGED emblem on the dash.

I've seen some '79 Cobras that had the COBRA decal on the rear of the door too. I don't know if that's a personal choice after a repaint or if there was variation at the factory.

Well that's that for the coolest/goofiest looking Mustang of all time! The smaller Mustang II had Cobra and King Cobra editions that sported even bigger graphics and lettering but I think this psychedelic image takes the cake. In researching this ride I've seen lots of complaints on the fragility of the engine inner workings and turbo system itself. Since the payout is meager horsepower and merely acceptable gas mileage I don't know what the point would be of restoring one of these unless you were a serious Mustang collector. Still if one came along running well for cheap I would happily grab some orange reflective Oakleys off eBay and crank the Toni Basil while cruising to the arcade!

*Here's a bonus clip of 72 year old Toni Basil rocking some dance moves that are genuinely astonishing. Go Toni! You're almost forgiven for writing a catchy bubble gum hit with a name that sounds exactly like mine (all Rickys my age will agree).

I ran across a Faded Player recently . . .

FADED PLAYER

I was walking through the Northern end of Bay Ridge the other day when this well chewed blob of bubble gum made its presence known:

Okay, alright, there was once something to work with here.

This is a 1982 Ford Mustang GT in what might be a very faded Medium Red. The GT had special colors and the Medium Red leaned in this raspberry bubble gum direction but this also might be a flashy custom color from the go-go '80s.

This hood scoop does nothing at all. If the sun weren't so bright you'd see that it's blocked off with a body-colored panel. That Mustang emblem in front of it was a foggy as it looks in this pic.

The GT took over where the Mustang Cobra left off the year before. From '79-'81 the most powerful Mustang engine available was a turbocharged 4 cylinder! The V8 from '80-'81 was a smaller 4.2 liter 255 which got better gas milage than the classic 302 V8 of the previous decade. Our feature car today  brought the return of the famous 5.0 302 V8.

The GT has a great look with a special front spoiler and air dam, that mini faux scoop, and a wing on the rear. This was a cusp model bridging the gap between the first Fox Body Mustangs in '79 and the redesigned next step for the Fox in 1983. After the '83 redesign (more of a minor tinkering than a complete overhaul) this basic design carried all the way through the decade and into the early '90s.

Definitely trust the milage quoted by the seller of every classic car, especially when the dashboard has been completely torn to shreds! This dash has been WORKED; look at the hole smashed into the top in the middle. The dash pad, face, and vents have all been torn out. I can see that this is a stick shift though which makes this one fun car to drive.

Here's the 3/4 view of this hatchback pony. The dimensions are tidy for a rear wheel drive V8 sports car. Beginning in 1983 a convertible would be available for the first time in 9 years. Those are Mustang rims from a slightly newer car.

A single out of state plate is holding this thing down while the cops and tow trucks pass it by. Does this really look like a Vermont car? Can you imagine driving this thing in any amount of snow? Might as well sit on a diner stool and swivel in a circle.

D & D Autoworks had their hand in this beasts creation many moons ago as you can see from the faded lettering next to the trunk lock.

As munchy and weathered as this thing is it is standing up at the proper height with all its lighting and glass intact. Besides scuffs and scrapes there are no major dents to be found, and just a few rust spots are staring to creep.

Well that's where I'll back away from this '80s tough guy vision.

The 5.0 Mustangs of the decade were crazy popular and filled the streets when I was in high school. They remain affordable and are very easy to work on with parts availability second to none. If you want an easy classic to take to shows or just roll around in for summer you could do a lot worse.

Show Car Sunday returns with a flawless Ford

LOVE LETTER TO FORD AND GREENWICH VILLAGE

Contributor Max came through recently with a picture-perfect advertisement for both the Ford Mustang and New York City itself. I mean really, can you get any more iconic than a first generation Mustang and the Village Cigars sign with a festooned subway entrance?

This is a 1966 Ford Mustang GT Sportsroof in Silver Frost Poly. Of all the early Mustangs I love the fastback/Sportsroof design best (excluding convertibles because they transcend all vehicles in my eyes). This one seems 100% correct and perfectly restored. By the way if your car is this nice you can walk away with the windows left open and somehow the gods will protect it! 

Up front we've got the awesome fog light grill and period correct plates.

That little emblem lets us know that a 289 V8 resides under the hood. There were both regular and high performance versions available. The original GT wheels are perfect and the double Red Line tires as correct as everything else on this show stopper.

The interior has cupholders but other than that looks to be as it was when it left the factory in '66. It has an automatic transmission and radio as well as air conditioning. I'm assuming from the overall presentation that there are other options too.
*Adding seat belts and cupholders to cars that never had them are the 2 customizations I'll always approve of in otherwise correctly restored show cars. Cupholders are more convenient than you realize until you're without one, and the seat belts my buddy Dave Link added to my old VW Beetle before I owned it probably saved my life!

As with the rest of the car the rear is flawless.
It is very difficult to discern between a 1965 and 1966 Mustang GT. Reverse lights were optional in '65 and standard in '66 so no help there. The gas cap and paint color are really the only reliable clues. The GT cap seen here wasn't available on the '65, nor was this shade of Silver. With a non-GT Mustang there are ways to check with the grill and dashboard but they are mostly identical.
I'll close this out with the least exciting car chase I've seen in a long time. Robert Ulrich drove a '65/'66 Sportsroof in the '80s TV show Spenser for Hire. Here he is taking on the bad guys at speeds of up to 30mph in foggy slush. Bonus points for a square headlight Grenada hitting a Tempo on its way to spontaneously flipping over. Hey, they can't all be Jim Rockford!

Ford Mustang BLECH edition

SLIPPERY, BEAT DOWN FOX IN PONY CLOTHING

I was a few blocks up from my apartment recently when a nauseous feeling came over me in waves. Reeling a bit and clutching my gut I knew what it was: a 4th gen Mustang!

This is a 1994-1998 Ford Mustang convertible in Medium Seafoam Poly. It has achieved full Hooptie status with an array of beater calling cards. 

This thing looks like an old prizefighter trying to smile through the pain.
The Fox body Mustang that preceded this era had a monumentally successful run of 15 years so a revamp was way overdue. Ford supposedly spent a cool $700,000,000 on updating every aspect of the car. Reigning in noise and vibration were top concerns but really the update was comprehensive.

Oh yeah this is where we get into the serious NYC action! In one glimpse we have the following: scrapes, dents, a Bond repair, a missing light (with another held in place with tape), different color fender, and front wheels so riddled with brake dust that they may as well have been steeping in a bucket of tea.

You know what though? The top goes down when the weather is nice so all is forgiven. I've purchased and flaunted some truly forlorn buckets simply because they were convertibles.

Believe it or not this is actually an updated version of the Fox body and is listed as FOX-4 in Ford company literature. As a vehicle platform the Fox body was one of the most successful in modern history with 26 total years of use (if you allow for adjustments over the years).
I recently rewatched E.T. for the first time since seeing it new in the theaters. Imagine my surprise when every government agent in the movie is driving a Ford Fairmont! Original Fox Body action!

Looks like this ride lost its trunk lid mounted wing at some point. Offering zero in performance the wing was cartoonishly curvy and plump. 

From this angle it looks like any rounded '90s car. The Chrysler Sebring wasn't much different. The rounded body reduced drag in a big way when compared to previous models.

Well that's where I'll leave my least favorite Mustang of all time. As I said before I will forgive just about any convertible on its top down merits so this will be filed under acceptable transportation. However a hardtop V6 version of this would interest me about as much as a Taurus. Still, I'm duty bound to give it up for anyone repairing their car with tape. Hat's off FOX-4!

Motor Trend Car of the Year for 1974

MOTOR TREND CAR OF THE YEAR FOR 1974

Some cars live strange lives. When we were getting ready to open our shop in Gowanus 5 years ago this was parked with a for sale sign in the window at a local gas station. I even had a friend who was considering buying it for $5,000 years ago (I told him it hadn't moved from the lot in years). The gas station where it lived is now gone and so here we find this little ride, 10 blocks to the north:

This is a 1974 Ford Mustang II in Bright Red. *This is a rare case of perfect timing with an all new design. Somehow the folks at Ford knew to start planning on a tiny version of their Mustang even as the trend was still bigger is better.

*All the more astonishing from the folks who brought you the Edsel!

From what I can tell these turn signals are the one clue that this is a 1974. That horizontal bar in the middle of the lens was a first year only detail for the II.

The sky was falling in 1974 for the domestic automobile market. From October '73 through March of '74 the gas crisis caught the public by surprise. In a land where plentiful cheap gas was taken for granted the cars were enormous and thirsty. In a cruel bit of timing this same year ushered in new efficiency and safety regulations that had automakers scrambling to make their dinosaurs compliant. Here comes the Mustang II in drastically scaled down fashion with a design that accommodated the larger bumpers nicely. It was an instant hit.

There isn't a single bolt on this car that was carried over from the previous generation. In fact the Mustang II shared a platform with the compact Pinto.

The wheels on this ride are from an '80s Mustang 5.0 a la Vanilla Ice. They look a bit oversized for my taste but whatever. Styling cues harken back to the original 1964.5 Mustang such as that simulated scoop on the door. This thing is very tidy overall.

They also produced a fastback/hatchback version of this car which looks plenty cool, but I like this notchback model. My babysitter had one of these when I was a wee sprite in the '70s. I can still clearly remember sitting in the backseat admiring the steering wheel with its circular openings on the spokes.

After all this time these have aged really well. The big taillight clusters look cool with their angled edges conforming to the body shape. Even the huge mid-'70s bumpers look justified with their red cladding.

Who needs plates? Park a car in Brooklyn with nothing on it and the cops will roll right on by for weeks or months (this has already been where I took these pics for at least a month).

As much as this looks like a hardtop there is a thin B pillar between the door and rear quarter glass. In addition the rear quarter is fixed in place and doesn't have a roll down mechanism. There was never a convertible either making this the only generation Mustang to lack one.

In this first year of production there was no V8 available giving it the dubious honor of being the only year Mustang without an 8 cylinder option in its entire 53 year (and counting) run. The base engine was a 140 Inline 4 cylinder. The sole upgrade was the German built Cologne V6.

I love white interiors and this one with the red dash and carpet is fantastic! This ride seems decently appointed as it has an am/fm Stereo (possibly with an 8 Track but I can't be sure from this view). Being an automatic means this ride is S L O W. Those 3 round gauges are all the basics with Fuel being on the left, ALT in the center, and the temp on the right. That little white nub on the door panel is the remote side mirror adjustment. If there was a/c there would be large vents hanging under the dash. This has the basic wheel but the sporty GT wheel was what I remember.

Where there we have it; the perfect mini placeholder for a marque while the 1970s sorted itself out. Lee Iacocca was responsible for the II and insisted that the overall fit and finish were of the highest order. He specified that the Mustang II ought to be "a little jewel" and as a result they're very stout little rides. 4 of the 5 years the II was produced are in the top 10 of all time for Mustang sales. There were stylish Ghia and sporty King Cobra editions too. If you like the looks of this beast just go get one as there are a ton of them out there!