​Pantera Pony

With a 1966 fastback in one hand and a legit 351 Cleveland from a Pantera in the other, Glen Martyn’s dream Mustang was 23 years in the making.

- Miles Cook

No need to mince words here. Glen Martyn’s 1966 fastback is a truly unique custom build that we immediately knew was feature material the minute we saw it on display during the season-opening 2016 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.

Martyn had brought the car to the race from his nearby home in LaVerne, California. We subsequently shot the undercarriage photos in an airport hanger that he rents at Brackett Field Airport, which is also right across the street from the legendary Pomona dragstrip. There, we also got a chance to chat with him about how the car came to be.

“I have owned the car for 23 years, Martyn says. “Back then, I worked with a guy whose wife’s father bought the car new, and eventually, gave it to his daughter. She had lost interest in it because the transmission had died, and it wasn’t economical to drive. I bugged them continually until they finally sold the car to me.”

“Two decades later, after my sons graduated from college, it was agreed among my family that it was my turn (hence the license plate MYTRN66) to start work on the Mustang. I bought the 351C from a guy who was going to put it in a 1971 Ranchero, but he ran out of money and sold it to me instead. It really is an original Cleveland from a 1972 Pantera. I attended the SEMA Show in 2012 and met Lanny Trefz of LTR Racing Engines. Trefz said if we didn’t have a builder he would like to build the engine. He wanted to find out how much power a vintage Cleveland could make with today’s technology.”