Back in the 1960s the Ford Mustang was a huge success and so Ford tried experimenting with a two seater version. It didn’t get the go ahead and only one Ford Mustang two seater concept car survived.
According to Designer Bill Snyder, Ford itself built this experimental two seater Mustang from a pre-production chassis shortened 16 inches and stuffed with a 260-cu.in. V8 engine bored and stroked to 302 cubic inches.
Bill came up with the fastback profile to fit the shortened wheelbase, which Dearborn Steel Tubing – the same company responsible for the Ford Thunderbolt – rendered in fiberglass with a prominent fuel filler above its small ducktail spoiler.
Snyder said the Mustang then traveled the country with Ford, which is how Snyder first encountered it, but Gardner apparently felt too strongly attached to the car to let Ford crush it afterward, so he stole it and walled it up in a warehouse in Inkster, Michigan.
As the story goes, Gardner then didn’t pay any rent to the warehouse owner and Ford already filed the stolen car claim and collected the settlement from the insurance company, so the Mustang ended up in the hands of the insurance company six months after Gardner hid it away. Snyder eventually bought it back, fulfilling a nearly 50-year dream to own this particular car after seeing it advertised in a 1968 issue of Hemmings Motor News.
