A little less than a month ago, we stopped in at a local So-Cal Mustang show put on by the Mustang Owners Club of California. Held in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, it caught the attention of another nearby group of Mustang lovers that go by the name of the Valley Mustang Club.
So when the VMC asked if we would come check out their show to be held at a new location in Simi Valley about 20 miles from where the MOCC event took place in Woodland Hills, we decided to check it out.
Of course, we were not disappointed with the VMC’s 14th Annual Mustang and Ford car show that took place on June 5th, 2016. And the new location at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch was certainly a spectacular place to check out close to 100 Mustangs and other Ford cars.
As is usually the case with well-established Mustang clubs, members always do a very nice job of bringing out an excellent cross section of cars to represent both the late-model cars that are the mainstay of StangTV.com as well as the vintage side of the hobby where the ’65-’70s are the most popular era to own, restore, collect and drive.
While the ’65-’70s have amazing staying power in vintage Mustang circles and are probably the most popular collectible cars in the world, it’s the late-models that have the performance and sophistication brought about by 21st-Century progress. And the focus these days are mainly those S197 and S550 cars powered by the Coyote 5.0-liter V-8 that are leading the revolution.
While the vintage cars and the late-model S197/S550 Coyote 5.0s are at the sharp point of the popularity spectrum on both ends, it’s the Fox-body pushrod 5.0s that are also generating more interest from a collectible standpoint.
And one of a number of good things about the VMC event we attended? There was something cool to check out from all three factions on this continuum. Let’s take a look.
According to the S197 Cal Special Registry, this ’13 GT Coyote 5.0 example is car number 156 of 2135 coupes produced that year. It’s also number 24 of 291 built in Race Red for 2013.
If ’13-’14 GT500s are the top-dog among S197s, then it would be fair call ’03-’04 Terminator Cobras tops among SN-95s. This ’03 has a bunch of cool stuff on it, including it being switched from its stock Eaton supercharger to among other things, a Paxton Novi 2200 centrifugal blower with an intercooloer and 60 lb./hr. fuel injectors. The conversion also uses an ’03 Mach 1 upper and lower intake.
Bob Harris has surely built his ’67 coupe to show-quality status. Its 289 has an Edelbrock intake and aluminum heads, while the C4 trans has a Gear Vendors overdrive on the back which means good highway cruising with its 3.40:1-geared 8-inch rearend. We also like the classy good looks of the car’s 16-inch Billet Specialty wheels and 205/50R16 (front) and 245/50R16 (rear) BFGoodrich tires.
In a rare pairing, both of these ’69 Mach 1s are S-code 390s with a four-speed. More common among ’69 Mustangs are H- and M- code 351Ws, and Q- and R- code 428 Cobra-Jet engines, while the 390 was in the process of being phased out. It was replaced with the 351 Cleveland in 1970. The Acapulco Blue car on the right is owned by Ric Goudsward and it’s an original paint-and-interior example with only 54,000 miles on the odometer. The car on the left is finished in an equally desirable 1969 color known as Gulfstream Aqua.