October 3, 2021
My passion for Mustangs started when I was a small girl. My father worked for Ford Motor Company as an engineer from 1957 until 1996, which was truly the heyday of the company! His office was in Milpitas, however, he worked and commuted to Dearborn several times a month during the first ten years of my life.
The 1969 Mach 1 that I drive is a car that my father bought for my mom. Even though they purchased the car in 1973, they were the third owners of the vehicle. My mom always drove me to school in the car every Friday and I remember how I always loved the way the car smelled. To this day, I cannot remember if it was the interior vinyl smell I liked or actually the unburned hydrocarbons that were appealing to me. I guess these days it would be both! When I was growing up we lived on a ranch in Morgan Hill. My mom‘s nickname was "Speedy Eydie" and everybody in Morgan Hill knew here because they knew the car. All of the high school boys thought she was cool, especially when she would do burnouts out of the school parking lot. My mom has always been quite the character!
The day I decided to purchase the Mach 1 from my parents was back in August of 2012. The car had been sitting in my parents barn from 1989 until that time. When I offered to buy the car, my dad asked me what I had in my pocket and I literally had one dollar and he said “I’ll take it.” Of course, being the youngest of five kids, this wreaked some havoc with my four siblings. But, the reality was that I was committed to getting the car back up and running, and by 2015 I took it to my first VMOA show. I think that was the first time the VMOA show was at The Home Church parking lot.
Since I have owned the car, I have taken it to the Fabulous Fords Forever show in Los Angeles, Hot August Nights a couple times, and to Modesto’s Graffiti, just to name a few places. My story was also featured in Ford Muscle Magazine four years ago; see the story → HERE
Sometime around 2016, I got it in my mind that I wanted to buy a modern Mach 1 if, and when, Ford ever came out with one again. I anticipated that might happen in 2019 as a 50-years tribute, but I was wrong. So, in 2017, after researching the fact there would be no 2019 Mach 1 and none that were predicted in the near future, I ended up purchasing a 2017 California Special convertible, which is a totally great car! I felt I needed to have the car because I knew I didn’t want to drive the '69 on a daily basis. But, when I got the convertible, I became a little bit reluctant about driving it daily and continued to drive my 2008 Volvo S 80 as as my daily driver. I still baby the convertible and won’t drive it just anywhere.
Once I caught wind of the fact that Ford was coming out with a '21 Mach 1, I was all in, so much so that I ordered the personalized plate from the DMV before I ever purchased (or even located) the vehicle. To this day I am still waiting for my personalized plate 21MACH1 ("Due to COVID...”) You know the rest... LOL :-)
I started looking around to find the '21 Mach 1. I was convinced that I wanted it in red. When I realized that the only red color available for the Mach 1 was Race Red, I started changing my mind and leaning towards looking for a Velocity Blue one. I called all around the United States for about two weeks, probably calling 60 to 70 dealers to see if I could order one. I was pretty annoyed at the fact that they were marking them up so extensively, not to mention that I would not be able to get the retired employee discount I was able to get with the 2017. I finally located a Velocity Blue '21 coming into Morgan Hill that was not spoken for, and I immediately drove to the dealership and wrote them a deposit check. I was lucky to get the car because from the time I gave them the deposit check there were people calling who were interested in that vehicle. Luckily, I found out when the car was arriving on the train and was able to get to the car before anybody else saw it, aside from the employees at the dealership.
The drivability of the 2021 is incredible. While I absolutely love the car, the 1969 is truly my dream car. I find myself very lucky to own the best of both generations!
