The California Special story begins in the summer of 1967, when the Mustang was outselling everything out there and Ford wanted to keep that sales momentum going. Unfortunately, there was a UAW strike between November of 1967 and New Year’s in 1968 that would slow the expected production of the ’68 Mustang by about 30 percent. The automotive world usually works on two levels, which are “production” and “marketing,” and the marketing department needed to make up those lost sales to the competition. Sales were measured closely by the week, which made the district sales managers scramble for a clever way to bounce back and retake the Number One position in muscle car sales as fast as possible. Chevy’s new Camaro and Firebird and the AMC Javelin were just hitting dealerships for 1968, creating lots of competition in the new Mustang pony car market. Ford wanted to protect Mustang’s leadership, so sales managers believed that something had to be done, and done quickly!
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