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Unusual Car- California Special Mustang


TerryB

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My son now living in CA sent me these photos of a 1968 California Special Mustang he spotted at a cars and coffee over the weekend.  Apparently they are somewhat rare with less than 5000 built.  The paint on this one might be original.

 

 

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Edited by TerryB (see edit history)
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I didn't know they only made 5,000 of them as I used to see them all around So Cal back in the 70's and 80's.

Always liked the cougar, sequential taillights.

 

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22 minutes ago, zepher said:

I didn't know they only made 5,000 of them as I used to see them all around So Cal back in the 70's and 80's.

Always liked the cougar, sequential taillights.

 

 

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. They were everywhere in L.A. in the 1980s. Turns out actual CS production was only 4,325 for the 1968 model year. There were a boatload of dealer regional specials. The High County Special, the Ski Country Special, the Dixie Special, the Cardinal Special, the Mustang Twister, etc, etc.

 

http://www.mustangandfords.com/news/mump-1210-special-edition-ford-mustangs

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317,404 was the production for 1968 Ford Mustangs................and I owned several of them, and drove one to college back in the 80’s. I drag raced my last one..........had a ton of fun. I would never use the word “rare” to describe one.........unusual is appropriate. In New England I never saw an “special regional nameplate” on a car. Is there a list of the “special plate” names and locations?

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I saw several years ago that documentation on these regional models is very difficult if not impossible to find.  Restoration of one of these for show would be a challenge with the apparent lack of documentation.  I believe the modifications were approved by the local regional office of Ford and those records are limited.  I hope someone has a positive side to add to this.

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When I was a kid the California Specials were high on the cool factor. Not quite a Shelby but a definite step up from a regular 68 notchback.  There were several in my general area.  As I got older and learned more about them I became less impressed by the fact that they are for the most part just base model V8 cars . The California Special option is just a 

styling option that could be ordered with any power train but more often than not pretty ordinary engines. Even 390 cars are quite low production, 

 Still they are nice cars. I would not mind owning one except todays price strikes me as not being very good value for money. A 1965 , 6 , 7, GT Coupe ,  A code 289, 4 speed,  would probably be my " good value for money " pick.

 

Greg in Canada

Edited by 1912Staver (see edit history)
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I don’t recall seeing anything like this in PA.  Lots of regular Mustangs, in fact my uncle had a 1968 that died from excessive rust. I like the style even if it’s nothing special in the power plant department.  Living in the northeast, rust free Mustangs are a rare sight.

Edited by TerryB (see edit history)
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