PONTIAC, Mich. – All year long, Mustang is being celebrated for its 60th straight year of being the ultimate pony car. A performance parts distribution company called Turn 14 – known more among the import crowd than by pony car fans – hosts “Pit & Paddock Cars & Coffee” events for their customer base at different venues around the country, and a couple of times a year at their own headquarters in Pennsylvania. The main goal is to celebrate different significant marques in automotive history. Recently, Turn 14 has taken on a new challenge of giving a bigger focus to its domestic-car customer market – so what better way to accomplish that than through Mustang and its enthusiast community?

That’s why this past August, Turn 14 Distribution hosted a free “Pit & Paddock Cars & Coffee” event at Michigan’s M1 Concourse for Mustang fans, bolstered by some insider “invite only" invitations being sent out to some of the most heavily modified Mustangs in the Midwest. With this being Turn 14's first domestic “grid icons” event and taking place during Woodward Dream Cruise week in metro Detroit while enthusiasts celebrated the 60th anniversary of Mustang, they really wanted to connect some of the top custom Mustangs to the “Pit & Paddock” community.

For enthusiasts primarily involved in the new-age of social media, there are many different Mustangs promoted via internet that carry their own bit of social fame. Groups of fans begin to follow Mustang accounts on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube and many grow to a certain level of notoriety. Many of these Mustangs are unique, featuring tasteful modifications, different paints or wraps, full-on builds from the ground up, becoming restomods, race cars and even late-model Mustangs that become transformed into earlier generations of the car. Any Mustang die-hard would love to see many of these different and unique Mustangs all at one venue, and that’s exactly what Turn 14 Distribution tried to do.

From some engineers and designers on Team Mustang and the Ford Performance staff to internet personalities, pro race car drivers and many others, Mustang fans had a little bit of everyone involved in the Mustang world to meet and mingle with during this event – as well as lots of high horsepower cars to check out. Fox Body Mustangs were some of the most predominant cars here and shown off in different forms, many of which turned into drag or street cars with a long list of modifications. Duncan Brothers Customs had three of their unique builds on site – including their DB500, a Mach 1 retro-style build on an S197 chassis and most notably one of their most recent cars, the "Boogeyman" build inspired by the 70 Fastback from the John Wick movie.
The list didn’t stop there. There were many local high-end Shelbys in attendance -- both GT350s and GT500s -- including the brand-new 2024 Shelby Super Snake which at the time was only 1 of 2 in the world. The Ford Performance Parts team brought out its FP800 along with a top-of-the-line Carbon Dark Horse sporting the bladed carbon wheels with blue accents along with some unreleased flat carbon test parts for the Handling Pack cars. One of the most viewed and talked-about Mustangs on-site was the full Factory X Mustang Cobra Jet race car sitting at the center of the show sporting "Varsity Ford" livery and huge engine -- once the race team removed the front piece of the car to show its glory.
At the end of the event, gearheads got a real treat when all of the cars formed a parade while leaving the show, with these extreme Mustangs getting fired up – including the Cobra Jet -- to roll out in front of the Mustang faithful. After a symphony of wonderful engine sounds, the night was capped-off by a burnout demonstration from the Cobra Jet “just to burn off some excess fuel.” This was a special event that you needed to see to believe, so we’re providing this photo gallery below to show you how 60 Years of Mustang was celebrated at the M1 Concourse this summer for you to enjoy.

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / JOE DELADVITCH