The Mustang Club of America will bring its last national show of the season to Columbia County with events lasting through Sunday. The three day event, starting Friday, will be held in the parking lot of the Columbia County Performing Arts Center.
The event, which is expected to draw thousands of people from all over the nation and has an estimated local economic impact of more than $1 million.
Mike Anchor, of the Augusta Mustang and Ford Club said that the hobby of restoring and collecting muscle cars, especially the uniquely American Mustang, is by no means dead.
“I got a chuckle reading that in the paper; we have generations of people now in the hobby, ” said Anchor, referring to an Aug. 27 column in The Augusta Press about the second death of the muscle car. “My son is 27, and he meticulously maintains his vehicles. We have kids as young as ten years old putting down their cell phones and wanting to learn the hobby.”
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While the automobile industry may be changing and evolving in terms of what is deemed a “muscle car,” enthusiasm for high-horsepower street machines is actually on the rise, he said.
The Mustang Club of America boasts 40,000 members, and that is for just one brand and model of car. If combined with other clubs devoted to one particular brand or model, the numbers climb into millions of people who still enjoy the guttural sound coming out of a gas guzzler’s tailpipe.
This weekend’s event has 348 vehicles pre-registered, but that only includes cars that will be judged for awards. According to Anchor, patrons at the event can expect to see a sea of vehicles being displayed.
While there are multiple categories for the judges, the main three will be Concourse, Thoroughbred and Daily Drivers.
Concourse vehicles are showroom quality restorations where every piece, part, bracket and bolt are as exact as produced by the factory while sometimes using “new-old-style” parts, thoroughbreds are complete factory originals will all original parts as well as their aged patina and daily drivers are cars that are still driven to more than just to car shows and a trip around the corner to Starbucks, but are meticulously maintained.
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Anchor says that he has been enamored with the Ford Mustang since childhood.
“I remember watching ‘Charlie’s Angels’ on television and seeing that white Mustang II with the blue racing stripes. Everybody else was watching the show to see Farrah Fawcett, but I was watching to see that Mustang,” Anchor said.
Ford introduced the Mustang in the middle of the 1964 model year as a somewhat compact, economical alternative to the behemoth land yachts that were common on the road in those days. Then Carrol Shelby got involved and turned the little “pony car” into a hellraiser with horsepower.
The Mustang is now Ford’s longest continuously produced nameplate and continues on with the new Mustang Mach E, an electric version that produces nearly 500 horsepower out of the factory and enough torque to snap one’s neck.
The weekend event will not only draw thousands of enthusiasts of road rockets, but proceeds will also benefit the Rebecca Erryn Moon Foundation, which aids hospitalized children and their families.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
