The Mustang coupe sat in a driveway in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, driven hard and put away wet. After passing the car for a few months, Todd Adams knocked on the door and asked if it was for sale.
“No,” the woman said. Apparently her father had bought it new and it had sentimental value. But a few more visits convinced her that Adams was a serious buyer.
“I had checked the serial number, #100211, and knew it was a very early Mustang, definitely a Day One car,” he says. “That’s what purists call it.” Day One means it was sold on the first day Mustang went on sale, on April 17, 1964.
Adams didn’t think much of it, registered it, and drove it to his final year of high school. After he graduated in 1986, he went to college and parked the Mustang in his parent’s backyard.
Adams was offered a parking space in a friend’s barn in 1992, and there it sat for the next 18 years. Adams almost forgot he even owned the car. “I went 10 years without even speaking to my friend,” he says.
Adams was reminded of his vintage Mustang, though, while watching the television broadcast of the 2010 Barrett-Jackson auction. “They showed a 1964 1/2 Mustang Pace Car, and mentioned that it was serial #100212, the oldest production Mustang known to exist,” he says. “I said to myself, ‘I think my Mustang in the barn is older than that!’ ”
She ain’t pretty, but she sure is rusty! Mustang #100211 is the oldest known production-line Mustang. Owned by Todd Adams of North Carolina, the car was his daily driver when he bought it as a high school senior. STEVE MEZARDJIAN
Hull & Dobbs is the original selling dealership in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. STEVE MEZARDJIAN
#100211 was a real stripper when new: six-cylinder, three speed, 13-inch, four bolt wheels. But it is the earliest production-line Mustang in the world. STEVE MEZARDJIAN
He checked the title, and sure enough, it was #100211. In fact, Adams’s car was now the earliest-known Job One Mustang, meaning that it is the oldest-known Mustang to have rolled off the assembly line on the first day of production, on March 9, 1964. Cars built prior to #211 were preproduction, built as prototypes by engineers. When new, his car was loaded onto a transporter and delivered to Hull-Dobbs Ford in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where it was sold to the father of the woman who sold it to Adams.
After the auction, Adams removed the car from the damp barn and parked it in dry, secure storage where it has remained ever since. And Adams’s Mustang is definitely a barn-find—looking sad and in need of restoration, the car even has original crayon markings on the firewall and radiator support.
“The car is a real bastard,” he says. “It’s a mixture of production and pre-production parts. All the glass is original, and a couple of pieces were 1963 date code production. The only parts on the Mustang that are not original are the front bumper and half of the grille surround.”
Adams’s life has changed since buying #100211 as a high school senior. He’s a successful businessman with a family—and even another vintage Mustang. Realizing that a correct restoration would cost a small fortune, he’s inclined to sell it to a collector who would appreciate such a rare car.
