Model 2 Mustangs on the Crest…

Check out yet another awesome photo from Steve’s collection of vintage Mustangs and related memorabilia….

Those are Model 2 Mustangs, which are (as the name suggests) the second model the original Mustang Motor Products Corporation offered.   The Model 2 was made necessary by Villiers cutting off Mustang’s supply of two-stroke engines (used in the original Colt).   The Colt was a tiny bike; the Model 2 was a scaled up version that used Mustang’s new 322cc flathead four-stroke engine.

You can tell the bikes above are the Model 2 by the exhaust manifold.   On the original Model 2, both the intake and the exhaust were at the rear of the cylinder head, and that fancy manifold you see above routed the exhaust to the classic Mustang chrome pipe.   Later models turned the cylinder head around, so the Model 2 is the only one with the “U-turn” exhaust manifold.

Very cool stuff, and my guess this photo (assuming these were new Mustangs at the time) would have been taken around 1948 or 1949 (when the Model 2 first appeared).   I’ll go you even one better…I think I recognize the location!   My guess is that it’s at the very beginning of the Angeles Crest Highway (CA Hwy 2), overlooking Glendale, California.

Glendale, of course, is where the original Mustangs were built (just of few miles from our current CSC location).   And folks, this is muey cool for a number of reasons….not the least of which is that the Angeles Crest Highway is one of our CSC premier motorcycle rides.   You’ve seen photos of us on that magnificent road numerous times right here on the CSC blog!

It’s kind of cool to think of CSC motorcycles on the very same roads as the Model 2 Mustangs.   Awesome, actually…the same motorcycle concept on the same road, separated by 65 years!

That’s it for now….I’m off on another secret mission.   It will be warmer than the last one, and it involves meeting with another moto manufacturer.  Can’t tell you who, but the name begins with a K!

Let the good times roll!