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1-in-10 1982 McLaren Mustang Sat in a Pine Forest for 30 Years; How Would You Save It?

1982 McLaren Mustang 31 photos
Photo: YouTube/Cross the line
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Think of the rarest Ford Mustang of them all – one that was actually built for public use. It probably will surprise you to learn that it comes from the second-most popular generation of the iconic nameplate, the Fox-body pony. In 1980, Ford devised a plan to revive the brand's performance image by teaming up with a famous racing name, and the M81 McLaren Mustang was born.
In 1966, when Ford’s GT40 buried Ferrari under the finish line at Le Mans with a 1-2-3 finish from the factory team’s three cars lined up at the start, Bruce McLaren was one of the drivers to take the honors. Later, his company would become a synonym for speed, both on and off the track. It was only natural that Ford asked the racing great for help.

McLaren developed a turbocharged inline-four 2.3-liter engine and strapped a $25,000 price tag on the unlikely Mustang (codenamed M81). 250 units were slated for production, but only 10 were built. Small wonder, given that the regular hatchback pony cost around a quarter of the McLaren-ized Mustang. However, there was an alternative offered for sale: a Dealer Special Order (DSO) kit.

Unlike the M81 Mustang, the DSO had a much more modest price of around $1,500, but it didn’t spur a mass following, either. Apparently, ten or so were ordered. The mechanism was different than for the McLaren-built M81: a customer would check the option on the order sheet, and the dealer would bring in a regular Mustang and install the body kit on it.

1982 McLaren Mustang
Photo: YouTube/Cross the line
That’s what a Texan did back in 1982 – he had a 5.0-liter V8 Fox-body Mustang retrofitted with fiberglass body parts to make it look like the obscenely expensive McLaren M81. The car didn’t have a good life, with fate doing a number on it in 1994 when it was abandoned in a pine thicket. It lay there for the following three decades until a car nut from Gilmer, Texas, found it for sale on Facebook.

The man then asked the help of a fellow Lone Star resident, Shawn Cross, the frontman of Cross the line YouTube channel and avid Ford enthusiast, to get the rare McLaren Mustang running. Not the easiest job in the world, given that the engine had no intake manifold or carburetor on it. Even worse, once the YouTubing mechanic completed the V8 with all its vitals, the engine still wouldn’t run on its own.

The solution was simple and effective: pull out the stubborn 5.0-liter V8, and drop in another unit from a parts car that had came out of a misfortunate love affair with a tree. In its defense, the original plant did turn over by hand, but it simply refused to sustain internal combustion.

1982 McLaren Mustang
Photo: YouTube/Cross the line
The car was probably drag-raced sometime in its early days, and the mods done to it – like the brake line lock button on the Hurst shifter for the four-speed manual or the headers. With almost 18,000 miles (some 29,000 km) on the clock, the car shouldn’t be half-bad – if it were unmolested. However, a deep welding scar on the front left wheel well is a warning sign that this super-rare Mustang has some skeletons in its closet.

The owner plans to do a resto-mod project out of it and keep it for himself, given that the market for these oddball rarities isn’t In tune with their super-low production numbers. Given its uniqueness, I have one question for you: what would you do with it?

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About the author: Razvan Calin
Razvan Calin profile photo

After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads.
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