・Astonishingly huge and detailed history file

・Full restoration, with $80,000 of receipts

・Drives like a dream

・Beautiful Ivy Green paint and Ivy Gold interior

The world’s best-selling sports car, the Mustang has been an integral part of the motoring landscape since its big reveal at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. Indeed, the story of the ’Stang is a pretty incredible one: still available as a new model today, it’s America’s best-selling sports car of the last fifty years, and in late 2018 the ten-millionth Mustang rolled off the production line at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan. Since officially going on sale in the UK in 2016, over 7,000 new Mustangs have found homes here as well as 40,000 across Europe, so it’s fair to say we’re starting to climb on the bandwagon, but it’s undeniable that the Mustang is part of the cultural bedrock of America. The original pony car has always been a pretty diverse offering too; right from its early days you could specify it as a saloon or a convertible, with a racy fastback arriving in the line-up to really tap into teenage drag-race dreams. The model’s fortunes have been a little up-and-down over the generations, with the Fox-body Mustangs of the 1980s and the polarising Mustang II dividing opinion, but on the whole it’s been a relentless success. Fast, practical, reliable motoring for the masses, with sporting intent and race heritage woven throughout.

The earliest cars, built between the 1964-and-a-half and 1966 model years, are the go-to choice for certain collectors seeking genesis status, and that’s what we’re looking at here: a ’65 fastback, with a 289ci V8 and desirability in spades.

The current owner has had this Mustang for around three years, and is the car’s second owner in the UK. The ’65 had spent all of its life in its native USA until 2017, when it was brought over here by a collector as an addition to his collection; with a comprehensive restoration to very high standards, it made an excellent centrepiece for his line-up. But ultimately it didn’t see a lot of use, spending a while in dry storage before the decision was made to sell.

The present keeper had actually been looking for an early fastback for over two years, searching far and wide but never finding a car that was quite up to his exacting standards. Finally, when this car came to market, it immediately presented itself as the perfect candidate: with a massive history file containing over $80,000 in receipts for restoration work (including $18k for the bare shell paint job alone), it was a car in fantastic condition, just the right spec, and came up at just the right time – he picked it up as a present for his wife’s 50th birthday.

It’s been an enjoyable car to own, but the reality is that it’s just not getting used very much (the couple have a variety of other classics to play with), and it’s far too good a car to be sitting idle. Plus there are house renovations to pay for, and apparently it’s necessary to be a grown-up sometimes. So, with a heavy heart, this outstanding Mustang is now offered to the market for a new keeper to enjoy…

Brace yourself for this one, and perhaps steal yourself with a nip of brandy. We’ve never seen a history file like this – it is, quite simply, astonishing. The huge ring-binder itemises in extraordinary detail every single dollar and cent that’s been spent on the car, organised chronologically and geographically by owner and period. Starting with the fundamentals, the V5 is here showing the car to be a pukka ’65 that was first registered in the UK on July 1st 2017. Official swatches show the colour choices inside and out (Ivy Gold trim for the seats, Ivy Green Poly for the body), and the more we delve into the file, the more elbows-deep it gets. Former owners are listed in Enid, Oklahoma and Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the level of detail here is jaw-dropping: every part that’s ever been bought for the car, and every bit of work carried out, is forensically itemised in extensive spreadsheets, listing how much they cost and where they were bought from and/or who carried out the work. So we can see, for example, that the owner in 2010 spent $130.97 on a window regulator from Stangaholics, or that the wheels cost $824.95 from NW Mustang. This level of digging can be carried out with every conceivable element of the car. And the most interesting bit of all is the sheaf of invoices from Accurate Auto Body in Hot Springs, as that’s where the extensive restoration work was carried out. Installing the air-con and fitting the exhaust system and lights came to $1,000; replacing the floor pans, shock towers and front suspension came to $1,500 – it goes on and on like this. The next owner is going to have a lot of very satisfying reading material here. It’s obvious that this hasn’t just been a money build too, there’s evidently passion in this; there are numerous hand-written letters accompanying cheques, all chronologically itemised. A truly incredible history file.

(You can see a number of photos of the documentation below – but this is just a small sample of what’s in there!)

The interior has been retrimmed in Ivy Gold, and it’s a delectable shade that works beautifully against the exterior hue. The seats are all in outstanding condition – the fronts have no undue wear or cracks, no holes or splits, and they tilt forward in that characteristic diagonal way to allow access to the rear bench. The rear looks as if it’s never been sat in, and a fun detail is that the backrest folds down flat with a concertined shelf to create additional storage space, making this Mustang ideal for weekends away!

The dash is in excellent condition, save for some minor scuffs to the paint on the passenger side beneath the pony badge; the dash was rebuilt as part of the restoration, with the addition of an air-conditioning system. There are a couple of minor issues with some of the gauges, as the speedometer currently doesn't work.

Inside the boot it’s all dry and solid, with a matching spare wheel sitting under the correct plaid cover.

The owner, who is evidently a perfectionist, suggests that if he were to keep the car for concours purposes, the interior is where the money would be spent: a new headlining to replace the current one (which is complete and not sagging, but just has a few minor marks), and paying some attention to the centre console between the seats, which is a little loose from when the air-con was fitted. And yes, if you’re talking about building a trophy-hunting concours entrant then you could do those things… but honestly, this is a superbly finished cabin overall, and any further aesthetic tweaks would possibly be nit-picking. It’s a thoroughly lovely place to be.

A picture, so they say, is worth a thousand words. And you see from the photos here that the Mustang has much to say about class, quality and correctness. The restoration to the bodywork is outstanding, with every panel arrow-straight (just look for the distortion-free reflections of the nearby foliage on the doors and wings), and the Ivy Green paintwork is clearly a very high-end job. It sparkles like a dew-soaked chandelier when the sun hits it, and the finish is glorious across the whole car. There are no scuffs, scratches, dents or dings, this is evidently a car that emerged from its painstaking rebirth to find itself being endlessly pampered.

All of the correct trim and badges are in place (aside from one small missing trim piece below the window on the driver’s door), and the chrome is excellent with no pitting or patination. The light lenses and window glass are all good, and the wheels look as-new, fitted with BF Goodrich tyres with excellent tread. Indeed, it would be an act of pedantry to attempt to pick holes in the way this Mustang is presented. It’s the American dream from top to toe.

A Mustang needs a V8, doesn’t it? And as the wing badges announce, this one’s packing a 289ci. That’s 4.7-litres to British ears, and the sight of the Cobra heads and pancake filter under the hood is something almost as evocative as the naughty rumble that emanates from the tailpipes.

This engine is in very fine fettle; despite its sporadic use over the years, the owner has been fastidious in its maintenance and everything has been kept in check – all the fluids have been renewed, everything’s been checked and addressed as necessary, and he’s keen to point out that it’s never once dropped a single drip of oil or any other fluid on his garage floor. A tight and dependable unit, this engine reportedly drives like a dream. It’s mated to the Cruise-o-Matic auto transmission, which is smooth and slick and works just as it should. The owner also reports no issues with the suspension, steering or brakes. Everything on the Mustang has been gone through, and it’s all ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

It speaks volumes that the current owner spent over two years looking for a Mustang before buying this one. There’s a few of them on the market, but this one really stands out: the fantastic quality of the restoration means that the body is truly magnificent to behold, the mechanicals are all tip-top, and the interior feels so quintessentially 1960s. But the real selling point for him was the history file: you just don’t find cars with this sort of paperwork very often, it’s an incredibly thorough documentation of absolutely everything that’s been done to the Mustang, giving absolute peace of mind.

All of this adds up to a truly compelling proposition today. If you’ve been looking for an early fastback, we’d suggest you don’t let this one pass you by – because, frankly, you won’t find another one quite like this.

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