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| Year | 1973 |
| Model | Grande |
| Body | Coupe |
| Color | Gold Fire |
| Engine | 302 Windsor 2v |
| Transmission | Automatic |
| Radio | Original Philco MW |
| Owners | Vic and Carol Hayne |
| Location | Botswana, Africa |
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Editors Note: This is the first correspondence I've had with an owner of a Mustang from South Africa / Botswana, so I decided to publish it in it's entirety with minor edits. I'm sure you will all agree Vic has written an interesting story about his Mustang.
Hi John,
Its great to receive a personal reply from you. I thought that we were just a number being dealt with by a computer. My wife, Carol and I are thrilled to receive this reply from you, particuarly since at present we are living in the Republic of Botswana where I am on contract for the next 2 years. We call this part of the continent "darkest Afrtica", because it is worlds apart from our own country , South Africa.
A bit about us, we are from Pretoria in South Africa, and for the last year have been here in Botswana. Said to be the fastest growing economy on earth, the country thrives mainly on the proceeds of diamonds and tourists who come here to visit the many game reserves. The big five, elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino are plentiful.
Back to Mustangs
A friend of mine worked for Barclays bank in Johannesburg and was transferred to the New York branch in 1972 where he stayed for 2 years.
He purchased a brand new Mustang from Village Ford in Larchmont New York in Dec 1972. The car was built on 13 Nov 1972 (same date as my daughter's birthday) and is a 1973 model.
He kept the car for 2 years in the USA during which time he used it to do a coast to coast trip NY to San Francisco and also up to Canada. He was then transferred to London England for a year. Again during this period he travelled up to Scotland and also did a European tour ie. France Italy, Germany, Greece up to Isreal and back to London.
In December 1976 the Mustang was loaded aboard the Windsor Castle and landed in Cape Town on 2nd Jan 1977. My friend met the car at the Dock and drove it to Johannesburg. He used the Mustang for many years as a caravan (house trailer) tow vehicle, and then lost interest. It stood for maybe 10 or 12 years under a tree at his home looking forlorn with 4 flat tyres. In 1994 I was looking for an American muscle car which are popular amongst old car enthusiasts in this neck of the woods, and I persuaded him to sell it to me. He gave it to me for a song and it was probably the best investment I could have made. With only 43000 miles on the clock it was brand new. I bought along a portable air pump and blew the tyres up and Hey presto!!!!
Since then we have had many very happy journeys in this old car. Where ever it goes, it is a head twister. If you leap away from a traffic light, it leaves everything but I mean everything looking like its in a sunday school queue waiting for a hymn book.
We have been on club tours to Durban (400 miles), Cape Town (1000 miles), Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (1500 miles), and now Gaborone in Botswana (+-300 miles) and we have done this trip several dozen times from Pretoria. Our modern everyday runner is a BMW 525i, which lets face it, outclasses the Mustang, but for sheer driving pleasure there is NUTHING to compare. In South Africa we are members of the Piston Ring Club, which cater for any car older than 25 years. It has the largest membership in SA (about 3000) and is therefore the most active club with many social outings and meetings. We are also members of the Mustang Club of South Africa (membership about 120) which is very pleasant and despite its small size, is sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. So we are very fortunate.
In South Africa, I would hazard a guess that there are about 200 Mustangs. In our terms this is a lot, but in terms of car population, about 12 000 000, it does not seem much. One normally sees Mustangs pop out of the woodwork on Sunday mornings when enthusiasts take them for a run in the countryside. I think in the 60's and 70's, Mustang obtained the edge because these cars were offered from showroom floors and were dirt cheap in those days because of the very favourable Rand Dollar exchange rate, unlike now. Ford Motor Company in Port Elizabeth used to bring these cars in, in semi built up form, insert seats, fit tyres and batteries and thats about all and they were ready for the road. GM and Chrysler did not do that so most of their products from that era were all brought in privately.
Of course, there are other Muscle cars including the Chevy Corvette, Camaro, AMC Javelin as well as Chryslers Barracuda, Charger and Challenger models, but the Mustang is definitly the one that is backed by a LEGEND.
Take alook at Piston Ring website at http://www.pistonring.org.za if you have the chance. I have contributed several articles to the site.
You may notice that I have made several contributions to the site. Unfortunately the site is not maintained too regularly.
Attached also is a pic of our Mustang and also of us some where in the Botswana bush.
Best regards Vic and Carol Hayne
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| Vic and Carol relaxing in the "Bush" |
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Comments
The Piston Ring Website is full of information and photos of members automobiles. The club, located in South Africa, seems to be eclectic in that it does not specialize in one model or manufacturer brand as do most U.S. clubs. It seems to be a group of folks who appreciate all years, and types of classic and antique cars in a magical blend. Interestingly people have collected cars from all over the world. It must be very difficult to keep cars of this caliber running and in good repair, due to the shortage of major brand parts and knowledgeable repair and restoration people must be at a premium. Please take time to visit this club's website and leave them a message in the visitor area.
Comments
HistoricMustang.com is a website that is all about racing vintage Mustangs. You can read about why the people who do this, like it and truly need to do it! Most of all I was wowed by all of the terrific photos of vintage Mustangs and Shelby's actually racing one another. This is what these cars were built to do! The high dollar value of these vehicles does not seem to deter their owners from putting the pedal to the metal for fun and enjoyment. They do not seem to fear putting extra wear and tear and possibly a ding or two into the sheet metal as most show only owners would be. A scratch in that $10,000 paint job trailered concours beauty would send it's owner to the hospital with serious heart condition, but these guys are a whole different breed.
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By Al Kirshenbaum
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