Idaho Red!

This early 1965 Ford Mustang still looks to be wearing most of its original paint and proves the point: it’s only original once!

- Keith Harman

We make no apologies for featuring plenty of cool Ford Mustangsin Classic American. After all, they remain one of the most iconic-American cars ever made and probably the most common classic American car on our roads. Some are restored, some mildly modified to the owners’ tastes and, yes, some are historic racers, plus there are all-out custom and hot-rodded examples too. It’s not often though we come across one as original and unmolested as Chris Haynes’ 1964½ hardtop that you see here. It’s not just a nice early example of a hardtop either, it’s a factory V8 and four-speed with the optional Rally-Pac too, adding much to its appeal.

Not only that, it might just be one of the earliest production Mustangs in the UK. The original handbook is present with the car, and shows its date of sale to the lucky new owner was May 1964, almost one month to the day from the Mustang official launch in April at the New York World’s Fair that year. Having said that, there is a rare (one of 200) ‘pre-production’ 05C date code Mustang somewhere in the UK, probably already known by UK enthusiasts and maybe Classic American readers. However, the VIN code on the ‘Haynes’ Mustang is a 5F prefix, meaning it was assembled in Dearborn, whereas the pre-production and ‘pilot’ Mustangs were all assembled at Ford’s Allen Park facility.