{"id":48238,"date":"2016-01-17T16:10:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T16:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owegopennysaver.com\/?p=48238"},"modified":"2016-01-17T16:10:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T16:10:12","slug":"collector-car-corner-the-1966-mustang-that-didnt-get-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2016\/01\/17\/collector-car-corner-the-1966-mustang-that-didnt-get-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Collector Car Corner – The 1966 Mustang that didn\u2019t get away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Collector<\/a>

This 1966 Ford Mustang, finished in Arcadian blue, was purchased brand new by Bruce Butler in Minnesota while he was serving in the Army National Guard. In his first 24 hours of owning the Mustang, he drove through five states. To this day he still owns the all-original, 289-V8 powered beauty. (Bruce Butler photos).<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Collector<\/a> Q:\u00a0 During the spring of 1964 I was an Army National Guard enlistee doing my active duty at Ft. Ord, Calif.\u00a0In April of 1964,\u00a0Ford introduced the Mustang and one of my buddies and I were on a three-day pass and drove to Los Angeles in my old 1953 VW to see it.\u00a0We went to a Ford dealer\u00a0in San Fernando and while my friend John checked out the Mustangs I was more interested in the 1930 Ford Model A coupe they had on display as I don\u2019t recall being particularly impressed by the Mustangs.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward a year and a half.\u00a0I am living in Chicago on my first \u201creal\u201d job after graduating from college.\u00a0I had a girlfriend who had a 1965 Mustang coupe and she let me drive it when we went out on dates.\u00a0I was getting tired of the old VW and was thinking along the lines of how it would be neat to have a really nice car for once in my life.\u00a0I was catching Mustang fever!\u00a0About this time I was transferred to Des Moines, Iowa and also Mason City, Iowa for a National Guard training period.<\/p>\n

One weekend I took the train to St. Louis where I rented a 1966 Mustang coupe, sort of to solidify the decision that I had generally already made.\u00a0\"Collector<\/a>My father, always a loyal Chrysler buyer, thought I should look at the Plymouth Barracuda. Earlier I had taken a long road trip in a 1965 Barracuda to National Guard summer camp at Ft. Lewis, Washington in 1965 and I had not been overly impressed with that car. So this is one item of fatherly advice that I am glad I chose to ignore.<\/p>\n

The next weekend I took the train to Minneapolis where I walked into Market Ford Sales and announced to the first Salesman I encountered that I \u201cwanted to buy a Mustang.\u201d\u00a0I was a month short of my 26th birthday and this was going to be my birthday present to myself.\u00a0The young Salesman replied that \u201cI had come to the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The car cost me $2,487.15 including tax and license.\u00a0I took delivery on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend \u2013 May 27, 1966. As I was going to Chicago for the weekend I decided to see how many states I could drive in within the first 24 hours. I went south from Minneapolis, Minnesota (1) to Mason City, Iowa (2), then east on US 20 to Dubuque where I made a short side trip through the southwest corner of Wisconsin (3) before returning to Illinois (4). The next morning I drove to Indiana (5) to make a total of FIVE STATES in the first 24 hours!<\/p>\n

I remember thinking, when the 1967 Mustangs came out, how happy I was that I had purchased a 1966.\u00a0I have always thought that the 1966 Mustang was the best looking model year of the early Mustangs.<\/p>\n

\"Collector<\/a>Always garaged, never abused, but not babied either; this car was my primary transportation until 1987, logging 142,000 miles.\u00a0Today, almost 50 years later, I still have this car!\u00a0This is one that didn\u2019t get away!\u00a0Driven very little since 1987, it is garaged and under a car cover.\u00a0It is all original, except for a couple of minor fender benders which were carefully repaired.\u00a0The interior is like new.\u00a0I have all the original papers and the original Minnesota license plates.<\/p>\n

I read your \u201cCollector Car Corner\u201d column every week.\u00a0Yours truly, Bruce Butler, Spokane Valley, Washington.<\/p>\n

A: Thank you Bruce for a most enjoyable letter, proving that there are indeed car owners out there who seized the opportunity to own a classic well before they actually became classics or knew what was coming in the future. You will be rewarded someday when you finally decide to sell your beautiful, all original 1966 Mustang 289-V8. Thank you much for your pictures, which show how well you have taken care of your Mustang.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re soliciting stories from readers for those cars that got away, we\u2019ll also welcome similar stories from owners who have kept their dream machines and share them with our readers intermittently throughout the New Year.<\/p>\n

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader input on old cars, auto nostalgia or old time motorsports at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, Pa. 18840 or email at extramile_2000@yahoo.com).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q:\u00a0 During the spring of 1964 I was an Army National Guard enlistee doing my active duty at Ft. Ord, Calif.\u00a0In April of 1964,\u00a0Ford introduced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nCollector Car Corner - The 1966 Mustang that didn\u2019t get away - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2016\/01\/17\/collector-car-corner-the-1966-mustang-that-didnt-get-away\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Collector Car Corner - The 1966 Mustang that didn\u2019t get away - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q:\u00a0 During the spring of 1964 I was an Army National Guard enlistee doing my active duty at Ft. 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