Today’s car is a 1966 Mustang GT 350 phantom Station Wagon. It is owned today by Richard and Myra Kanishiro. I photographed this car at Cruise at the Beach located at 245 N Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach, CA that meets every Friday night from now until Sept 1st 2023.
The Inspiration. Ford executive Barney Clark, along with J. Walter Thompson from Fords advertising agency, with designer Robert Cumberford and a few others dreamt up a Mustang station wagon. It is said that their inspiration to build a Mustang 2 door station wagon was heavily influenced by Chevrolet’s 2-door Nomad station wagons. But, instead of presenting their idea to Ford. They sent a 1965 Mustang to Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica in Turin, Italy to be built. It came back to the states 11 months later, but Ford management passed on idea. To this day no-one knows the whereabouts of the car.
This car was originally built by Bob Hoshiko who was know as a specialist in Mustang restorations. Bob was inspired to build the GT 350 station wagon after seeing photos of the Intermeccanica car and the Peter Brock’s drawing of the GT 350 Station Wagon.
Bob bought a well used 1966 Mustang for $200.00 and begun work on his 7 year project. Gloria, Bob’s wife, and Bob showed the car for many years. After Bob pasted Gloria continued to show the car. Richard who was always intrigued with the car stuck a deal with Gloria. Richard and Myra Kanishiro are now enjoy showing their 1966 GT 350 Station Wagon.
It is finished in Wimbleton white with Guardsman blue stripes and a black Interior. It is powered by a 306 hp, 289 cu in, high performance K code V8 engine, with a Holley 4-barrel carburetor mounted on a high-rise aluminum intake manifold. It is mated to a SelectShift 3-speed automatic transmission with 3.89:1 rear axle gear ratio. Slowing this wagon down are disc brakes up front and drums in the rear. It has independent front suspension with coil springs and the rear suspension has longitudinal semi-elliptical leaf springs.
The total number of Fords produced in 1966 was 2,2212,415 with 2,386 of them being GT 350’s, of those 1,375 were hardtops. The MSRP was $4,547.00. It has a published top speed of 117 mph with a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds. In 1966 the GT 350 dropped the word Mustang from its name completely.
This is a beautiful example of one mans inspiration to build a car that did not exist but, maybe it should have. While there are other early Mustang station wagons out there this GT 350 is by far my favorite. Richard and Myra enjoy sharing this unique car by bringing it out to local car events here in Southern California. This is a great car to take to Ford car shows, Cars and Coffee events or just a cruising to the beach for an evening car event with like minded enthusiast. Thank you for riding along. Frank
