The Ford Mustang GT California Special is one of the most confusing cars every produced and offered on the market and it is preparing to make an arrival to be the fourth time this nameplate has been used. Why is this a confusing car and why has it been used only four times in the past? That’s what we’re going to take a look at right now to see what this special car had to offer and how it came to be over the years that it’s been offered.

The Confusion

The Ford Mustang GT/CS is a car that was never actually a GT model and its one that was eventually sold in California. Originally, this car started out as a small Mustang that was powered by a 428 ci Cobra Jet engine which had been paired with two Paxton Superchargers as one of the models that came from Shelby. This version of the Mustang was made to pump out more than 500 horsepower to give the power desired on the roads and tracks of the area. Unfortunately, the car was one that most dealers in the Southern California area thought wouldn’t be able to sell well at all.

Eventually, Lee Iacocca was brought in to make this idea a reality. The cars were built in San Jose and not by the Shelby team. None of these Ford Mustang GT/CS models left the factory with the Shelby engine under the hood and they weren’t actual GT models at all. Although these models were built with the California name on them they were sold in Dallas, Kansas, Seattle, and Canada to be a car that was sold everywhere. The goal of selling 5,500 of these models fell short at only 4,000 and the production was stopped after only one year.

The Use of the Name

You might think that a car with a name that’s been resurrected at least once would stay on the market for several years, but the Ford Mustang GT/CS isn’t that kind of car. The 1968 model was the first version to make use of this name and it enjoyed the one year run. This name appeared once again in 2007 and then again in 2011 to give us a car with a 4.6-liter V8 engine under the hood in the 2007 while the 2011 model made use of the 5.0-liter V8 and 19-inch wheels.

Now, fifty years later, the California Special is back and its being offered as a convertible to continue in the rich tradition of this car to be one that will be amazing and a lot of fun to drive. The 2018 version of the Ford Mustang GT/CS will wear an appearance package with a fading strop along the side, special badging, a blacked out grill, the Mustang Performance Pack 1 front splitter, and five-spoke California Special rims. This is a car that carries a name you’ve only seen a few times and the design you want when you take a look at the Ford Mustang.

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