Car of the Week: 1966 Mustang GT ‘K-Code’

dodgechargerfan

dodgechargerfan

In a 55 gallon drum, floating down river, and
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Jim Turcich long ago achieved peace with the situation. But it has been an uneasy, almost regretful peace.

He knows most people would never understand why he so rarely drives and enjoys his 1966 K-Code Mustang GT, and why he feels so compelled to keep it protected. He loves the car, that is for sure. He’s had it 28 years and spent nearly every cent he had as a teenager to acquire the car, and nearly every cent he had — and even some cents he didn’t yet have — a few years later to have it fixed up and made “new” again.

It’s a rare car, although not super-rare: more than 5,000 were built for 1966, and there are still plenty around if you have the desire, and checkbook, to acquire one. And the car isn’t even considered “original” anymore after Turcich had it taken apart and repainted more than 25 years ago.

But there is something about the idea of taking the pristine, 13,000-mile Mustang out in public and subjecting it to the bugs, rocks, fingerprints and who-knows-what of the world that makes the Tampa, Fla., resident shudder. “It sucks,” he says. “It does. I never really intended for it [to happen]. I didn’t buy it to sell it… I never really intended to buy something I couldn’t enjoy. People say, ‘You got to drive that thing!’ but I think about how hard it was … to get it and get it to look like this. I don’t think I would ever do that again. I wouldn’t restore a car. I’d buy one restored.

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loook look



a bellybutton


i will say this tho..of all the factory consols ASIDE from the 67 charger console i kinda like this one....and ive always liked how ford did the "extra" guages on the column
 
Meh, I've got a whole bunch of "original" tin cans in my pantry. And they've even got valuable stuff in them......like peas, corn & green beans. :dgt:
 
I've never understood why guys rebuild cars just to sit and look at them. Waste, I don't care what it is.
 
Well. I kinda like it. It's a very nice falcon.

Car like that is definitely on the list of all the cars I would like to own - way, way, way, way down the list...but there nonetheless.
 
That guy needs to sell that car to someone who will drive it and enjoy it. Hes going to have a hartattack worring about what might happen to it. I bet his house is full off rooms that no one is alowed to enter and those rooms are full of furniture no one is allowed to sit on. He probabily eats with a plastic spork and uses paper plates because his dishwasher is just to nice to use.

I like that car. I always liked that body style. I'd drive the wheels off of it too.
 
Spent all that money just to be too chicken shit to drive it?! Sad! Cars were meant to be driven and enjoyed, I don't care what it is!
 
I agree 100% I drive the Demon pretty much to the limit of what the insurance allows.

But I do understand the guy's reluctance somewhat: There are far more inattentive drivers texting their way through red lights and into the wrong lanes these days. Add that to recent immigrants who somehow manage to get their licenses without being able to read street signs and a flood of green inexperienced truck drivers and it's positively frightening on the roads these days.

It's made even worse here, where the state-run insurance monopoly operates under a "no-fault" auto insurance mechanism, meaning most people don't care if they cause a collision because there is little consequence if they do.
 
Much of the U.S. is no-fault as well, including MI. The only at-fault accidents here are if you rearend someone or hit a legally-parked car.
 
To build something and then not drive it is a waste of money, in my opinion. Better to be someone else's money than mine. :)
It's a Mustang, and not a car that gets my crank turning, but it's nice enough and I'd be driving it as much as possible.
It's not like it's irreplaceable or anything.
 
Of the 5,000 or so '66 K-code Mustang fastbacks built, I would estimate that probably only 14,000 of them remain. :D
 
yeah its not like its a 1 of under 2k total...honestly thats where i put the "questionable" to drive..there had better never been more than 2k TOTAL of the entire run of the body....not the combination under the body.....things like tuckers, rare race only built examples, hand built stuff prior to the 60s, concept cars...you guys know what im talking about...the kind of car that needs to be cared for..driven just enuf to keep it alive but nothing more than that cause no matter the amount of money it couldnt EVER be replaced only replicated from scratch....
 
68 Coronet R/T convertible production;

528 total
9 with Hemi engine
88 built with 4 spd, 1 Hemi, 87 w/440
432 with 440 auto


So, mine is one of 87, and I drive it and don't hesitate to light the tires and tach it up. :vroom:
 
68R/T said:
68 Coronet R/T convertible production;

528 total
9 with Hemi engine
88 built with 4 spd, 1 Hemi, 87 w/440
432 with 440 auto


So, mine is one of 87, and I drive it and don't hesitate to light the tires and tach it up. :vroom:
Click to expand...
:clap:

That's what the car was/is all about, no?
 
but how many TOTAL nets were made..not just the verts..and then youll see my point...being an rt is just another option like the trans...so is it being a vert..to an extent(since you can cut the roof off and graft in the vert specific parts onto the standard net tub yeah you gotta do the windshield frame too)...68 and 9 are tecnicaly the same as well so add those in as well as the superbee's....while i probably wouldnt count the 4dr in cause you cant really start with the 4dr and make a 2dr without ALOT of restructuring

NOTE i said BODY TYPE NOT options so ignore year specific and anything on the option list..focus on the BASE car and how many of that shell type were made.....save the TRUELY rare cars for rare sunday drives and shake downs..drive the wheels off the mass produced which is why i used the tucker as an example of something that is truely rare enuf to mostly sit and be enjoyed only on rare occasion....the kind of car that deserves for EVERYONE to see it but as safely as possible cause it truely cant be replaced

for argument sake lets look at just that body and the verts..forget the trim engine etc packages on the net/bee

for 68 2782...and 69 looks similar.. so lets go with something around 5k built...but i cant find numbers for the superbee verts(did they make any?)....then if you take into count the fact that the 2dr net body is technicly the same car..your looking at what 100000 or so in 68 2dr's? plus the be's plus 69..and you truely see what im talking about in terms of replaceability and TRUE rareness..sure options can make a suedo rare car..but if its built off a bellybutton platform its not so rare..and certainly not unreplaceable...not like say a true 1 of 500 total hand built somethings out of god knows where or the what 50? tuckers that were built in total?

dont get me wrong im not down playing your car im just using it as an example as to what im truely talking about
 
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It's not that simple, though. Rebodying a car is both immoral and illegal at both the state and federal levels, and for good reason. Though it may have used the same structure, it's not the same car. In fact, in the case of situations where the VIN was riveted to the dash pad, such as E-bodies, it's even illegal to transfer the VIN to a new dash pad. I dealt with that at Year One, and it's not pretty when you can't return the customer's VIN tag to them under any circumstances whatsoever. We knew the law, and you guys would probably have cried at the hi-perf VINs that, by federal law, had to be destroyed. If we'd have done anything else with them, we'd have been criminally liable.

This is where we get into the semantics of my preferring to own a non-HP model and doing with it what I please, v. owning a V-code Super Bee and knowing that if it ever got wrecked, it could never be replaced. At least if I wrecked a 318 car, I could find another chassis and swap all my parts onto it without doing something immoral and illegal to try and save what it was... to me, and no one else. A '71 Charger is a '71 Charger, and they look pretty darned similar whether it's an R/T, a Super Bee, or a base WL21 car, so I don't care what I get in that department. Same deal with any Mopar I'd like to own.

68R/T's car is rare, no matter how you want to slice it. The fact that he not only drives it but beats on it is pretty admirable to me.
 
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