Ten years ago, I bought a Pontiac Grand Am from my wife’s grandmother. Nice little car; four-banger, A/T, A/C, decent sound system, 30 mpg. Y’know; boring! ‘Bought with 78,000 miles on the clock, now showing over 178,000. Her grandmother passed away a few years ago, but her grandfather is far from finished (he just turned 96). A couple of years ago, he bought a slightly used ’01 Mustang GT. His only complaint was that it has an auto tranny (he likes stick-shifts; me too).
Fast forward to the middle of April. A little pickup slides into the in-law’s driveway, and Grandpa jumps out. My wife asks “Are you test driving a new truck?” I tell her “Look at the sticker in the rear window. He just bought it!” He sides up to me and asks if I can help him sell the Mustang online “Sure! We can get a few pictures after you get it washed. Get me all the details, and we’ll get it posted.” My wife turns to me, and says “Why don’t you buy it?” Somehow, that never entered my mind. What a great idea! So I did! Keep in mind that this is the same woman who told me to go get my Norton Commando after a family friend had owned it for 25 years (that’s another story altogether).
So, here we are, the proud owner of a sixteen-year-old, 53,000 mile beauty. Yes, fifty-three-thousand miles! What makes this even more special is that my wife and I both had ’66 notchbacks when we first met. And, yes; we both regret selling those two cars.
As mentioned before, it’s a 2001 GT, plus:
4.6 SOHC
3.27 limited-slip rear
Mach sound system
AODE
Pretty much power everything
First order of business is to pull the spark plugs (hopefully) before they become permanently attached to the heads. Grandpa was always good about oil changes and the like, so no worries there (currently running synthetic).
As the car will primarily be a daily driver (when I’m not riding the Norton), mods will be kept to a minimum, but I have looked into something different for the stock paper air filter and throttle butterfly and exhaust system and headers and SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!
Fast forward to the middle of April. A little pickup slides into the in-law’s driveway, and Grandpa jumps out. My wife asks “Are you test driving a new truck?” I tell her “Look at the sticker in the rear window. He just bought it!” He sides up to me and asks if I can help him sell the Mustang online “Sure! We can get a few pictures after you get it washed. Get me all the details, and we’ll get it posted.” My wife turns to me, and says “Why don’t you buy it?” Somehow, that never entered my mind. What a great idea! So I did! Keep in mind that this is the same woman who told me to go get my Norton Commando after a family friend had owned it for 25 years (that’s another story altogether).
So, here we are, the proud owner of a sixteen-year-old, 53,000 mile beauty. Yes, fifty-three-thousand miles! What makes this even more special is that my wife and I both had ’66 notchbacks when we first met. And, yes; we both regret selling those two cars.
As mentioned before, it’s a 2001 GT, plus:
4.6 SOHC
3.27 limited-slip rear
Mach sound system
AODE
Pretty much power everything
First order of business is to pull the spark plugs (hopefully) before they become permanently attached to the heads. Grandpa was always good about oil changes and the like, so no worries there (currently running synthetic).
As the car will primarily be a daily driver (when I’m not riding the Norton), mods will be kept to a minimum, but I have looked into something different for the stock paper air filter and throttle butterfly and exhaust system and headers and SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!
