MUSTANGMANIA INVADED MUSTANG FEVER 2019: day 2, Saturday
FAB AND CLAIRE FIRST DATE @ MUSTANG FEVER
When a day starts with a ride in a mustang, it could not be a bad day.
Anthony picked me up in front of the hotel with the 6 cyl. Baby. When we reached the shop, he got a bad
surprise: the dog shitted and pissed everywhere in the shop.
You can’t leave a friend ina shitty situation, so i helped him out. I taught the start of the day will be better.
After a coffee and a game with the mustang pinball, was my time to leave: a 120 Km journey with a V8 1966 mustang gt, with a 289 high performance engine, 3 speed automatic, red with white stripes,convertible, had to begun. I always gave female name to cars, because their are beatiful as women. I looked better at her, and i decided to call her Claire. Claire was as much beatiful as tough; no power steering, very loud, with very few conforts.
It was my first long trip with a vintage car. If you have never done a trip in a vintage car, go for it. The
feeling you have is something difficult to describe. They don’t have the confort of the modern Mustangs, but you feel like in a time capsule.
Everybody was looking at the car, and taking pictures. I stopped in a MediaMarkt (tech discount), to buy a mobile phone glass holder, because i didn’t want to drive a car like that with a hand. Few kids in the parking
lot, came nearby the car for a picture; an Old gentleman stopped me, and half in french, half in english, showed me his mustang.
Back on the road, i tried to listen some music, but the car was too loud; So i decided to just enjoy the trip, driving in the slow lane. In an hour and a half i reached Zolder.
Zolder is a small village in the Flemish part of Belgium, pretty close to German and Netherland Borders.
I have been in this Village the last year to visit Adelbert Engler, the owner of the Mustang Garage, specialized in the restoration of the vintage Mustangs.
But Mustang garage is more than that: is Adelbert
Dream and vision, with more than 7.500 die-cast models exposed(and unboxed) this is the link to the story:
When i arrived i have no idea about how big this event could be: each single road of a residential area had mustang parked everywhere; Residents where not complaining, but happy, instead!
Group from UK, Netherland, Luxemburg, Germany and France were there. And the level of the car shown, was definitely high: new GT350 mixed with two(!!) twister special Mach 1, few SSR police interceptor, 1967 GT 500 shelby, King Cobra 1978, and so on.
Living outside USA doesn’t give you the chance to see a lot of rare models; You saw a lot of them only on the books or on the internet; But Mustang Fever Made the Magic to bring uncommon models from private garages to a small village in Belgium. Amazing.
After hours walking around, finally meeting online friends, and having beers with old friends, i decided that was my time to go to the hotel.
I reached a Holiday Inn nearby, 12 Km from the event. The bad part of the story was that i can’t park in their private parking underneath; the good part of the story is that they left me park in front of the hotel,
upgraded my room, and let me meet some other mustang people; When i think about U.K:, i usally think about the Mustang Club of GB.
I had no idea that other groups grew UP in the last few years. I met one of the Guys from “Simply Mustangs UK” at the hotel reception “Hey, you have a mustang! Are on your own? Enjoy us for dinner! 7:30 P.M. at
the hotel restaurant!”.
How Can i Say No?
The Group from Simply Mustang Gave me a very warm welcome, even if i was a stranger, almost self invited to their dinner. Some of them where my followers ( I had no idea people from UK will be interested
in an Italian guy visiting mustangs events, writing articles, sharing news and so on..).
I asked to all of them their personal stories with the mustang, but one in particular got My attention, from Richard.
Richard is a 68 years old. When you look at him, gave you the imagine of the traditional, polite, elegant and brilliant english gentleman; you imagine him drinking a Tea at 5:00 P.M., in a nice cottage in the fields,
reading a book or disquising about intellectual arguments. You can’t imagine him behind a S550 Red Mustang Ecoboost, enjoying all accelerations. “I had company car for all my life” said “ The few car i owned
were very cheap second hands car. For my retirement, i decided to gave myself a proper gift. A friend of mine remarried, and drove a Ford Mustang on the Route 66 fo his honeymoon. He was so happy and so impressed about the car, that i decided to walked in a Ford store, and i saw A red Mustang. I asked to have a test drive, and the seller took the keys. When we came back , i bought the car straight away”.
After few more apple ciders, a too much well done steak fillet, we decided at which time we will met theday after, and everybody went to sleep.
