No Promises. No Jive. Just Quick Facts.
Looks rather sedate, doesn’t it? A Wimbledon White ’65 Mustang fastback sporting subtle Shelby features. At a glance, it’s a nice restomod. Closer in, it’s a whole lot more than just fast talk. It doesn’t promise—it delivers.
Light the candle and listen to the 289 talk. It’s the sound of vintage small-block power, an old cast-iron block bent on defending the legend—J302 Ford Racing heads, Crower roller rockers getting bumped by an aggressive hydraulic camshaft, forged pistons, Manley stainless steel valves, a Cloyes dual-roller timing chain, an MSD ignition, a Melling high-volume oil pump, a Shelby Cobra high-rise, a Holley 725-cfm four-throat carb, Doug Thorley tri-Y headers, and a whole lot more.
Are you liking this so far? You should, because this is a restomod Mustang familiar with performance. Spin the crank and release the clutch. It’s a mind-bending experience because it accelerates with a ’tude. At idle, you can hear the subtle lope of a hot cam with .534-inch lift and 292 degrees duration. Listen to the Crower rockers. They get the stopcocks dancing with toe-tapping rhythm for quite the rush. Pin the butterflies and listen to “Old Ironside” defend the classic Mustang heritage. Through a World Class T5 transmission, power finds those 3.50:1 gears inside a 9-inch Lincoln Versailles housing flanked by disc brakes. Shelby 10-spokes and 50-series skins put the power to the pavement. It’s time to rock and roll.
Front disc brakes and solid suspension revisions make the fastback safe, reliable, and fun to drive. Inside, a Cobra steering wheel and JME Motorsports instrumentation serve as a sharp contrast to the otherwise stock red vinyl interior.
No fast talk, just a crisp performance demeanor that walks the walk with fluid style. And that’s what Marc Kuritz of San Diego likes best about his Mustang. Marc tells us, “Sometimes we choose the things we love and sometimes they choose us…” and adds he got his first Mustang at age 16, a gift from his parents. That first Mustang experience inspired a lifelong appreciation for classic fillies. And since that time, Marc has owned and enjoyed seven Mustangs. This passion led him to Jeff Laird of Modesto, California, who built this car from scratch. These gentlemen found each other on the Internet.
Marc admits he was skeptical. He drove 400 miles upstate to see what he hoped would be a terrific find, expecting to see something less. It was everything he hoped for and more. He adds, “Too many car buffs have a story about how they got suckered into traveling to see a car that was supposed to be terrific, only to find upon arrival that it was badly misrepresented and overpriced. Happily, this is not one of those stories.”
When Marc shook hands with Jeff, Jeff took him for an unforgettable spin in the almond fields of California’s Central Valley. Marc laughed and told us he can’t bite into an almond without thinking of that first drive in a white fastback. Sounds to us like warm memories of a lot of fast talk.