Tim McTevia's 1969 Mach 1

[Mach 1 Club]

When was the last time you saw a ’69 Mach 1 with a factory three-speed manual transmission? That’s the question we asked ourselves when looking over Tim and Mary McTevia’s Raven Black SportsRoof, and the answer we came up with was—a very long time ago. That may be a surprise if you look at the numbers, for Kevin Marti explained to us that of the 69,837 Mach 1s assembled for 1969, 7,364 were delivered with the base three-speed stick. While it’s not a lot—call it roughly one in ten, it’s enough for one to think they’d turn up more often than they do. We’d guess the truth of the matter is that a majority of the surviving base transmission Mach 1s have long since seen a four-speed swap—an easy bolt-in—if not a gearbox with five or six forward speeds. Oddly enough, that’s a temptation that the McTevias never succumbed to.

You can’t say Tim hasn’t had his chances to pop for an extra gear or two, as he’s owned this very car since May of 1970. Tim says he’s been a fan of the Mustang breed ever since the model’s debut in 1964, and when he graduated high school in June 1969, he soon found himself examining a Boss 302 at the local Ford dealer. Unfortunately the Boss was too much dough, but it’s no surprise that Tim was interested when he spied a ’69 Mach 1 for sale in the parking lot of a nearby branch of the Bank of California. Turns out the payments were a bit much for the banker/owner and his fledgling family, but the asking price was also a bit steep for Tim. He continued to admire the Mach 1 as work took him past the bank on a daily basis, and after going unsold for six weeks, the banker offered Tim a deal to simply take over the payments. It turned out to be $89.61/month, and the rest is history.


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[JTS71 Mach1]

As always you come up with an interesting story. I never knew the Mach1 came with anything other then the 4spd or the auto. I drove a 68 Mustang with a 390 and 3 speed stick, it was an absolute terror. It was a whole lot of fun, just trying to keep it in a straight line! Thanks for bringing back the memories. 

JTS

[Mustangmike]

Cool story and a bit of Mach 1 trivia to boot.  I wonder how many bets were lost on that trivia question?  Plus, letting the kids roll around on the fold down seat and play with toys as the miles past.  Wow...that would never fly today with the seatbelt laws.

Good story and memories!