Car of the Week: 1968 Ford Mustang High Country Special

A determined father-and-son team come to the aid of a rare Mustang when they rescue it from a barn near Gettysburg, Pa. Working together, the highly skilled duo successfully orchestrate a plan to restore the rare pony car to Mustang Club of America award-winning Concours Gold standards.

The huge Antique Automobile Club of America Eastern Fall Nationals in Hershey, PA., takes place each year during the first full week in October. The AACA Hershey Region began hosting the show in 1955 and has done so each year since then.

The size of the event is overwhelming. It takes place on the grounds and parking lots surrounding Hershey Park and The Giant Center, and Hershey, as it’s simply called, is considered one of the largest antique automobile events in the United States.

Throughout the decade or longer that I have been covering Hershey, I have discovered many great automobiles hidden in its giant flea market and on its sprawling, one-day-only show field. Among them was the Candyapple Red Mustang coupe I discovered a few years back while walking the outer perimeter of the show field. As I was scoping out each row of the show field in search of something rare and unique, the red Mustang stood out to me, although I, presumably like many others, initially thought the car was a rare California Special or GT/CS, as it’s often called within the Mustang and Shelby communities. But I was mistaken. As I walked closer, I noticed the blue-and-gold-scripted “High-Country Special” decal on the quarter panel side scoop and picked up my pace. This wasn’t a GT/CS, but an even rarer Mustang High Country Special!

As I approached the rarely seen Mustang model for a closer look, I was greeted by Howard Elledge and his son, Keith. The father-and-son duo had recently completed a complete restoration of their High Country Special Mustang after rescuing it from a location not far from their home in Gettysburg.

The car was a true barn find; it had been sitting in a local barn for decades, and Howard had known about it for many of those years. Determined to own it one day, Howard kept close contact with the owner until one day he received the call he had been hoping to get when the owner asked if Howard was still interested in buying the Mustang. Without hesitation, Howard said he wanted it. A deal was reached over the phone and soon after, Howard and Keith returned with a truck and trailer to take it to their home.

High Country Special History

One of the first special-edition Mustangs was the High Country Special. In an effort to maintain sales momentum in Mustang’s second model year of 1966, Denver-area Ford dealers offered the High Country Special edition with unique colors and brass “High Country Special” fender badges. Available in all body styles, 333 were sold for ’66 and another 400 were sold for the 1967 model year.

A more distinctive High Country Special arrived during the 1968 model year after Carroll Shelby built his one-of-kind prototype Mustang Shelby notchback hardtop coupe known as “Little Red.” Although Shelby’s high-performance Little Red coupe never came to be produced for the public—Shelbys remained only available as convertibles or fastbacks—the prototype coupe caught the attention of Ford’s Southern California District Sales Manager, Lee Grey, who lobbied for a Little Red-influenced Mustang coupe to be produced as a regional promotion. Ford Motor Co. green-lit the Mustang project for 1968, giving it the name “California Special” (GT/CS) and making it nearly identical to Colorado’s 1968 High Country Special. The twin-Paxton-supercharged 428-cid V-8 engine and other mechanical enhancements from Carroll Shelby’s Little Red EXP500 prototype didn’t find their way onto the GT/SC or High Country Special, but many of Little Red’s styling cues did find their way on the GT/CS and High Country Special.

Aside from the “High Country Special” side decal and the GT/CS’s rear fender “California Special” scripts, the 1968 High Country Special and GT/CS are identical. Success in and around Denver selling the High Country Special models beginning in 1966 inspired Ford to design and produce the GT/CS for 1968. That year, 4,118 copies of these limited-edition coupes were built for West Coast dealers (they were so close in appearance, Ford lumped production into one number). However, just 251 of the 4,118 limited-edition coupes were High Country Special editions, and the rest were California Specials. If one questioned whether the High Country Special and GT/CS were based on Carroll Shelby’s “Little Red” ’67 show car hardtop, one only need to examine their special features. The near-twin GT/CS and High Country Special coupes were clearly built with a combination of Mustang GT and Shelby GT350/500 parts.

As more people outside of Colorado have become aware of it over the last decade, the Ford Mustang High Country Special has grown in popularity. Enthusiasts are attracted to the High Country Special’s rarity, its solidly sporty first-gen pony car foundation and, for the final-year 1968 models, the cool Shelby connection and look.

The 1968 High Country Special styling elements included a blacked-out grille without the running horse; Marchal fog lamps (initially) and then Lucas fog lamps; quarter-turn hood locks; and a pop-off gas cap with a running horse. Shelby features straight off of the Little Red prototype were the High Country Special’s fiberglass quarter panel extensions; quarter panel scoops; built-in spoiler in the fiberglass decklid; and 1965 Thunderbird taillamps, as found on Shelby GT350/500 models. The High Country Special package also included stripes in red, white, blue or black that ran down the flanks into the quarter panel scoops where there was a special “HCS” logo. A matching-color stripe adorned the rear of the back spoiler and rear fender extensions.

All factory Mustang engine and exterior paint color options were available on the High Country Special and GT/CS models. All were built at the Ford Motor Co. San Jose assembly plant.

A Pony Car Pulled from the Barn

Factory produced with a 230-bhp 302-cid V-8 engine, the Elledges’ Mustang is the only High Country Special produced with its combination of options and with the optional center console. All of this Mustang’s body panels and the spare tire are original to the car, the former a remarkable feature for a Mustang stored in a Pennsylvania barn. However, the Mustang was originally sold in the western United States where the climate is mild, and its well-preserved metal proved it had clearly spent most of its life there.

Howard and Keith prepared the car’s solid western body panels for paint, and a local shop applied the single-stage Candyapple Red paint. Father and son then assembled the Mustang at Keith’s auto repair shop in Gettysburg. Their goal was to make this ’68 Mustang High Country Special among the best-restored examples in the hobby, and they achieved their goal.

The High Country Special garnered Best in Class Concours Gold Awards from the Mustang Club of America (MCA) and also earned Junior and Senior medallions in National AACA competition throughout the past decade. The Elledges’ 1968 Mustang High Country Special has made appearances at the Mustang Owner’s Museum in Concord, N.C., and was shown as part of a special display at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pa., that coincided with Mustang’s 50th anniversary.

Howard passed away in August 2019 and now his son, Keith, is the rare ’68 High Country Special Mustang’s caretaker. Like his father, he shows the award-winning Mustang at MCA and AACA events.

Mustang research bonus

I was on hand with Jason Billups and Todd Hollar when The Shelby Little Red EXP500 prototype was discovered parked in a field near Fort Worth, Texas. I filmed and documented the process from its discovery to its unveiling at the Barrett-Jackson auction in January 2020. During my research that included weeks spent going through the Ford archives, many similarities were found and referenced in the GT/CS model that were takeaways from Little Red. One photograph in the archives showed a 1967 Mustang coupe clay model with quarter panel side scoops with the unique script letters “GT-SC.” This clay model could have been the template for the creation of “Little Red,” and it was most likely the first attempt at what eventually became the GT/CS. The product designers only had to reverse the “SC” in “GT-SC” with “CS” to create the GT/CS for the California Special. Remarkably, I did not locate one photo of Little Red in finished form in any of the thousands of photos I viewed while at the Ford archives.

As for the “GT-SC” script on the Mustang prototype photos I uncovered and examined, it’s presumed the “SC” was to stand for Super Coupe, if the GT-SC, as modeled, had gone into production. We now know that never happened, but another performance car builder of the same period utilized an “SC” (Super Car) script on his hottest cars: Don Yenko, of Yenko Chevrolet.

Incidentally, Little Red was purchased by its original owner, Tom Gaddis, from Courtesy Ford in Littletown, Colo., where it was for sale on the used car lot with other rare, one-of-a-kind Mustangs and Shelbys. Was it a coincidence that Little Red, upon which the High Country Special was based, was sent to Colorado by the Ford Motor Co.? Or was Little Red intentionally sent to Denver to be sold because it would blend in with the High Country Specials? That’s something we might dig into later as part of Mustang history. Stay Tuned! 

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