Not a Shelby but...an interesting tussle

[T5owner]

Maybe my post was inaccurate.

I was not mentioning the Mustangs build on the Dearborn assembly line with 05C date code that start with 5F08F100001 (defined as Job 1), but the Mustangs built prior to that date, defined as Pilot Plant cars (S code). Acc. to Jim S./Jim H. they confirmed with Ford internal people that actually 150 cars were assembled at Fords Body and Assembly Division at Allen Park south of Dearborn on a mini assembly line Built for engineering and promotional purposes.
In some of the early magazine articles (Ford internal press clippings sampling booklet "Mustang makes Major Magazines" by Robert Hefty, Manager Ford Public Relations Manager, you can read about the reference to the early pre-production cars).
The Pilot Plant Mustangs (as other Ford cars) were mainly used for assembly testing before the production was handed over to Dearborn.
This car above is most probably (!) one of them send in Jan/Feb 1964 to Alan Mann for suspension tests for the oncoming rallye programm. One other mechanic of Alan Mann remembered it had a #3 mark.
Picture thanks to Alan Mann himself which came along with some documentation.
The car was hidden upon arrival at Roy Pierpoints heavy vehicle garage and all Mustang emblems or insignias had to be removed after this pic for testing at Goodwood, because the Mustang was not yet launched in the US.
The car or what is left is not for sale and probably will never be.
As said there will be 2-3 more publications about early Mustangs this year, those preproduction cars plus more on the history 1962-1964. In the meantime one can visit my fellows website here in my country at www.early-mustang.com or read the full interview with John Grant http://www.ponysite.de/john_grant.htm or http://www.ponysite.de/alanmann.htm
Wether Pilot Plant Mustangs were transferred to Dearborn final assembly line for running down the line to be shown off as "production cars", you can speculate until the publications will appear. My view is it is always good to "keep the hood open" for new facts.