The paint on today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mustang changes color depending on how the light hits it. Being a Cobra means it also has a heavy-hitter V8 under the hood. Let’s see how its price tag hits us.
YouTuber Alex Palmeri, owner of the Legit Street Cars channel and a former Mercedes Master Technician, recently posted a video showcasing a Porsche Cayenne that he had bought at auction. The car had a suspicious knock, and when Alex scoped the cylinders, he found that each of them had suffered catastrophic scoring of their walls. Repair or replacement isn’t really a viable option on an old Cayenne like that, so Alex decided to button the motor back up and just drive it until it dies.
Having a car that’s majorly wounded but still viable for certain tasks like that is not something that many of us would actively seek, but that was exactly the scenario presented by the 2011 Nissan Leaf we looked at yesterday. A full-electric, that Leaf suffers from a worn-out battery that limits its range to around 40 miles between charges. That’s still enough to get around most towns, and with functional climate control and small, easily parked size, it could be a great little commuter if the price were right. A $1,900 price tag did seem to be just right. Or, at least, it appeared to be OK for enough of you. That was evident in the 56% Nice Price win the Leaf racked up.
She’s like a rainbow
Friday’s Leaf wasn’t all that unique, save for the fact that it was cheap. Today’s 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra, on the other hand, is fairly uncommon owing to its fancy-pants paint job. Dubbed the “Mystic Mustang,” this is one of 1,999 Mustang Cobra coupes to wear special prismatic paint, the first application of such paint on any production car. Developed by Baden Aniline and Soda Factory (BASF), the paint is a multi-stage process that suspends light-altering prisms and color flakes in the top coat. That combination allows the surface to appear in different colors—on the Mustang, it shifts from purple to green—depending on how the light is refracted when it hits the surface.
This same technique is used on certain U.S. currencies, employing holographic ink to thwart counterfeiting. Because of that, quantities of Mystic Mustang paint are hard to come by, and apparently the purchase is tied to the car’s VIN and tracked by the Treasury.
Snakes alive!
That’s not the Cobra’s only trick, either. This is peak SN95 Mustang, featuring everything that the GT has, only turned up to eleven. That means a hand-built 4.6-liter DOHC Modular V8 under the hood, good for a stomping 305 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, a Borg Warner T45 five-speed manual behind that, and bigger brakes and a stouter suspension to keep everything in check.
According to the ad, this one has 63,850 miles under its belt and comes with a fresh change of oil and plenty of tread on its tires. Those tires are mounted on factory five-spoke alloys which appear to have no sign of curbing or brake dust etching. The interior has leather on the seats, steering wheel, and shift knob, along with Cobra-specific white-faced gauges and a Ford AM/FM/cassette stereo. Everything looks to be in decent condition in the cabin, and while this is an old car, it’s at least modern enough to have two airbags up front.
North to Alaska
It’s not all great news, however. The seller notes that the Mustang has a CEL and explains that the code causing that is for a large evaporative leak in the fuel vapor recovery system. Their Google-Fu has come up with a possible solution, likely a replacement valve for the vapor capture canister. That’s possible, but only a smoke test will tell if the issue lies there or somewhere else in the system.
Another issue lies in that fancy paint. The car is offered in Anchorage, Alaska, a city that’s not known for having an excess of sunny days, and yet both front and rear bumpers on this Mustang are showing signs of sun damage in the paint. As noted above, getting those resprayed could require the involvement of the Feds. On the plus side, the car appears to have no structural issues—such as rust, accident damage, or the like—and comes with a clean title. It also sports a brand new battery for all our starting enjoyment.
Cobra cash
The brass tacks on this Mystic Mustang come down to its $14,500 asking price. When considering that, we should also keep in mind the car’s location and its rarity, not just in total production numbers but geographically. There are probably not all that many people in Anchorage who are looking for a hot color-shifting Mustang in a region where the weather might make a 4WD vehicle more reassuring. Then again, maybe there are. The seller of this Mustang appears to have a few other cool cars in their collection.
With that in mind, what’s our take on this rare pony and that $14,500 price tag? Does that seem like a fair deal for so unique a car? Or does that price take the color out of your interest?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Facebook Marketplace out of Anchorage, Alaska, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Shaylon Cochran for the hookup!
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