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A dark green 1968 Ford Mustang California Special GT/CS is currently for sale on Hagerty Marketplace, where bidding has already climbed to $15,500 across 14 bids with a few days left before the gavel falls. The Venetia, Pennsylvania coupe pairs its original 289ci V8 with a four-speed manual conversion, giving buyers a rare chance to bid on one of Ford's most style-conscious 1968 Mustangs.
The California Special GT/CS traces back to 1968, when Southern California zone sales manager Lee Grey pushed for a Mustang dressed up to compete visually with the Shelby GT500 "Little Red" prototype. Ford obliged with a package that could be ordered with any engine, transmission, and color, but only as a coupe, and dressed it with GT-style trim, Shelby-inspired sequential taillights, a decklid spoiler, a blacked-out grille, fog lights, and non-functional rear fender scoops. Only 4,118 examples were built, all at Ford's San Jose, California plant, making the model a genuinely rare footnote in Mustang history and a big reason interest keeps building on this Hagerty Marketplace listing.
The VIN on this coupe, 8R01C163189, decodes to a 1968 San Jose-built hardtop finished with a 289ci 2V V8, and the car wears a fresh dark green respray over its Ivy Gold interior. The seller has swapped in a four-speed manual transmission in place of the automatic recorded on the data plate, and the 289 now breathes through an Edelbrock intake and carburetor topped with Mickey Thompson valve covers. Power steering and power front disc brakes come standard on this build, riding on a set of 14-inch styled steel wheels, and the seller has confirmed both details directly in the comments on the Hagerty Marketplace page for anyone weighing a bid.
The current seller has owned the Mustang since October 2013 and is offering it with a clean Pennsylvania title in hand, with the odometer showing 44,250 miles TMU. Recent maintenance skews toward the chassis rather than cosmetics: brake pads, rotors, calipers, wheel seals, and brake hoses have all been replaced within the last 1,000 miles, along with the ball joints, tie rods, and idler arm. That kind of front-to-back attention matters on a car people plan to actually drive, and it is spelled out in detail in the condition notes on the Hagerty Marketplace auction page.
With bidding sitting at $15,500 through 14 bids and the auction set to close Friday, August 28 at 2:20 p.m. EDT, this California Special still has room to move before it changes hands. Anyone drawn to the GT/CS look, the four-speed swap, or simply the idea of owning one of 4,118 built can follow the action and place a bid on Hagerty Marketplace before time runs out.
