The Pick of the Day is not your typical 1996 Ford Mustang, nor even your usual 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra. Instead, this car — a 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra race car — has history with Bob Bondurant and in vintage racing, according to its advertisement on ClassicCars.com.
According to the Tampa, Florida, dealership offering the car, it does not come with a regular title because it was built for the track, not the road.
“This SCCA Mustang was constructed by Bondurant for an entry-level race car or driving school vehicle,” the advertisement points out, adding that it was built to specifications to compete for the Motorola Cup. The ad also notes that Gary Jones raced the car in Historic Sportscar (vintage) Racing competition.”
Bob Bondurant was a famed American sports car racer and world champion who started a high-performance driving school that trained actors for their roles in action movies, trained Secret Service and military drivers, and that taught driving skills to racers and even teenagers with fresh student-driving permits.
At first, Bondurant used Datsun vehicles but later switched to other brands and for many years used Ford products, such as the Mustang.
“Powering this race car is a 4.6-liter overhead cam 4-valve engine that is mated to a 5-speed manual transmission,” the dealer reports.
“The exterior of this car is painted orange with yellow mirrors and yellow wing on the back; it also sports racing decals and black 17″ Cobra wheels.
“The interior is bare featuring only a racing seat, roll cage, kill switch, and seat belts.”
The dealer says the car’s owner has enjoyed it for the past eight years.
“If you are looking for something to take to a track to have some fun in, this could be the car for you,” the dealer adds.
The race car is being offered for $20,000. To view this vehicle on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
It should be clarified that these older Bondurant Mustangs from the 90s were Jack Roush (Roush Industries – now Roush Performance) -prepared and were provided by the Ford Motor Company as part of the Ford/Bondurant partnership. They were not constructed by Bondurant except for maybe some enhanced braking systems and Bondurant’s choice of in-cockpit safety items such as driver/passenger restraints. The School always referred to these cars as “Roush-Prepared.” These cars were never meant to be DOT street legal as they had no VIN numbers – thus they could not be titled.
I have 2001 Bondurant driving school vehicle #61, it is licensed and titled in Oregon , fun car , really fun to track it, hoping to maybe get a road race or 2 in it this year