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Edgerton man owns rare German-marketed Mustang

Photo

Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

A rare 1966 Ford Mustang T-5 owned by Edgerton resident Chris Wold.

Photo

Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

A rare 1966 Ford Mustang T-5 owned by Edgerton resident Chris Wold.

EDGERTON — It’s the first classic car he ever owned, and it could be the most rare vehicle he’ll ever come across.

Chris Wold of Edgerton is pretty sure he owns one of just a couple of 1966 Mustang T5 GT convertibles ever made.

Marketed in Germany for only a handful of years in the 1960s and 1970s, the T5 is an oddball. It’s a horse in disguise.

A German company marketed the T5, and Ford Motor Company removed all references to the Mustang brand from the car. Technically, it’s just the “Ford T5.”

The reason: A German truck manufacturer laid claim to the name “Mustang” in the German market.

T5s are rare because they were made in smaller numbers, specifically for U.S. military personnel stationed in Germany.

Wold, 32, has owned the T5 for about a year as part of a deal with a Madison man he met through his spouse’s work. It’s been in Wisconsin about seven years, and before that two different Mustang collectors on the East Coast owned it, he said.

Wold said the Madison owner didn’t realize how rare the car was. Wold’s research shows it’s one of only two T5 GT convertibles made in 1966.

“The military used to pay to ship cars back here, but I found out the other 1966 T5 convertible never made it back from Europe,” Wold said.

People are naturally skeptical about whether Wold’s Mustang is a real T5, even though it’s on a national T5 registry and a former owner, a judge for the Mustang Club of America, has concurred it’s the real deal.

The problem: T5s weren’t marked with special coding, so it’s difficult to be sure what is a T5 and what is a regular Mustang, according to fordT5.com.

Wold’s been showing the car for a year, and it’s already won awards. Last year it took the Edgerton Tobacco Heritage Days Car Show’s Best of Show award.

“When I won, I about fainted,” Wold said. “It was the best feeling. The trophy is about four feet tall. Now I just want to keep showing it and showing it.”

Another show thrill for Wold: This year at the EAA Ford Cruisin’ Legends classic car show in Oshkosh, he had the T5’s wood-grain glove box face signed by Edsel B. Ford II, a member of the Ford Motor Company Board of Directors.

Wold plans to show the car Monday at the Gordie Boucher Labor Day car show.

Wold said people seem to be most blown away by the color of his T5. It’s painted a gleaming Wimbledon white with red racing stripes, red interior and snappy red vinyl seats.

They are the car’s original colors, although it’s not the original paint job.

Wold never trailers his T5, which has 60,000 miles on it. But when on the highway, he doesn’t put the top down and he seldom punches the gas pedal.

“I take things Sunday driving style,” he said.

Wold wouldn’t allow The Gazette to take his picture with his T5, and he’s secretive about the car’s value and where he keeps it.

He said he moves it around from his own garage to a few different locations, and he keeps it shrouded under drop cloths most of the time.

He’s been told the vehicle could be worth five to 10 times the value of an American Mustang GT of the same vintage.

And it’s not going up for sale any time soon.

“I’m going to try to keep it as long as I can,” Wold said. “It’s a piece of American and European history. I’d hate to see it go in a private collection or a museum.

“It just needs to be seen by people.”