At least in Germany …
The hottest car on the planet in 1966 was the Ford Mustang. By the end of the year, it set an all-time sales record with just over 600,000 rolling off the assembly line.
Mustangs were everywhere, except in Germany where somebody else, a truck manufacturer, had a trademark for the name. Ford could have paid Krup Manufacturing $10,000 ($94,349.07 in 2023 dollars) to secure the name, but they weren’t buying. Instead, Ford rebadged the Mustang as the T-5 the project name for the car during development in the 1960s. I found this rare T-5 at The Automobile Gallery in Green Bay recently.
Only 531 T-5s were built in 1966, making it the rarest mainstream production car in Ford Motor Company history. Besides removing the Mustang name from the horn ring, rear gas cap, and fenders, modified hub caps came with a plain black center.
The car also featured superior European lighting, a fine-tuned heavy-duty suspension, and the installation of a shock tower brace from the Shelby GT350. This T-5, owned by Joel and Bridget Kelly-Hensley, of Menominee, Mich., has the GT package, the high-performance 289 K-Code engine, and a 4-speed transmission, just one of two in the world according to the T-5 Registry.
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The Krupp copyright to the Mustang name expired in December 1979 and all Mustangs exported to Germany after that date were labeled as Mustangs. You won’t find the word Mustang anywhere on the Hensley’s T-5, but if you look closely you will see another familiar name autographed on the glove box, Edsel B. Ford II.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out this week’s spot. Come back next Friday for another spot along with some of its history. Have a great weekend.
Savage On Wheels 
I have heard about the T-5 but I didn’t know the details. Thanks for sharing.
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