COLUMBIA, S.C. – For well-traveled people in the Mustang hobby, there’s something that insiders call the “Three C’s” that makes every club experience worthwhile. That references the fact that no matter where you go, no matter what Mustang club you visit, or what Mustang show you attend, you’ll always be impressed with the Cars you’ll see, the Characters you’ll meet and the Collections you’ll discover.

To that end, when we decided to attend the Spring Auto Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina, a couple of years ago, the first person we called was Mark Young, the Carolina Regional Mustang Club’s super enthusiast. We not only knew Mark would be able to guide us through the ins and outs of his club’s footprint with some great cars at the Spring Auto Fair, but also connect us with some of the characters in the local hobby as well as perhaps get us a look inside a nice private collection in the area. As expected, Mark succeeded an all three fronts.

The tour he arranged for us was of a local collection known as “Montys Mustangs” – an eclectic private display of more than 30 great Mustangs and Fords owned by Monty and Jennifer Seawright. Monty’s amazing garage is home to many superb Mustangs, including a ’67 GT350, ’68 GT500, a ’69 Boss 302 and Mach 1, a ’70 Boss 9 and Mach 1 – even a low-mileage 1978 King Cobra. That’s right, Monty appreciates and understands the value of all Mustangs, even those you rarely see in high-end collections. During our time there, he allowed us to snap a few photographs of his cars and of some of the great memorabilia he has collected over the years. After out tour, Monty sent us this note:

“Thanks for coming to visit! I feel like we have a lot in common and real passion for Ford and the products they make. I also would like to encourage you to keep writing about Mustang II’s along with the impact they had during the mid-70’s, and also why they are important to the Mustang brand. Almost the same as with the early Fox cars. You see some ’79 Pace Cars and a few 82-83 GT’s, but nothing in-between -- and I feel they are scarce as Mustang II’s. From 72-82 you see so few cars due to the lack of horsepower.”

Indeed, ‘Montys Mustangs’ are a fine representation of the 55 years of change that Mustang has survived without ever losing its pony car roots. Take a look at some of our favorite cars in his collection with our gallery below as a way to help celebrate Mustang’s 55^th birthday week.

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY JOHN M. CLOR