Mustangs rounded up for grand Oakville hoedown

For fans of the Ford Mustang, Oakville was the place to be last weekend. The Mustang Club of America held its annual meet in the parking lot of the Oakville Ford plant, featuring 437 of the iconic pony cars from as far away as Florida and New Brunswick glistening under the weekend sun.

Dubbed as "No Borders," this was the first MCA meet held outside the U.S.A., and the first at a Ford factory.

As I pulled into the event, a 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 H was nose to nose with a 2007 Shelby Mustang GT-H in front of the Ford headquarters.

In 1966 Ford struck a deal with Hertz to supply the rental company with 1,001 special 306 hp, 289 V8 Shelby Mustangs – thus the "H" designation. History repeated itself 41 years later when 500 2007 Shelby GT-H Mustangs were made available at select Hertz outlets.

While it is sometimes risky to buy a used rental car, the 1966 GT350 H is an exception, even though it is well known that many of these 1966 Shelbys were raced by customers, and some even cannibalized for parts. Specimens like Bob Swent's white and gold "H" fetch well north of $100,000 now.

Tom and Joyce Nichols brought their Lime Green Metallic 1968 Shelby GT500 KR Convertible from Springfield, Ill. Introduced in February of 1968, the KR is considered by many to be the ultimate Shelby Mustang. It is powered by a 335 hp 428 Cobra Jet V8 and only 518 convertibles were produced.

The Nichols have owned the car for four years, spent 50 grand on a complete restoration and have turned down an offer for $400,000.

Perusing the $5,321.59 bill of sale was interesting: Power disc brakes were a $64.77 option, while the AM 8-track player cost $79.10!

Another showstopper was Matt Pasella's red 1968 Shelby GT500. Matt bought the car in 1977 for $2,100 and has kept it in storage in Michigan for 30 years before its recent restoration. This was the car's first outing.

Less like a phoenix, and more like a capon (that's a neutered chicken to you and me), the 1974 Mustang II rose from the ashes of the muscle car era. Based on a stretched Pinto platform, this was a branch of the Ford family tree that many feel should have been nipped in the bud. Dark days for car enthusiasts, these were.

Nonetheless, the pinnacle of this automotive nadir was the 1976 Cobra II. Todd Mitchell of Buffalo brought his mint example to Oakville and is justifiably proud of his piece of Mustang history. Everybody loves an underdog. While the two-barrel 302 V8 could only wheeze out 139 hp, the 1976 Cobra II was a sales success. Ford planned on selling 5,000 but moved five times that many.

The MCA show is not all about vintage Mustangs, as there were plenty of current models, and many highly modified.

A white 2007 California Special with 20-inch wheels and Lambo scissor-door treatment stood out in this crowd.

Tom Dattilo of Beeton bought this car new and confessed to sinking about $80,000 into it – so far. The Vortec supercharged V8 kicks out about 525 horsepower.

"I had Mustangs when I was young." he said, "So I guess you could call this my mid-life-crisis car."

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