On my drive back to New York after a visit to my hometown of Cleveland, I took I-80, which is a beautiful stretch of road in parts of western Pennsylvania and eastern New Jersey. At one point on the road, I saw what has long been my dream car: a 1965 Ford Mustang convertible.
This beauty was in mint condition, black with a white top and white interior. Though I’ve been out of the car loop for some time, I still get a thrill whenever I see one of these. This was one of the few peaks in American sports car design, along with the Corvette and the Thunderbird, before sports cars traded elegance for brute “muscle” in the mid-to-late 1970s.
For my 18th birthday, my dad got me a 1989 Mustang Convertible (manual shift). I enjoyed the car from high school until I sold it in 1994 before moving to New York. It was “Cabernet Red” with a black top and white vinyl interior. The 1980s and 1990s were clumsy design decades for the Mustang, but I still loved that car.
Perhaps one day, the American sports car will return to a more elegant design. Until then, I’ll just enjoy the rare glimpse of a car that used to be truly special.
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