It's hard to think about the Mustang without also thinking about baby boomers. For those of you just tuning in-baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964, a virtual population explosion that happened when World War II vets came home from the Pacific and Europe.
When the first baby boomers started coming of age in the mid-'60s, they changed the world in many ways. Because their parents grew up in the Great Depression and fought a world war, they were determined to give their children a better world to live in. To the Greatest Generation, we say thank you for making life easier for us.
The baby boomer's approach to life has always been about having fun. It has never been about hardship or wallowing in self-pity. We work hard, and we play hard. That is Walker and Dianne Everson's approach to life. Their black '69 Cobra Jet Mach 1 is certainly about having fun. It is about stepping back, checking out the car's lines, and listening to the big-block inside. And, it is also about strapping the Mach to your backside, and pinning the butterflies when you're looking for adventure.
The Everson's Mach 1 adventure began with a phone call from Jimmie Sanchez, who would wind up restoring the car for them after they got over the shock of what they saw in the first place. The car was in rough condition and in need of a complete restoration. Under normal circumstances, they would have walked away from it. It was the "R" engine code that caught their attention. Being a Cobra Jet Mach 1 with ram-air, there were all kinds of opinions about how they should build the car. Exhausted with the differing opinions, the Eversons decided to build it to meet their own expectations.
Doing the car in black, void of any Mach 1 graphics, coupled with striking Edelbrock 17-inch wheels, tells us something about personal taste in the Everson household. It rocks!
Beneath the shaker hoodscoop is Ford's 335-horse 428 Cobra Jet big-block. A lot of them came off the line with the C6 Select-Shift automatic transmission; this wasn't one of them. When Walker takes the wheel with Dianne at his side, he grabs the shifter and gets after it with a Top Loader four-speed transmission and 3.50:1 gears. The 3.50:1 gears are a compromise between all-out racing cogs and more conservative street gearing. When Walker nails the throttle, this well-tuned 428 delivers all kinds of torque to those BFGoodrich Comp T/As.
As baby boomers face the inevitability of growing older, it's nice to see that we haven't lost that edge for having fun and letting it all hang out. we suspect that's the way it's going to be from here on out for a spirited "young at heart" couple having some hot Mach fun.