Mr. Jones And Me: 1969 Ford Bronco vs 1970 Ford Mustang

Good morning! I’m writing to you from the brand-new east coast headquarters of Shitbox Showdown, Inc., and today we’re paying tribute to one of the greats who passed away last week: Rufus “Parnelli” Jones. Cars associated with Parnelli Jones and his racing legacy are well outside of our price range, of course, so we’ve stretched the budget a bit today. We’re looking at, I don’t want to say “lesser,” but plainer examples of such vehicles.

Last week, while we were making our final transcontinental drive, my better half was choosing the cars, and by the overall reaction, she did pretty well. So on Friday we pitted the week’s champions against each other, and that dirt-cheap Yukon simply ran away with the vote. My favorite, the stepside Chevy, was a distant second, leaving the poor Bronco and Odyssey minivan as also-rans.

Having someone else pick the cars was a very strange experience. In a couple of cases, like that Honda Pilot, for example, I honestly didn’t know what to say, other than, “Yep, that’s a car, and it’s for sale.” But it was an intriguing enough experience that I think I’ll have other Special Guest Car-Choosers in the future. I’m not sure who, or how it will work, but stay tuned.

When I was a kid, we visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took the museum tour. My dad took great delight in pointing out to me the cars of all of his favorite drivers: Jim Clark, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti … and Parnelli Jones. He showed me the difference between Jones’s 1963 and Foyt’s 1964 cars, with the engine in front of the driver’s compartment, and Clark’s 1965 winner, when the engine moved behind the driver. He told me all about how Jones had moved on from Indy to off-road and Trans Am racing, and about the Trans Am race he’d attended at Road America in Wisconsin years earlier. My Pinewood Derby car that year wore the yellow and black livery and number 15 of Parnelli Jones’s Trans Am Ford Mustang.

Since both my dad and now Parnelli Jones are gone, it only seems fitting that I do a little tribute. Today’s cars are well outside our normal price range, and they’re not what anyone would consider shitboxes, but there’s no rule saying we can’t look at some nice cars once in a while. Let’s check them out.

1969 Ford Bronco half cab – $34,500

Engine/drivetrain: 170 cubic inch overhead valve inline 6, three-speed manual, part-time 4WD

Location: Buffalo, NY

Odometer reading: 100,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

The story goes that Bill Stroppe, Parnelli Jones’s co-driver, grew tired of telling Jones to go easier on their off-road racing Ford Bronco, which Jones kept breaking. Enter Big Oly, the legendary racing Bronco that has about as much in common with our featured car as a bowl of Cap’n Crunch does with a nutritious breakfast. But there’s only one Big Oly, and while first-generation Bronco values have skyrocketed in recent years, they’re still purchaseable by mere mortals.

This is a fairly basic Bronco, with a six-cylinder engine and a three-speed stick. This is the “Thriftpower” inline six from the Falcon, not the larger truck six that would evolve into the legendary 300, but it’s still built like a tank and tuned for low-revving torque, perfect for a little off-roader like a Bronco. This truck is pretty close to stock, but the front brakes have been updated to discs, with power assist – a smart upgrade to any vehicle this age. Stopping is important.

It also looks like the original column-mounted shifter has been ditched in favor of a Hurst floor shifter. The gun rack in the back window is probably aftermarket as well, but I bet it’s been in there from the beginning. Personally, I’d probably take it out; I don’t even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack. The rest of the interior looks nice, though it’s hard to say how much of it is original.

The half-cab pickup body style is a rarity, and I don’t know enough about the Bronco market to know whether that’s a plus or a minus when it comes to value. It’s a cute little sucker, though, and just like the full-length roof versions, the top and doors are removable. It’s clean and shiny, but not entirely rust-free; there’s a little bit of rust starting to show in the seams of the floor. Still, considering it’s in upstate New York, it’s in pretty amazing shape.

1970 Ford Mustang – $22,000

Engine/drivetrain: 200 cubic inch overhead valve inline 6, three-speed manual, RWD

Location: Beverly Hills, CA

Odometer reading: 30,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

If there’s any era of motorsports that I’m disappointed that I missed out on, it’s the Trans Am races of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Watching Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, Challengers, Barracudas, and Javelins battle it out on road courses must have been an amazing sight. With strict limits on engine displacement, Trans Am cars offered an alternative to the ever-expanding big block engines in muscle cars; you could get your 1970 Mustang with a big honkin’ 429 cubic inch V8, for drag racing, or a high-revving 302 V8 for tearing up the track like Parnelli Jones. Or, for the more mild-mannered set, a nice sedate inline six, like this one has.

There were actually two sizes of six-cylinder engine offered in the 1970 Mustang: 200 or 250 cubic inches. The seller doesn’t specify which one this is, but considering the bare-bones spec of the rest of the car, I’m guessing it’s a 200. It’s backed by a three-speed manual with a factory floor shift; a column shift was antithetical to the Mustang’s sporty mission, and even Ford understood that. This is a one-owner car with only 30,000 pampered miles on it; as you’d guess, it runs like a top.

This thing is so basic it doesn’t even have a radio. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t have many miles; who wants to drive long distances with only the drone of a six-cylinder to keep them company? But the fact that it has remained radio-less speaks to its originality. Those pea-green vinyl seats look exactly like they would have in 1970.

This era of Mustang styling is the beginning of the end for the original lightweight first-generation. It’s nowhere near as bloated and heavy as the 1971-73 cars, but it’s quite a lot bulkier than the early cars. It looks more muscular, however, even in notchback form like this, with basic dog-dish hubcaps. The paint is original and not particularly shiny, but just try finding another base-model Mustang this clean.

I hope you enjoyed this little step outside our normal fare, and if not, thanks for humoring me, and we’ll get back to the true shitboxes tomorrow. For now, though, you have a choice. You can Walter Mitty your way around town looking like Parnelli Jones in one of two six-cylinder Fords: a Bronco, or a Mustang. Which will it be?

(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)