One of the First Mustangs Ever Built Is Heading to Auction

Typically a 1965 Mustang hardtop with a three-speed manual and a 170 cubic-inch inline-six is nothing to write home about. When it was new, this was about as basic as a Mustang got, plus Ford built them in huge numbers. This Mustang, though, is no ordinary six-cylinder pony car. It's one of the first Mustangs ever built, and it wears an impossibly low serial number–00002.

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Mecum Auctions

It's headed to Mecum's Indianapolis auction in May, where it's expected to fetch between $450,000 and $600,000, according to classic car publicationHemmings. A lot of money for a low-spec '65, but it's one heck of a collector's item.

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This Mustang is part of a run of 150-180 pre-production cars built between February and March 1965. While this Mustang wears VIN 5F07U100002, it's impossible to know for certain if it was actually the second production-spec Mustang ever built.

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Mecum Auctions

Ford built Mustangs with out-of-order VINs, so the most you can say is that this car is the first serialized hardtop. Add to the fact that all pre-production Mustangs were stamped with a build date of March 5th, 1964 despite many being completed earlier, and this car's full mystery will remain unsolved.

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Mecum Auctions

This Mustang is currently owned by early Mustang historian Bob Fria, who has determined much of the car's backstory. Initially, the car was intended to be shipped to a Ford dealer in Vancouver in time for the Mustang's April 17th, 1964 showroom introduction, but somehow ended in the Yukon Territory at Ford dealer Whitehorse Motors.

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Mecum Auctions

Mustang mastermind Lee Iacocca pictured with the car.

It was used as a dealer demonstrator for a time before being sold some time in 1965. The Mustang lived a quiet life, cycling through 13 owners before Fria bought it in 1997. When restoring the car, Fria noticed odd details like prototype sheetmetal stamping and welds different than other Mustangs of the period.