I checked off all the options including the unpopular sun roof.  I wanted black with a grey interior so I knew the inside of the car would need a little brightening up.  I also wanted the hood graphic delete option.  I hated that ugly sticker on the hood.  I was so particular, it had to be perfect.

So I haggled as best I could and I think I won a pretty good deal, just a few hundred over invoice.  Especially considering ones off the lot were getting close to sticker. 

And then I waited.  And waited some more.  There was some sort of production problem that held up my car.  And then an agonizing 3 months later my black beauty finally arrived.  But oh no!  The salesman had forgotten to check off the tinted windows!  Heart break!  I turned down the car.  The salesman did not mind and sold the car the next day.

So we re-ordered my Mustang.  And then I settled in to start waiting again.  But this time fortune was with me.  My car came in in seven weeks.  It was love at first sight.  The GT sounded and looked mean.  I do remember that it was not as fast as I expected.  A low 15 second car was fast for 1986, but in that kind of speed can get a bit boring.

Even so, I really dug this car.  Car and Driver had compared it to a BMW and so the cool factor was way up.  Of course you cannot really compare a Ford to a BMW, but in zealousness of my youth I was easily influenced.

It was great to be driving a stick shift V8 again and I enjoyed every trip to the store and back and forth to work.  The GT with those original Goodyear Gatorbacks was especially terrible in snow.  I remember we got about 2 inches of snow while I was in work and I had to ask two of my friends to help me push it out of the parking lot.  But I did not care.  I could sit there stuck in the snow and rev the engine.  What a beautiful sound.  I learned that what the Mustang GT really needed in the snow was to have two full boxes of computer paper in the back of the hatchback.  this worked!  The next time it snows while I was working I was able to drive home with no assistance!  I was so cool!

I also remember having to re-learn my shifting techniques.  I took a friend out for a ride and made an attempt to impress him with the GTs quest for speed.  1-2 went fine but 2-3 went crunch.  Vrooom Bnah Vrooom Crunch.  Ouch. My friend got a nice chuckle.  I was weaned on a Ford 4 speed Top Loader with a Hurst Competition Plus.  Smooth as butter.  The GT needed a better shifter and a better driver.

I really was attached to my somewhat slow black stealth GT.  But I could not afford two car payments.  And my family was growing.  My daughter Lauren had arrived with Julie on the way.  We bought the big house.  Plenty of bedrooms.  Check.  Reliable, safe, spacious family transportation.  Uncheck. 

Because I love my family even more than my own little pleasures, I did the unthinkable.  I traded my ebony muscular GT for a Ford Aerostar.  A blue XLT with the weird electronic dashboard option.  Could I sink any lower?  Yes I could.  Since Eileen would be driving the Aerostar I would get her Pontiac Bonneville Brougham.  Green.  Any questions?  I was completely emasculated. 

Goodbye black beauty.  Hello green two tone four door chrome encrusted cushmobile.