Cheryl Martin likes to call her 1969 Mustang “just a coupe” but you’d be wrong to dismiss this plain looking Pony car as such if you saw it on the streets of Maple Ridge, B.C. or at a car show anywhere in Western Canada.  While the Candy Apple Red ’69 is obviously a coupe, there’s something special about it that’s not immediately obvious until you take a second look and find the four speed shifter between the buckets and then open the hood and gawk at the immaculately rebuild 428 c.i. Super Cobra Jet mill.
     When Martin says her Mustang is just a coupe, her tongue is firmly planted in her cheek. Her Mustang is one of only four, 4-speed, big block coupes produced at the Dearborn, Michigan plant and is the only one known to still exist. It’s also the only one to come coated in Candy Apple Red - the other three were blue and white.  A MartiAutoWorks report states the car was built for the Pacific Ordering District in the summer of 1969 (July) and that it came with a 3.91:1 Traction Lok- axle ratio, four-speed close ratio manual transmission and a 428-4V CJ Ram Air. The 3.91:1 makes this Mustang a Drag Pack car and only 52 Drag Pack coupes were produced.  It was shipped to WestCoast Motors Ltd in Haney, B.C. where it was sold in November of 1969.  The car was in pieces when Martin purchased it for “a fair dollar” two years ago from an owner who was 16 years old when he first drove in the car with the original owner.  It took three truck loads to move the car to her place. A restoration had begun and the car was already wearing an “immaculate paint job” says Martin, but the car required lots of assembly. “I call it the Tyco car because some assembly was required,” says Martin.
     It didn’t take Martin long to name the car. On the way home she decided the car would be called Roxy, because “it rocked.” Of course, the trailer the car often travels in is now called Roxy’s Roller. Martin’s always loved Mustangs and previously owned a “great little” 1968 coupe with a 289/auto combo.
     “I wanted something different and wanted a convertible with a 4-speed,” says Martin. Instead, her husband, Doug, heard about the ’69 coupe and gave the owner a call. “When he got off the phone he said ‘there’s two things about it you’re not going to like. It’s in pieces and it’s red’,” says Martin, who quickly got over those hurdles when she realized what the car was.  “We spent four hours going over and checking all the numbers,” says Martin.
     When it came to putting the car back together, Doug and a number of people, especially Rick at R&L Automotive in Port Coquitam, were responsible for putting the coupe back together. Rick, says Martin, was a SCJ guru who was able to find parts they couldn’t to rebuilt the 428 SCJ the way it was when it left the Dearborn assembly line.  “If you showed Rick a screw he’d tell you what it was for,” says Martin of his SJC knowledge. “He took it to his house and basically finished it. The motor had been rebuilt but he stripped it down and redid it to make sure it was right.”
     While Doug had purchased an all new interior for the Mustang, Martin wouldn’t let him install it. “I like the (original) interior, it gives the car character,” says Martin.
     The finished product was worth “all the stress” Martin had to put up with during reassembly.  When Rick drove the finished car to her house on a flatdeck, she toasted its arrival with a glass of champagne.
     The Mustang community has since toasted this coupe’s arrival on the show circuit with a number of awards, including a Best in Show among 456 other Mustangs at the recent (Sept. 1-4) 27th International Mustang Meet in Edmonton, as well as Best in Class in the 1969 Mustang category. It was named Mustang of the Year by the Greater Vancouver Mustang Association in 2005 and also received a Silver medal in the Concours Class at the 26th annual Mustang Round Up in Bellevue, WA - an event that regularly attracts some 1,200 to 1,400 Mustangs.
     “When I first registered for that event, they e-mailed me back to find out if the information was correct on the car,” says Martin. “They had never had a 428 SCJ coupe at the show in all of its 26 years.” The car actually won its first time out, garnering a Best in Show award at the local Sounds of Summer show in 2005 and repeating that win this year.
     The Drag Pack option reveals the car was built for business, but the lack of other options is just as telling: After the Drag Pack options, the original owner ordered only an AM radio and colour keyed racing mirrors.
     With just under 53,000 original miles on the odometer and a complete restoration “Roxy” has plenty more giddy up left in her. She’ll be a star for many more years to come.  “We just bought a house with a heated garage for her,” says Martin.