Sam went to a junkyard in England to buy the world’s cheapest muscle car. But it turns out that it comes with one small problem. The car ignited at some point. It was fine five months before he purchased it. But back then, it wasn' the world's cheapest muscle car.
Sam Hard went to Silverlake Garage Junkyard to pick up the 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1. The car checked all the right boxes. It is painted in Dark Green metallic with Argent silver Mach 1 decals and has a matching Mach 1 Sports Interior in green leather.
The Mustang was for sale a few months ago. According to the listing, it rolled off the production line on October 7, 1970, as one of the first 1971 model year examples to see the light of day. It was first registered in the United Kingdom in 1972. Fifty-three years after it rolled off the production line, the Mustang has only 73,364 miles on the clock. Many of the Mustangs which are the same age are rotting away in some barn, with little chanes of seeing the light of day ever again.
It came with power steering and disc brakes, riding on grey polished alloy wheels. An AM radio was on board. The model was instantly recognizable. It featured a special hood design with dual scoops. There was a vacuum-controlled door inside each scoop and a fiberglass "plenum," which steered the air through a modded air filter housing into the carburetor to avoid overheating.
The Mustang is powered by a 351-cubic-inch (5.8-liter) four-barrel Cleveland V8 Ram Air engine, which is mostly stock even today. The V8 generated 285 horsepower (289 metric horsepower) and 370 pound-feet (502 Newton meters) of torque.
Photo: Retro Classic Car
The price included a "huge file of paperwork" and the 40 MOTs (Ministery of Transport) test results since the first one, which was issued in 1974. The 53-year-old Mustang looks every inch a pampered car, considering the mint condition it boasted at the time of the listing. And then, everything went south within seconds.
The 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 was driving at over 210 mph (338 kph). The speed and the heat caused by touching the the sound barrier ignited the front end of the vehicle. Of course, that is a lie. The 1971 Mustang can't even drive that fast. But it sounds as good as a fisherman's tale. It was, in fact, the distributor that caught fire, which also melted all the wiring. The hood needs to be changed, the bumper was also affected by the flames.
Sam Hard, who had his eyes on the Mustang even before the incident, is now super excited to get his hands on it. Unfortunately, then one “hot” detail puts it lightyears away from the car it used to be months ago. However, Sam says he is going to repair every nut and bolt that he can.
Only the front end was affected by the blaze. The rest of the Mustang is still impeccable like it was in the photos uploaded in the sales ad on the Retro Classic Car website. It is his first-ever Ford Mustang. Sam doesn't mention the price he paid to take this car home. But months ago, before it fell victim to fire, the previous owner had purchased it for £33,750, which translates to $43,615.
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