Midnight Special
Well-known member
... I found this on a Facebook page with the following blurb attached. We have far better information on this site, but I thought the section highlighted would be of interest to Rob Campbell.
JULY 30, 1968 --- THIS DAY IN FORD HISTORY:
It was this day back in 1968 that marked the end of production for the Mustang High County Special (HCS), which was a seperate car with only 251 built, but part of a larger group of California Specials (GT/CS). Production for the HCS started June 8th and were built in 12 different batches. Production of the GT/CS also ceased on this day with a total of 4,325 (including HCS) being built, even though the initial order in December was set to 6,180, it was eventually cut down too 5,500, then on May 11th it was cut down a third time and finally set at 4,325. Production for the California Special started much earlier on February 17, with the exception of a few prototypes that were built on December 28th, 1967 by Shelby American by request from Ford to help development. An earlier prototypes built in September 1967 became the famous "Li'l-Red". The first prototype (photographed September 8, 1967) was labeled as GT/SC not GT/CS!!! The GT/SC stood for GT/Sport Coupe. This was eventually rejected and replaced with the California Special. To build these cars, construction contract for the various parts including the fiberglass was awarded to ACSCO in Burbank, CA on January 15th, 1968. ACSCO built 7-prototypes for Ford review by the first week of Feb 1968. These prototypes we're then shown at the Ford dealer party on February 15th 1968 at L.A.'s prestigious Century Plaza Hotel were a 1,000 units were ordered; breaking a wholesale record. All cars on hand were sold. Five days later the California Special was unvailed to the public at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel Convention Center with the announcement that a special version of the California Special would be built for Southern Oregon called the Nugget Gold Special. Not all of the GT/CS came with the performance GT package, as evident by the 130 6-cylinder built, 80 of which were three-speeds. Since the F-code 302-2v engine was never available at the San Jose plant in 1968, none of these cars ever came with this engine. The big block version contained 54 390/auto an unknown amount of four-speeds and a handful of 428 Cobra Jets of which 2 are known to exist.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...00750340.45362.159397550781095&type=1&theater
JULY 30, 1968 --- THIS DAY IN FORD HISTORY:
It was this day back in 1968 that marked the end of production for the Mustang High County Special (HCS), which was a seperate car with only 251 built, but part of a larger group of California Specials (GT/CS). Production for the HCS started June 8th and were built in 12 different batches. Production of the GT/CS also ceased on this day with a total of 4,325 (including HCS) being built, even though the initial order in December was set to 6,180, it was eventually cut down too 5,500, then on May 11th it was cut down a third time and finally set at 4,325. Production for the California Special started much earlier on February 17, with the exception of a few prototypes that were built on December 28th, 1967 by Shelby American by request from Ford to help development. An earlier prototypes built in September 1967 became the famous "Li'l-Red". The first prototype (photographed September 8, 1967) was labeled as GT/SC not GT/CS!!! The GT/SC stood for GT/Sport Coupe. This was eventually rejected and replaced with the California Special. To build these cars, construction contract for the various parts including the fiberglass was awarded to ACSCO in Burbank, CA on January 15th, 1968. ACSCO built 7-prototypes for Ford review by the first week of Feb 1968. These prototypes we're then shown at the Ford dealer party on February 15th 1968 at L.A.'s prestigious Century Plaza Hotel were a 1,000 units were ordered; breaking a wholesale record. All cars on hand were sold. Five days later the California Special was unvailed to the public at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel Convention Center with the announcement that a special version of the California Special would be built for Southern Oregon called the Nugget Gold Special. Not all of the GT/CS came with the performance GT package, as evident by the 130 6-cylinder built, 80 of which were three-speeds. Since the F-code 302-2v engine was never available at the San Jose plant in 1968, none of these cars ever came with this engine. The big block version contained 54 390/auto an unknown amount of four-speeds and a handful of 428 Cobra Jets of which 2 are known to exist.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...00750340.45362.159397550781095&type=1&theater
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