HARMARVILLE, PA – One of the biggest differences between the Mustang enthusiast community and those centered around other cars it that on any given summer weekend in most every major market across the United States, there’s a Mustang club hosting a car show or event to celebrate ownership of Ford’s beloved pony car. That’s why you’ll find the Ford Performance Club Connect Transit van out on the road whenever possible, setting up our 10x10 Ford Performance Meet & Greet display tent on your club’s show field where we can hand out free Mustang posters and Ford Performance wristbands and stickers and talk about Mustangs and collectible Fords all day long with show attendees.
Not only does registering your Ford-based enthusiast clubs, forums and Facebook groups on the www.FordPerformanceClubConnect.com website bring hundreds of thousands of Ford fans together on a single platform, but it also brings exposure and promotional support for your group from Ford via the Enthusiasts Section of FordPerformance.com and sometimes even on-site at your club’s show or event when you email us your show info to ClubHub@Ford.com.
It just so happened that we were out on the road giving a 60 Years of Mustang presentation at the Mustang Club of North Central PA’s 35th Anniversary Banquet in Watsontown, Pennsylvania, on a Saturday night in September, and were invited by the Greater Pittsburgh Mustang Club to their 40th Annual All Ford-Powered Car Show held at Shults Ford in suburban Pittsburgh that next Sunday morning. Since we had to travel through Pittsburgh on our way back to Dearborn that Sunday anyway, we decided to get up early and head to Shults Ford to spend a day on the show field there – and are we glad we did!
The GPMC show was open to all Mustangs, Fords and Ford-powered vehicles of any vintage, and included free spectator admission, goody bags and dash plaques for all show participants, gift basket raffles, a 50/50 drawing, a food truck and live DJ plus a trophy award ceremony at 2:30 p.m. for the two winners in each judged category. Better still, proceeds supported both The Education Partnership and The Heyward House charities. Club President Mark Bedel gave our Club Connect Meet & Greet display a prime location right in front of the dealership where we gave out our exclusive “Mustang 60 Years” mini posters and talked with hundreds of Mustang owners and fans as well as the dealer principals and staff. (They even booked us for a guest appearance on their “Cars, Stars and Everything In-Between” radio show hosted by Richard Bazzy and “Bubba,” a local radio personality from KDKA Radio’s STAR 100.7 FM. The show airs on Sundays at 1 p.m. on KDKA Radio channels 100.1FM and 1020AM, plus is streamed live on the Shults Ford YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages.) Should you want to check it out, here’s the YouTube link for the show: https://youtube.com/live/vGvr5rJ4v6w).
It was great seeing old friends in the GPMC, such as Bedel and Jason Uhler (who was out judging cars all day) as well as Fran and Becky Cosentino (yes, they sold their wonderfully restored “Branded” Mustang but have other projects in the works). Fran and Becky helped out slinging posters in the tent and even invited us out afterward to a popular restaurant & sports bar just down the road called Primanti Bros., where we were persuaded to try their famed “Pitts-Burger and Cheese” stacked sandwich, smothered in sweet & tangy coleslaw and filled with French fires inside! Thanks to their help that day, we were able to take a break from tent duty to walk the show field and check out the eclectic mix of Mustangs and Ford-built classics that filled the entire front lot at Shults Ford. We took photos of some of our favorites that we found there for you to enjoy in the gallery below:

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / JOHN M. CLOR