The 1968 Ford Mustang California Special : this vanilla - bloodless hardtop is only a 302 / reflex with a minor level of optional equipment , but it can attract as much care as a full - bollocks up Shelby when ponies gather . Less knowledgeable Mustang buffs sometimes misidentify the car for a one - off custom or even a notchback Shelby . But those in the know recognise it as a 1968 California Special , built at Ford ’s honest-to-goodness San Jose gathering plant and sold only in the Golden State .
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Ford ’s intention , of track , was to unload a few extra crib on the West Coast market place , but after 4,000 or so sales during 1968 , the experiment was never repeated . That take the California Special rare today .
The California Special software package was usable only on the two - threshold hardtop , but it could be ordered with any Mustang powertrain compounding . Tape stripe packages were popular in the late 1960s , but the CS was more distinctive than most , assembled from some things borrowed and some things new . It was the borrowed parts that commit the CS special status , and sometimes confused Mustang watchers .
The components that made a Mustang into a California Special included a nigrify - out grill with aftermarket fog lamps , nonfunctional fibreglass side scoops , side striping , a fibreglass rear decklid and after part panel cap from the 1968 Shelby convertible , Shelby rear lamp , and California Special identification . The CS feature look a lot like a Shelby and , to a large academic degree , that explains the interest in this unusual Mustang .
And if almost everyone assumes that CS stands for Carroll Shelby , that ’s just part of the playfulness of owning something special .
While California Ford dealers were sell the CS , the same assemblage of parts were put on Mustangs destined for Denver , Colorado , showrooms . This rendering was call the High Country Special .
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