FROM THE EDITOR
CORPS OF DISCOVERY by Tom Shaw
I
f you actually paid attention in history class enthusiast magazines. I remember seeing a Mustang history. Ford authority Kevin Marti’s
and weren’t dreaming of girls or doodling dressy black Capri at a dealer’s lot in the early regular column is loaded with insights from the
cars, you may remember that the Corps ’80s, but 20 years later, I didn’t recall its name or actual Ford database — an amazing resource.
of Discovery was the 33-member group any of the details about the car’s content, much Beginning this issue, we’re going to ease Kevin’s
commanded by Meriwether Lewis and William less the story behind its creation or the memoirs workload a bit by rotating his Marti Report
Clark to have a first look at whatever waited to of its designers. By buying dealer lit online, I column with From the Archives, a multipage
be discovered west of the Mississippi River in found it in an ’81 Mercury dealer book. It was feature reprinting rare Ford literature of special
the early 1800s. It was uncharted wilderness the Black Magic option, with gold stripes and interest to the Fox Mustang enthusiast.
until Lewis and Clark blazed that trail.
gold anodized TRX wheels — quite a looker and
So as we sail our own Corps of Discovery
On a slightly less impressive and magnificent an obscure chapter in Fox Mustang history. (A keel boat up the river of fuzzy Fox history, we
level, I feel like we’re blazing a trail and making pic and synopsis ran in last issue’s You Gotta See gather all the info we can and put it right here
some discoveries of our own here at
in these pages. We’re still very early into
FOX Mustang Magazine. Fox Mustangs
the mission — so early we frequently
were but appliances of transportation.
aren’t sure what questions to ask. But at
ENTHUSIASTS LIKE YOU
Almost no one regarded them as
the FOX Mustang Magazine tent at any
AND ME HAVE NOW BECOME
collectibles in their own right. They
Mustang show, discussions with readers
were hot rodded, driven, crashed, used
CUSTODIANS OF THE HISTORY. who stop by usually produce plenty of
up, parted out, and hauled off with no
good questions and even a few answers.
regard, like the can your pork and beans
Sometimes they want to share the results
came in.
This.) Call a Lincoln-Mercury dealer — if there of research they’ve already done. Sometimes
Thankfully, Ford has some understanding of are any Mercury dealers still around — ask them they have a probing question that needs
the importance of its heritage, how enthusiasts about a Black Magic Capri, and unless you get answering. Either way, rather than retelling old
value the history of a model like the Mustang, and a rare old-timer with extraordinary recall, they tales retold zillions of times already, uncovering
how celebrating that history and drawing from it won’t know a thing about it. Enthusiasts like Fox info is fresh, challenging, and interesting for
can endear its new models to the legions of fans you and me have now become custodians of the me as an editor, and it results in stories that I
who buy their share of new Mustangs.
history.
think you’ll find interesting, too.
But ev V