I've been involved with the restoration and enjoying classic (1st generation) Mustangs for about 4 or 5 years.   As a teenager I had several friends who owned these cars and I always thought they were cool cars.   I was a Ford person back then as well but decided to put a 289 into a 1965 Ford Ecnoline short box van.    Back in those days we had a lot of fun cruising to different towns and cities in Western Washington on Friday & Saturday nights.

35 years later I find myself reliving my youth to some extent, on some Friday evenings I along with other Mustang lovers meet a local Krispy Kreme Donut shop a show off our cars.    On any Saturday or Sunday you will find many Mustangers around the Puget Sound Region cruising, showing, parading or some other event where we gather to drive, show off, race and discuss what we’ve done or what we are contemplating doing to our Ponies.

 I belong to several Mustang forums and 3 clubs, as do many around here.   In the 3 years since I became active with this car crowd, I've visited shows in Oregon and have had friends who have attended shows in Alberta, Canada, Las Vegas, Nevada and California.

 What drives folks to acquire such a passion for a particular make of automobile?   The first reason I believe is that since the Mustang's first rollout in the middle of 1964, Americans grew to love the inexpensive sports car.   Ford did move into making the mustang a racecar, a sports car but it never met the moniker of a "Family Car".    Everywhere I go, gas stations, parks and other places, people always first compliment me on either the 1970 Mach 1 or our 1965 Resto-Mod coupe on how nice they are and how they remember either owning one or having a friend that had one and it always ends up being a five minute reminiscing session on their part of years gone by.    In the crowd that I hang with, there are 1964½ to 2007 models.   We all enjoy the attention our rides receive and we collectively support each other in making our individual cars unique and develop their own personalities.   As many who read this will attest, the Ford Mustang is an American Icon.But why is there such an intense car love on the west coast?

The conclusions that I’ve come to is that first the weather in the west is fairly temperate.   Long sunny summer days, in the Northwest in late June it doesn’t get dark until 10:30 pm.

Secondly, the west coast has a large demographic of highly educated, upwardly mobile boomers, generation X and Millenniums that earn enough money that they have an amount of expendable income to spend on their cars.    With the classics, they are seen as an investment that one can drive, has fun with and then sell for what they have invested in it.    On the newer years, the following that has developed over the 43 years the model has been in production and its connection with such notable names as Jack Rousch, Carroll Shelby and Steve Saleen.    This connection has kept the Mustang in the limelight and my belief is, that for many years to come this will hold true.    Although Mustangs are sought after and adored all over the world, the west coast has an abundance of these cars and will have long after I’m gone.