The Ford Mustang Station Wagon Might Be the Best Muscle Car We Never Got
Given the Ford Mustang’s success throughout the 1960s, an independent designer named Robert Cumberford dreamed up a station wagon variant of the popular model. While giving the Mustang a long roof seems like a wacky idea, Ford also once considered turning it into a sedan or a pickup truck. While none of these variants ever made it into production, the wagon might’ve been the best one.
Did Ford make a Mustang station wagon?
While the Ford Mustang station wagon seemed like a sound concept on paper, it never officially went into production. However, this idea made it onto the roads with at least one finished example. Robert Cumberford came up with the idea of the Mustang station wagon back in the mid-1960s.
According to Hagerty, the Mustang’s body lines made turning it into a station wagon quite easy. Believing in the soundness of his design, Cumberford set about getting this odd machine built. This is where Italian coachbuilder Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica steps in.
Cumberford purchased a brand-new 1965 Ford Mustang and commissioned the build. The idea was to take the station wagon concept and sell it as an add-on kit for existing cars. All in all, the project reportedly cost around $10,000, or about $83,496 in today’s money.
The long-roof Mustang only survived as a conversion kit
Once Robert Cumberford completed the project, he took the Ford Mustang station wagon and showed it to the American carmaker. Unfortunately, Ford wanted no part of this unusual variant. Like the sedan and pickup truck concepts, the station wagon didn’t make it past the concept stage.
Despite this, Hagerty reports that Cumberford still wanted to press on with his creation. Unfortunately, no one showed interest in this Italian-built station wagon. However, it seems the market still wanted this long-roof variant.
That’s because a California-based company decided to build and sell the conversion kit. Called “The Hobo,” the kit cost around $595 back in the day and would only create a convertible variant of the muscle car.
Cumberford eventually sold the station wagon concept, only for it to seemingly vanish. Where it is currently, no one knows.
Which Ford Mustang model is the rarest?
Since there is just one coach-built Ford Mustang station wagon, it might be one of the rarest versions of the muscle car ever built. However, during that same time in the 1960s, Ford commissioned a one-off version of the Mustang built and designed by Italian coachbuilder Bertone.
While the Bertone Mustang served as a part of a marketing campaign, it is also one of a kind. Additionally, like the station wagon, it remains missing today.
