Matching Mustangs – Project Profile

We’re going a little off-piste this week for our project profile and featuring not one, but two classic and rare Ford Mustangs available via our auctions platform for your bidding pleasure. Not only that but they are both listed with no reserve so there’s the potential for a proper bargain too. Twice the metal, double the fun, right? Well, we all know that the Ford Mustang is one of the most iconic and well-known cars to have ever been produced and the model is still going great guns today. The original Mustang began life in 1964 and was an instant hit, but what about the lesser known models? The cars that have perhaps been unfairly overshadowed by those first, genre-defining cars? Well that’s exactly what we have for you here and here.

Both of these Mustangs are of the second gen variety. Officially labelled the ‘Mustang II’, in a bold stroke of imaginative naming, they were Ford’s answer to the growing need for smaller, more economical cars built in the midst of a global oil crisis. While the previous models had become bigger, faster and more powerful during the muscle car wars of the late ’60s and early ’70s, these later cars represented a less brash, more environmentally friendly version of Ford’s free-roaming symbol of Americana.

Introduced in 1974 and produced for only four years the Mustang II was based on Ford’s ‘sub-compact’ Pinto model. This time around it was available with a more meagre 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine or a 2.8 V6 but was also offered with a 4.9-litre V8, despite the now more heavily regulated, and therefore restricted, time period. To meet said regulations a whole host of ‘extras’ had to be added to these new Mustangs which meant more weight and with already diminished power figures resulted in a rather shadowy impression of the Mustang’s former self. That’s not to say they weren’t good cars however. They were well made and featured more modern engineering thanks to Ford’s then president Lee Iococca and his drive to produce a stylish, efficient version of that original, classic Mustang that could compete with the influx of Japanese and European coupés of the time. By any other name it would be heralded as a win but due to the legacy of that already iconic galloping horse badge it was seen as an inferior attempt to further the brand. Today the Mustang II represents a handsome and uncommon American classic.

There were higher spec versions made, however. The Mach 1 and Ghia models received improved levels of trim and there were even a few right-hand drive models produced for the British market. And that’s exactly what we have here for your perusal: a pair of top-spec Ghia models in right-hand drive with V8 engines. The pick of the bunch then.

Both cars – a 1976 Ford Mustang II and 1978 Ford Mustang II – were purchased with the intention of using the earlier model as a donor car to be able to bring the ’78 back to its former glory. As it turned out though, said car was far too good to strip for parts and so both cars were kept garaged. Both examples have been enthusiast-owned with the later vehicle having had an engine and transmission rebuild in the mid-2000s by well known drag racer John Blay of Croydon. Each car has its UK V5 registration papers but it is clear that the black ’78 car has fared better than it’s maroon brother but neither car is a basket case. Far from it, in fact, and both would be great restoration projects in their own right.

Both examples appear structurally sound but rust is beginning to take hold, as you would expect, and having been stored outside both interiors will need work, although there is nothing here that would be deemed as unsalvageable or irreplaceable. Both cars last ran in 2010 so a complete mechanical overhaul in both cases would be necessary but parts availability for these small block 302 V8s is excellent.

All of the details can be found in the two listings, along with extensive photographs of both machines so get yourself a cuppa and have a good look through everything. All told, what we have here are two very tenable restoration projects that would ultimately net you a pair of good looking, classic American coupés that have become a rare sight nowadays. Grab one or bid on both, either way these two underdog Mustangs deserve to be saved and shown off, and you know we love an underdog here at Car & Classic. So do all of us classic car fans a favour and get bidding for your chance to bring back two great slices of Ford’s illustrious history.