She's going up for sale...

Well, it saddens me to say that after about a year and a half of ownership, our Cal Special is going up for sale :'( My wife and I have been looking at houses and saving what little we can for a while now, and last weekend we happened upon our dream house! ;D Unfortunately, it's about a year earlier than we expected/were prepared for in terms of cash on hand! Weighing priorities, the house comes in far above the 'Stang and therefore she must go (as well as a lot of other toys).

I've been at a loss whether to eBay it and all of the associated books, etc. or list everything here on this site exclusively. Given the nature of eBay car auctions, I've decided to list the GT/CS on this site and all of the associated books and whatnot on eBay. Please be on the lookout for my auctions (ID: bigtigrrr). As a special thanks to all of you, I'll ship for free any of the items won by participants in these forums. Just mention californiaspecial.com and your forum user id when you win the auction.

Finally, I wanted to thank everyone for the good times and good information on this site, with special thanks to Jon Hanna. Jon has put a lot of work into making these forums and the website in general very user-friendly and informative. This has no doubt contributed to the marked increase in popularity of this site. When I first got on californiaspecial.com, we were lucky to get a post or two a week. Now, there are sometimes many in a day! This is truly a unique and valuable site for enthusiasts of the GT/CS, and for enthusiasts of Mustang history in general. I will no doubt be around visiting, maybe someday with another GT/CS! I haven't decided whether to continue my price guide duties or whether to hand them off. Until I do decide, I will keep them up. If someone wishes to take them over, drop me a Private Message via this forum, or an email. Thanks, and take care!

Oh, and look for my car to show up soon in the Classifieds section!

-Winston

Winston,
I think I can speak for a number of us that your contributions to this site are many and of true value to all readers of the forum. We regret your having to dispose of the Cal Spec but we congratulate you on the acquistion of the dream house. Ah, the choices that we sometime have to make! We all know you won't be a stranger to this site although we realize you will be packing, unpacking, and all that goes with the moving process for the forseeable future. Best of luck!
Richard

Thanks, Richard! I'll be posting pictures of the GT/CS soon (tonight?), so those of you that are interested be sure and check back here!

-Winston

Winston, you have been a staple for the california special crowd and have certainly helped in more ways that I can count. Answer me this, is there anything we can do to change your mind about leaving the site and selling your vehicle? Hate to lose a great friend and Mustang fan. WHAT CAN WE DO????

Well, it's a money thing, plain and simple. We need cash to buy our dream home, and we're selling the Cal Special to help with that. We don't want to sell the GT/CS, but it's a necessary evil in order to get something that both my wife and I really want. We feel that the sacrifices we're making are justified -- that's how much we love the place we're looking at. Not only is our (her) GT/CS up for sale, but I'm also selling my '88 Toyota Supra turbo, my extensive childhood collection of Star Wars toys, and various other smaller-ticket items. Not to mention the fact that we're draining our cash reserves. Although some of these things hold a special place in my/our heart(s), the things we're selling are just that -- things. A home is in another category entirely. Most of us feel very attached to our cars themselves AND the idea of our cars. My wife and I feel the same way about this home, except on a much larger scale.

Don't worry, I may be without a GT/CS for a while, but that doesn't mean that it will be a permanent situation. I have an interesting idea into which I plan on incorporating the GT/CS. Look for me to go into detail on that later...

-Winston

Boy can I reflect on all this. When my wife and I bought our humble abode (8 acres on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River) I needed some money as well and there sat my GT/CS and a 53 Ford F100 PU with a hydraulic tilt front end and a 5 inch chopped top all customized. I sold the truck. I figured even with all the customizing I had done I would be able to find a truck in the future but the GT/CS would be much harder to replace.

As for the house, I will never regret the fact that I can grab my Winston Fly Rod and walk across my pasture to one of the best fly fishing rivers in the world. I love to fly fish.

A lot of give and take in life, best of luck to you and your wife on your decision sounds like a pretty sound decision to me.

Cory