Ray Ikin - 2001 MUSTANG & 2003 CV8

RAY IS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE A BIG DECISION WHEN HE STROLLS INTO HIS SHED DO I TAKE THE MUSTANG OR THE MONARO?

- GUY ALLEN

Your first question whenever you chat with Ray Ikin is, “What have you bought this week?” He laughs and then settles down to reveal the latest addition to his enviably large shed.

Ray runs a modest muscle-car museum in Traralgon, Victoria, and has long been a serial buyer of all sorts of interesting gear, in addition to being one of the country’s most prolific restorers of Valiant Chargers.

A couple of years back he got a bee in his bonnet about V8 coupes from the early 2000s and added a 2001 Tickforddeveloped Ford Mustang Cobra to his fleet. Move on six months and he’s added a 2003 Holden Monaro CV8. Given the Holden was launched about the same time as the Tickford car, the pair makes for an interesting snapshot of what the local coupe buyer might expect all those years ago.

Really, to get the Ford, you would have had to be a dedicated blue oval fan. A coupe would set you back $85,000, while you could add $4990 for the convertible. That compared to $58,750 for the Monaro in the spec you see here. The Mustang was also about $10,000 dearer than the ultimate Monaro variant of the day, the HSV GTO.