I love finding vintage stories or cool articles from back when the early-era Mustangs were on sale and this is one of those stories. While checking out the Mustang Monthly blog this article stood out.

It seems the writers of the blog are situated in the Petersen Tower on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles which houses The Petersen Publishing archives, “a national treasure from the late Robert Petersen’s company”

What they dug up appears to be images from an early 1964 Motor Trend road test which they say “appears to be 289 High Performance V-8 equipped ’64 1/2 Mustang hardtop. Although this is clearly a 289 High Performance V-8 with four-speed, we’re not convinced this is a K-code hardtop because the vehicle identification number is filled in and painted over, which means this is likely an engineering mule.”

And they go on to say “Close scrutiny of the Hi-Po fender badges shows Fairlane Hi-Po badging. The Autolite 4100 carburetor has an automatic choke. The view from underneath shows a five-bolt bellhousing and Top Loader transmission along with a scattershield. We like the period California manufacturer’s license plates, which remain much the same way today in the current colors.”

The guys over at the blog have gone through all the 1964 period Motor Trend magazines and have not been able to find it published, all they know is the images were found in the archives. Possibly a road test that never made it to print for one way or another? Who knows?

[Source]

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