The
Washington DC Jaycees and the Cherry Blossom parade committee
contacted Ford for the use of convertibles for the annual parade held
in early April 1972 to celebrate the blooming of the trees around the
Tidal Basin.
It is not clear who
decided to use Mustang Sprints. Ford was pushing the Sportsroof
and Coupes already as a tie in to the 1972 Olympic Games. The convertible
was a natural for a parade vehicle.
( 50 ) Identical Sprint Convertibles
were assembled in March at the Dearborn plant. The VIN
numbers for the "50 of a Kind" convertibles were sequential from 2F03F184256 to 2F03F184305.
The
seat material was unique to these fifty convertibles and the trim
code is blank on the VIN decal. All the cars came with a 302
engine, automatic transmission, AM radio, deluxe interior and
power steering and disc brakesAfter the parade, the
cars were distributed to the Washington area Ford dealers and sold to
the public for an asking sticker price of $3,272.22 or higher. A customer / dealer copy of a
Special Equipment Parts List from FOMOCO dated March 3, 1972 lists 27
parts as part of the Sprint package. No other options such
as the B package were added to these 50 convertibles when produced.
Jesse Owens was the grand Marshall and Peter Dove was the
parade chairman. Lynn Armstrong of Massachusetts was named the Cherry
Blossom Queen. There are newspaper articles about the parade
and one shows
two convertibles and Ms. Armstrong riding in one.
Special commemorative Cherry Blossom Festival license plates that were
sold in Washington DC that were legal tags for the brief period of the
festival.
To date, Thirty-seven of the original consecutively numbered red,
white and blue convertibles have been located.
There is one convertible in Norway and another one found its way to
Sweden. Many of these cars have been featured in Mustang books,
magazines and newspapers.
Read
about the history of the 50 convertibles in Rex Turner's book "
Cherry Blossom S
print Mustangs " A History of the Fifty
1972 Ford convertibles.
CLICK HERE to order a copy
of Rex's book.
Rex Turner is the Convertible Historian. His goal is to locate the missing thirteen cars with the help of
other Mustang enthusiasts. If you know of anyone
that owns one of these rare Mustang convertibles please Rex at
rturner72@verizon.net or
703-319-3338.
CLICK HERE for
pictures and information on Washington DC Cherry Blossom Parade -
History Site
Submit 1972 Mustang Sprint Cherry Blossom Parade
Information - CLICK
HERE
