This car is a owned by an Ex Ford Director and has a very interesting and colourful history.
Gary kindly wrote us a history of his car:
This particular car was built the day before the Mustang launch and was ordered by Ford centrally as dealer launch stock.
Originally when the car was bought it came with very little U.S. history, so after 6 months researching late last year a real stroke came Gary’s way. A visit to a vintage Mustang forum and a random search for ‘Pagoda Green D code convertible’ was made and up popped a trail from 2007 discussing the colour of the James Bond mustang from Goldfinger. One member commented that “it’s not pagoda green as I had one of those with the rare d code engine in the late 90s”. He came from Terre Haute, Indiana – the last known address of my car! The member was contacted and sure enough, he had owned the car. Over the next few months and with his help and many letters sent to the U.S., since then a full history has been traced from new.
Gary is the 9th owner (including 3 dealers). It spent all of its U.S. life in a 40 mike radius of Terre Haute Indiana and its 99k mileage appears to be genuine. The first owner was a banker from Paris Illinois (20 miles from Terre Haute) and really wanted a dark blue car, but as Mustangs were in short supply at launch he had the dealer paint it dark blue. In the late 70s fashions had changed and red convertibles were in vogue so he had it then been painted red. He part-ex’d it in the mid 80s for a mid 50s Thunderbird. A dealer bought it for his son’s 18th birthday, restored it underneath (which is as it is today albeit with a few local repairs). The son kept it for 4 years and sent me photos of it in red with him proudly sat in it. The 3rd owner was a Terre Haute business man who kept it until 1995 and his son also sent me a photo of it.
The 4th owner who was Gary’s initial contact) checked the vin and realised it was an important, rare early car. He proceeded to have it bare metalled and painted back to its original rare colour of Pagoda Green – Ford only sold this colour for the first two months of production then changed it to Tropical Turquoise.
It is suggested that only 200 Pagoda Green D Code Convertibles with White Trim were produced. He also replaced the worn trim and fitted sports wheels. He then sold the car to his attorney (who kept pestering him to sell it) in 2001. The attorney guy was the last U.S. Title owner in the car file when Gary bought it, he had kept it until 2007 only driving it 800 miles. The car then went to Malta via a trader in the UK, where he kept it until late 2012 when it was imported to the UK. It was correctly registered and Gary bought it from the dealer.
Mustang Maniac 
