DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Glen In NoMad

Q: What brings you here today?

A: I'm here to be involved in the shooting of a movie.

Q: I know you probably can't tell me what the movie is but man, that is an awesome car, and it's in black. What can you tell me about it?

A: It's a 1964 and a half Mustang Convertible. This was the car that was introduced at the 1964 World's Fair.

Q: Do most automobiles get grouped into halves?

A: No, they don't. This was one of the earlier productions. They came out with the V8 260 motor. Then Ford decided that they wanted to step it up, to keep up with some of the other cars that were out, so they came out with a 289 motor a little bit later. They classified the earlier Mustangs as a '64 and a half, but it really, actually is a 1965 Ford.

Q: I prefer the 1964 and three quarters personally, but I am steering this interview down a different road. Let's get back in the fast lane. What can you tell me about the gorgeous paint job?

A: It's black metallic paint, which actually wasn't an original color back in '65, so it's been repainted with a metallic paint.

Q: And the insides?

A: It has a black interior, which was redone. It has the V8 engine. It's automatic. It's not standard shift. It's got an AM radio with a single speaker in the dashboard. No FM, because they didn't have FM back in '65.

Q: That's right, it took a few years. They had to make BM, CM, DM, and EM first. Sorry, eyes on the road again. What is the mileage?

A: The actual mileage, I believe is in the vicinity of 150,000 miles.

Q: What do you mainly use the car for?

A: It's predominantly to go to auto shows and I have used it on a couple of other movies as a background car.

Q: Background car? This car's an extra? She looks like she should be getting top billing.

A: They actually came to me today and told me that they couldn't use it in one of the scenes of the movie because it looked a little too much like the hero car. That's kind of why it's in the background today.

Q: 1964.5, 1965 Ford Mustang. Did you know that the Beatles recorded the song "Day Tripper" on October 16, 1965? Do you have a favorite day trip?

A: I go to Ocean Parkway over by Jones Beach and there's a gathering every Sunday morning and several hundred cars meet there. Guys and girls get together and talk about all the cars they've had through the years and it's just a lot of fun.

Q: And, get this, "Drive My Car" was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on October 13, 1965. Where is the furthest that you drive your car?

A: I live in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, so I'm about 50-55 miles from here and the furthest the car has been driven has been from Long Island to Manhattan and Harlem for different movie shoots.

Q: Where did you get the car?

A: It was actually my father's car. I inherited it about seven years ago from him. He had it, I believe, five years before that, so the family got the car in about 1998.

Q: And here we are now, a huge Hollywood blockbuster movie being filmed. How did this all happen?

A: A friend of mine called me up and told me that they were going to be doing a movie shoot today, so I said I would definitely be interested, and I came out.

Q: Your car is a movie extra today. Are there any extras added to the car itself?

A: There's pretty much nothing extra that was added to the car. It's pretty much stock. Pretty much all of the guys with vintage cars do carry fire extinguishers in their cars, just to be on the safe side, so that's extra.

Q: Vintage cars rule! Do you have any rules for people before they get in your car?

A: No, there were some tourists that were visiting from Europe today and I saw them taking pictures of my car. I asked them if they would like to sit in it and I took pictures of them.