Now Into Her 80’s, Adele Acrey Still Drives Her Original-Owner 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback

This pristine 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback is the daily driver of Adele Acrey, who has been in love with this pretty pony ever since she bought it new.

Graduating from Austin College in, Sherman, Texas, back in 1959, Adele Acrey went to work as a church secretary. But she was looking for some independence and started saving up for a new car. Six years later, she bought her first car from the Horn-Williams Ford dealership in Dallas – a 1966 Ford Mustang! Why a Mustang? ‘It was the most artistically designed car on the market,’ says Adele. And ... ‘my father was a Chevy man!’

She was on a tight budget and attempted to order her car sans A/C, whitewall tires, radio, and tinted glass. It was a tall order for a car where these options are almost mandatory for survival in the hot Texas summer heat. Two months later, the dealer gave up on the search, but Adele did not give up on her dream. She bought the least-expensive car on the lot which was a ‘beautiful yellow fastback with black interior, a 6-cylinder engine, and a 3-speed manual transmission’ which today at age 81 she still drives daily. And the options that came on the car? This car actually had all the options she tried to delete form an order to try and keep the cost down!

Adele paid ‘one dollar for every pound the car weighed,’ or about $2,600, as her memory serves. This is the only car Adele has driven for the past 53 years, and she still loves it as much today as she did when she drove off the dealer lot in late 1965. How does she feel about her Mustang? ‘YEOWWW’ is how Adele describes it, and she has had this feeling displayed proudly on her car from the first time that Texas started offering personal plates in 1966.

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