What’s more American than a red, white and blue, drag-racing 1969 Mustang Fastback? Perhaps the centennial-theme paint jobs adorning the worst that Detroit possibly had to offer -ever- in 1974… unfortunately, that’s a different story for a different time.

So what do we have here other than something that’s one apple pie slice short of being pure Auto-Americana? If you’re into vintage drag racing, then you’ll recognize this as Sam Auxier Jr’s most famous tire-shredder. It started life as a “Body-in-white” 1969 Mustang Fastback. For those of you too lazy to pop the term into Wikipedia, it’s an antiquated automotive term that means that when Sam got it from Ford, it was a rolling chassis with no doors, hood, fenders, or drive train. Mr. Auxier himself built the tunnel-port 427 with it’s intimidating dual four barrel carburetor combination, it being right at the limits of the Ultra-Stock AHRA class it competed in. The 427 is backed by Ford’s Toploader 4-speed manual.

Ok, so lets stop for a second. How awesome of a combination is that? I’m pretty sure our fearless, Sasquatch-hunting, 26th President of these United States himself was born to a 427 Ford and Toploader coming together. It’s that manly of a combination. And not only that, it was good for 10 second passes down the dragstrips against guys like Grumpy Jenkins… Not to mention the Patriotic Pony would generally take the win!

After absolutely demolishing the competition in 1969, Sam sold off the Mustang and built a Maverick for the 1970 season. Although that’s rather sad to hear, as the Maverick pales in comparison to the Mustang in just about every category, the sadder fact is that Sam’s 69 Mustang led a rough life afterwards and changed hands many times before finally being rescued in a trade for a GT500. When it was rebuilt in 2008 by R&M Performance, Sam Auxier Jr. himself oversaw the whole process and returned the car to it’s former glory, as you can see in these pics. Four years after it was born again, and some forty-three years after it was first created, this car is still an eye catcher.