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22nd December 2023 This is indeed Christmas Time for Holly. At the recent Clark Estate sale, her Grandmothers Buick got sold to a Mustang enthusiast, the Cougar was already reserved by another and ready for pickup. But the Buick Regal buyer got a carton box full of car stuff with him and when looking into it on his way out, he found original Phil Clark designs and a complete file of personal stuff in it, being marked up like that. Being a true Mustanger, which means honest, empathic, social, open hood minded and interested in the Mustang history, he left the complete box to be handed back to Holly. His name should be mentioned, it is Santa Mike Rich. Thank you Mike, your honesty and thinking of Hollys efforts to get her father known is very much appreciated by all of us. A huge suprise. Holly had looked through hundreds of piles and into many boxes, but there were some corners she, her husband and her relatives could not really get into. A great coincidence this carton box was not dumped. .  Looking at this almost 3D looking design, it shows elements of the mid 50ies to late 50ies design, the fins certainly disappearing by mid 50, yet the sidelines getting more important. There are some design clues that resemble the La Salle roadster and Corvair/Corvette studies, the 1959 Corvair Roadster had already sidescoops. This artwork was in a folder of the 1955 period, yet Holly is sure that Phil did it in the design courses he took prior to the Art School, Phil started to attend in 1958. Maybe we can date it better some time soon, but 1955 maybe right with the remaining fins. Anyway it shows that Phil Clark worked for several years already on the sportscar variety. We might publish some of the 50 plus designs in the near future, but it makes it absolutely necessary that this talented designer gets his part of fame at future Mustang shows. The 60th Anniversary should be one of the opportunities to present them to a larger audience. |
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Top Exclusive news 16.December 2023 Just shortly before Holly Clark (now Burr) turned 57 on her Birthday, she found again during sorting out the vintage stuff at the Clark estate the original 1962 first Pony emblem made by her father Phil Clark. What a coincidence and what a rare find! Back then she had searched mainly the attic of her mothers house to find many of the original draft sketches and design sheets around the Mustang I, but this time she could go through all the stuff in the preserved room of her father (like it was in the 60ies) before the planned vintage pickers sale of the complete estate. She finally found in her fathers piles,the original Pony emblem, which is visible in the 1962 Ford PR movie laying next to the drawing or made after that clay model. We will finetune this story in the next days, but don't want to miss the opportunity now. 61 years after it was made, it is out again in the sun to be seen and studied. Stay tuned for more findings that tell a story about what happened really in 1962, when Phil Clark came with that Mustang idea from GM to Ford as a freelancer and Art Center stylist. |
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Is this the new Capri 2024 or just the next Mustang?* For sure not a sportscar, but it might find an audience as a smaller affordable variation of the Mustang sold worldwide, if the price is right. Not saying that it has anything that resembles the old Capri 2+2, but unfortunately todays buyers ask for smaller SUV. Alfa is launching its small SUV Milano soon and others are jumping with their Smart #hatchtags on the market. *Pic modified (Original Talkwheels.com) |
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Revell brought out a great new 1:25 scale model of the Diamond Mach 1 as a gift kit with 129 parts to assemble. Make sure you get it in time for Christmas.  |
 Available in any scalemodel shop for about 49.99 Euro incl. paint - ready to assemble! Check it out here. |
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Nov/Dezember 2023 Time to celebrate 30 Years Ponysite, though I do not remember, when exactly I started, but I do not want to miss that opportunity before it turns to 2024. Never thought I would run this for 30 years. I bought my 68 Mustang just for a year and then just kept it for the past 31 years. Looking for information on the then new web, I found only Tom Schmidts link page to a dozen Mustang sites, Vintage Mustang Forum and the famous Mustangsandmore.com Forum. Well, there was a Bullitt site as well, but that disappeared later on. So with my curiosity I started to contact many guys and girls in the US, but also during my travelling I met Mustang enthusiasts all over the world. |
 Without all those contributors the Ponysite would have certainly been just a testbed for a few years, but one information led to the other and after a while News were coming in automatically. So girls and guys. Thanks a lot for your continuity and deep respect, I shared back with you. Things have changed today, but lets focus on respect - all you in the Mustang family. |
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November 2023 Sad news pile up this year: Malthe Huth, a long time befriended early Shelby racer died on the October 29th at the age of 78. Being born in 1945 he started his racing career under his fathers coaching very early and got a Shelby Mustang G.T.350 at the age of 21. Said to be "organised" by Lucky Cassner and a military US staff person, he collected many 1st places with it along with 2nd and 3rd places in his career with 84 races in total. His statistics show that in 30 percent he was up front. His other cars were a Jag, which was totalled and a BMW. R.I.P. Malte, it was a pleasure being in touch with you over decades and I wish the last known owner had given you more information on the Shelby to trace it down. |
 Peissenberg Race, May 1st. 1966, 1st place. |
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Sad news again: Basil van Rooyen, ex-Mustang and F1-racer died September 14th at his age of 84. Basil was well known in the 60ies in our circles racing this Mustang. There is an interesting story about this Mustang from 2018. Acc. to that Basil made his first experience in a Lotus Cortina, which was given to Meissner and Koos. Ford asked Basil later to focus on Ford business, but as a Koni agent in the UK, he could not limit that. He was thus not considered for the Mustang racing first, but succeeded to buy his own Mustang stopping an owner on the streets and agreeing with him on a good price, then brought it for modifications to Superformance, where he put in special bent exhaust tubes. He later let Frank Gardner drive it once and used the Alan Mann shop for the Brands Hatch race (only) before selling it to Fred Cowell, who raced it in SA. A possible later presented car was not verified acc. to Basil himself.Basil became Managing Director of Superformance later until he moved to Australia in 1987. Here is a link to his orbituary Rest in peace. |
 Below the Mustang in 1967 in South Africa  |
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Somewhere on this site in the news page 37 we reported about the Shelby from
Piers
Courage. Actually after 40 years ownership, the current owner C.A. now parts
with his treasure via Bonham in the UK. If you are looking for a Shelby with some extraordinary history including street use, hillclimbing and then circuit racing, have a look and decide yourself, if SFM 6S438 could be your next car. The original street licence plate was HH4VD and later another one, whlle this one now carries a KCX135D since it is vintage raced again. Check the history out on the bonham auction site and contact SAAC for further details. |
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Raynald Belanger has an interesting ongoing project - collecting
build sheets from 70 Mach1s, Boss or any model. He has already gathered a larger 2-digit number, but would like to back-up his findings with even more to assist in further decoding of the build sheet codes. So, if you want more specific decoding or just want to help the project, pls. contact Raynald at Raytags at vif.com. If you have one of the rare Factory Production Data books from 1970, you are very welcome to contact us here as well. |
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24./25. June 2023 saw two major Mustang shows in Germany. The Wild Ponies welcomed about 4-500 mostly classic Mustangs in Mainhausen, though visitors reported of a drop in the final count. Too many events going on this year. Still it was a cosy meeting for old school Mustangers. Just a few members of the FMCoG and other clubs joined. ...and a more modern Mustang oriented Meeting pulled about 600-700 cars with a much larger share of late Models in Pullman City in the Harz area. Friday saw a lot of rain, so the main parking area was closed the Saturday morning. Small groups of classic cars got their own center place. The arriving late models needed some time to enter the area, but most enjoyed the cool atmosphere in western style houses.  |
 My friend Hans joined old and new comrades in Mainhausen with his 1970 T-5 BM Boss tribute. Ralf and Susi Wurm also joined the family meeting of the Wild Ponies, a good home for classic as well as restomod Mustangs.  |
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27th/28th May 2023 saw the 41st Mustang Meeting of the FMCoG, limited to club members cars. Not sure, how many cars attended yet over the 2 days, but this overview may allow a count for you. The club has over 800 members meanwhile, the location was Automobile Welt Eisenach, place of the former Wartburg eastern german car production. Thanks you our close friends - the Duffys - for this very well done drone flight. Click on the picture to see the mp4 |
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It took almost 60 years to recreate a very close
tribute car of the winning Tour de France 1964 Mustang.
Carlos Lopez went the extra miles to create one featuring all the details in the trunk area and the interior. With close attention to the many details under the hood as well he succeeded to find more hidden documentation in the past years. He is planning a visit to Alan Mann Racing Team soon and we hope to get more exclusive shots of the car in its genuine environment at the TDF Auto 2024 maybe, but at least at the known racetracks and with the sons of Alan Mann. Alan would be proud of Carlos for sure. Congratulations to Carlos.  |
 Properly radiused front fender, the rear gas cap on the rear fender for the additional fuel tank inside, the leather strap on the hood, there are so many details that Carlos needed to pay attention too. Just one sample is the special oil cooler. Stay tuned for more.  |
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February 22nd, 2023 Some Mustang/Shelby enthusiasts leave a larger footprint behind and I'd like to picture in this context the footprint on the moon. Almost everybody having subscribed to Mustang Monthly or having visited the SAAC conventions since the first firs ones, knew Bob Aliberto. Bob was responsible for the BEYOND THE BASIC column and filled it continously over 33 years with clever tricks and responses to questions from readers. For many his knowledge was saving us a lot of money including me. For some years I made a listing of his contributions, unfortunately I have no complete list. Let's hope someone will publish a book very soon. Bob was born in 1948 and died on the 7th of February 2023. Rest in peace and condolences to his family. |
 I met Bob briefly at the SAAC 25 in Lime Rock. Most of the time while I walked the racetrack, I met him at the refill station. Seems like this was his favourite place for a short break. Let's hope he can continue racing up there. |
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February 14th 2023 (updates 2025) You don't see a Shelby lettered Mach1 too often. We know when, where it was delivered ex-factory, yet it does not really make sense, as it wasn't a typical Shelby Europe trace from the US. Could be it was made later by someone in NL. Anyway it was originally delivered to Newark, close to a port on the east coast and could have been exported to Europe. During the time of this picture it had again travelled far and ended up near Auckland/NZ. We received meanwhile confirmation from an employee of the dealership that it was offered from them, we also found an interested party who had the paperwork still on file. We know where it is today, but we are still looking for more pics. |
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