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Street Feature: This 1966 Mustang GT Is A Lifelong Dream Come True

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It’s not uncommon to hear about someone chasing a particular car for years in an attempt to buy it. Usually, it’s just over the course of a year, two years, maybe even a decade, but it seldom happens that someone works at it for nearly a lifetime—and comes away from the lifelong effort with a 1966 Mustang GT.

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Randy Perry of Sequim, Washington, has not only known of the car nearly his entire life, but he lived only three blocks away from it when he was little. Randy was even best friends with Mike, the original owner’s son. The owner of the car, Rich, was also Randy’s Peewee baseball coach and back when he was 9 years old Randy remembers being in the car when the odometer rolled over to 100,000 miles.

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An old picture of the car from back in the day (left) and the day Randy picked it up (right).

“We were leaving the McDonalds in East Bremerton when Rich told us to look,” Randy detailed, “I leaned over and saw it roll over to all zeroes.” Not long after that, Rich’s family moved to the Philippines for a few years and took the Mustang with them. When they came back, the Mustang ended up being driven by Mike during high school in the early ‘80s and then by Mike’s brother during the late ‘80s, but after that it ended up sitting for a long time.

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The whole time it was sitting, Randy kept asking about it and kept trying to buy it. Finally, about 13 years ago, he went to dinner with Rich, still the owner of the car, and he tossed Randy the keys.

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Over the years the car has seen some significant change. Randy repainted the car and built up the motor a bit too. It’s still the original 289 cubic-inch engine, but now it has roller rockers, a small Crane [12] camshaft, an Edelbrock [13] 600cfm Durashine carburetor, and a Grant “flying wedge” air cleaner. The rearend and three-speed automatic transmission are both still stock. The Mustang has also been upgraded with MSD [14] ignition, shorty Hedman [15] headers, and a lightweight flex fan for low weight and better cooling.

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The air cleaner was one thing that really caught our attention. It's an unusual piece that adds a real flair to the engine on this Mustang!

Along with the car, Randy got all of the original paperwork from when the car was purchased new. There are some perks that come with buying a car like that from the original owner. “I’ve known Mike since Kindergarten,” Randy explained, “I consider them family.”

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Have you chased after a car for a few years before you finally brought it home? Or maybe you just found the right car for you in an ad. Either way if you would like us to include your car in our Street Feature series [18], just send us an email [19]. We’d love to see what your driving, whether you chased one car for a lifetime, or have a lifetime of memories in the same car. You just have to enjoy your car enough to share it with our readers.