Many of you either watched the 2010 Mustang reveal on SPEED or were lucky enough to be invited to one of the 10 simulcast locations across the country, but for those who were invited to the Barker hanger in Santa Monica, California, such as yours truly, it was indeed a much different experience.
Lucky for me I DVR'd the SPEED broadcast as the early Mustang commercial footage was not shown to us. Plus I got to see myself on TV (even if it was all of three seconds), but being at the main broadcast location offered so much more. The actual event started mid-day at Barker hanger as local Mustang owners who were invited to bring their cars for a static display started trickling in. Ford setup their Mustang "decade" banners from the Woodward Dream Cruise earlier this year and had a great display of every model year Mustang, 45 in all. It was amazing to see such pristine early cars, nice Mustang IIs, early Fox Mustangs like the '79 Indy Pace Car, an '84 SVO, a showroom fresh '90 GT hatch, and so much more.
Besides the 45 year display, Ford had dozens of other Mustang owners displaying their vehicles as well. Everything from restomod classics to brand new GT500 Super Snakes were there to be enjoyed. A display of Ford Racing's new FR500CJ drag Mustangs, including John Force's car, were in one area, while Vaughn Gittin, Jr. provided thrilling rides in his Falken Tire drift Mustang (see the video HERE). We even bumped into Ron and Cindy Bramlett from Mustangs Plus. They brought down two of their Fox body Mustangs for the 45 year display.
As people mulled about and wondered what was going to be shown inside the hangar and what famous Ford people would be there car owners and visitors were treated to free popcorn and drinks. It was pretty much a given that John Force was attending, as well as Carroll Shelby, but as we now know, many other notables, including Lynn St. James, Jack Roush, Dorsey Schroeder, and others would be involved in the event inside the hanger later on. We hope you had the opportunity to watch the special SPEED presentation or better yet, attend one of the simulcasts and receive the 2010 Mustang diecast and t-shirt. But if you missed out on either opportunity then we hope you'll enjoy the following photos of the event that we took while in Santa Monica for the reveal. Next month we'll be heading back to California for the 2010 Mustang Long Lead where we'll get our first driving impressions of the new car and fill all of you in on what the new car is like. Stay tuned!