That time a car magazine bought a Ford Mustang, shipped it to Italy, and had Bertone build them a custom to their exact specifications.
It's an everyday occurrence for an editor to commission a story. But for the editor and publisher of automobilia's answer to American Heritage to commission the construction of a car is, to borrow a phrase, a case of man bites dog. Yet this is exactly how the car on this month's cover came to be. Scott Bailey, the man who is Automobile Quarterly, pried a bright red fastback Mustang out of Dearborn, got Alitalia to fly it across the Atlantic, and commissioned Carrozzeria Bertone to rebody it.
As in any such commissioning, there were stipulations. There were to be no mechanical changes. Well, practically none. It was to be ready in time for the New York Automobile Show. (Like everybody else's exhibit, it was, but just barely.) And it was to be any color Nuccio chose as long as it was not the same color as when it left here. But that was it. No "It's got to be lower than the underside of a Fruehauf." No "I want a fastback just like Jayne Mansfield's Ferrari." No limits at all. Which makes Scott Bailey a good guy in any carrozzeria's eye.
Source: Road and Track
