The Ford 1966 Mustang

The 1966 Mustang

It’s good to remind ourselves at this time in history the Vietnam war was raging, Russia and the United States of America were competing to land on the moon (did it happen? I think so, regardless of the conspiracy theories out there).

England was winning their first ever and only World Cup (so far), the Beetles and the Rolling Stones were head to head with the Beach Boys, British designer clothes were the height of fashion, the mini skirt was in full swing! Batman and Star Trek had made their first Television debuts.

Meanwhile the Ford Motor Company sold over 600,000 American classic cars in this year, doubling the sales of its nearest rival the Chevy Impala.

Demand for the all American classic cars was in full swing, with Ford having sold over one million Mustangs between its release in 1964 through to the end of 1966. This was the biggest year yet for the beloved Ford Mustang!

Changes for the 1966 Ford Mustang

The product was such a hit that Ford, rightly so, didn’t want to change it too much and upset the apple cart, so a few little obvious changes took place. Which give the growing, adoring consumers an opportunity to differentiate between a 1966 Ford Mustang from the original 1964 / ’65 muscle car model. The changes were;

• Front Grille, a new grille arrived. The ’65 Mustang had a honeycomb grille with a chrome crossbar sometimes called (wings), this was changed to vertical bar grille and the chrome crossbars were deleted. It retained the Mustang emblem on the front grille, which was surrounded by a chrome corral as it had on the ’65, the ’66 just looks like its floating without any visible attachments.
• The instrument panel was changed, out went the ’65 panels which had been used by the Ford Falcon. The ’65 speedometer was horizontal and the new ’66 was circular.
• Side scoops just before the rear wheels. The ’65 had a single ornamental scoop which is deep enough you can slide your hand into, the ’66 were fitted with three side scoop trim features in chrome effect and the scoop lays flat so you can not slide your hand in.
• The petrol Cap, ’65 had three distinct notches in the gripping area for ease of use. The ’66 was more circular in design with subtle edges for gripping.

It must be made clear that there are always exceptions to the rule, for example, the GT has a similar grille to the 1965 model. Various spec options were available, wood steering wheels, exhaust system, exhaust pipes, dual exhaust, automatic transmission, disc brakes, horn button, pony interior, front seats, wood grain, bucket seats and all high quality of course.

I loved the interior design of the Ford Mustang GT with the V8 engine roar from the rear. These days, a restored classic will bring everything up to modern day driving standards, catalytic converters and adjustments to the exhaust manifold mean a modern classic runs and drives perfectly.

Here, I’m specifically focusing on the overview of the ’66 model differences. If you are still not sure which model you have or you are purchasing one, please check the door data tag (warranty plate) and the VIN number. Please also remember that there were over 70 different options on the 1966 model year and Ford dealerships also had their own option packs. The ones that stood out to me were the red Mustang, convertible blue and my favourite the 1966 Mustang black.

Impressive production figures for the 1966 Ford Mustang

Production Total 607,568.

1966 Mustang Price

• 1966 Mustang Hardtop $2,522
• 1966 Mustang 2+2 Fastback $2,713
• 1966 Mustang Convertible $2,759

If you could buy one of these all American classic cars today, allowing for inflation, the equivalent price would be $19,618 for the Hardtop, $21,104 for the Fastback and $21,462 for the Convertible.

Exporting the Ford Mustang

Ford Australia picked up the pace by importing 161 cars in 1966, which was a considerable jump from the previously imported 48 cars. All cars had to be converted to right-hand drive before being allowed on the road. These can still be found, and some have come to the UK shores, as the demand to buy classic American cars imports UK had increased.

Over recent years we have supplied many of these in stock, so do check our Mustangs for sale which includes a 350 GT in Wimbledon White with blue stripes, a great replica of the famous 350 GT. Germany started to import Mustangs but they were not allowed to use the Mustang name, as Mustang had already been trademark registered by a German truck company. So, the Mustang was renamed the Ford T5.

Actual import figures are difficult to calculate before 1967 but not including US Military in 1965 it is believed that approximately 500 T5’s were imported and in 1966 the number is believed to be 624, although this number could easily be double that figure. As in 1967, 758 T5’s were sold to the U.S. Military that was stationed in Germany.

The Ford and Shelby clever marketing plan “Rent-a-Racer”

The General Manager of Shelby American, Peyton Cramer came up with a superb idea!

“The idea was to put a high performance, special edition, Shelby Mustang coupe into the hands of racing enthusiasts-minded rental customers”

In September 1965 he approached Hertz car rental, to offer them to purchase the 1966 GT350 H Mustang as a rental car. At the time Shelby was making the GT350 and the racing special 350GTR. Hertz thought this sounded great and over the period 1001 limited special 1966 Ford Mustang coupe cars were produced.

They all came with the 289 K code Hi-Po engine with 306 bhp. Most of the cars were Raven Black with Gold “Le Mans” stripping and side stripes. You can check out a magnificent example of this model in your classic cars for sale inventory.

Other colours included;

• 50 in Candy Apple Red
• 50 in Wimbledon White
• 50 in Sapphire Blue
• 50 in Ivory Green

After the first 85 cars had been delivered it was decided by Ford and Shelby that the rest would be Automatic, as Hertz had been very pleased with the rental figures, but the majority of the four-speed gearboxes were coming back with the clutches burnt out!

I wonder why? I suppose at $17 a day and 17 cents a mile, everyone was enjoying themselves, to say the least.

Due to the rarity of these cars, especially the Ford Mustang Coupe 1966,  a good example now would set you back northwards of £150,000 or around $180,000 in the USA.

1966 Mustang and the GT350 H in the movies

In the film “Grand Prix” James Garner the movie star plays the part of F1 driver Pete Aron. When Garner is filming away from the track, he is using a GT350H, another great product placement opportunity for Ford and Shelby American. In the film “Misery” 1990 James Cann drove a 1966 Hardtop until he rolled it on a snowy mountain pass, which didn’t end well for either of them.

Ford Mustang 1966 Limited Edition High Country Special

Ford had found that there was a Mustang slowdown in sales from the “Rockies”. So the High Country special was produced. HCS cars were distributed through 100 Denver ford dealerships and came in three limited colours; Aspen Gold, Columbine Blue and Timberline Green.

The cars had the pony seat interior the rally pack, centre console and an exterior special brass badge of a Mustang galloping across the mountains.

This badge was usually placed on the front wing above the Mustang badge. This did help sales as in 1966 total sales orders came to 333, which increased to 416 in 1967.