Despite what the statistics say, every generation has a lot of young car enthusiasts. But watching shows and owning a car you built at just 16 years of age are two different things. Today, Jay Leno's Garage welcomed a young man who's been there and done all that.
We're used to Leno's show presenting more unique cars, either in mint condition or which have never been restored. But Jack Mintz' 1965 Ford Mustang is pretty normal-looking, and that immediately got our attention.
It turns out he got the car not at sixteen when he could drive, but two years before that, time Jack spends fixing it up. So he's earned the right to be behind the wheel more than some adults. And you can tell Jay relates to his story, saying that he also got a car, a 1934 Ford pickup, back when he turned fourteen.
Amazingly, Leno's car was newer to him than the 1965 Mustang is to young Jack since this Ford was made more than half a century ago. So why a Mustang? Well, the enthusiast says he's always been into classic cars and zoomed in on the iconic pony around the age of twelve.
His grandparents were the ones who got him into cars. Grandpa had a 1971 Pantera while grandma drove a 1968 Camaro. Let me tell you what; those are some cool folks right there!
As you can probably tell from the first seconds of the video, this is a six-cylinder Mustang. You can tell Jack loves his pony and probably hopes to swap it out for something more powerful down the line. Mom took a lot of convincing before she agreed to have her son driving in an old car.
Right now, when you pop the hood, you're met by a clean 200ci that produced 120 hp and 190 lb-ft (257 Nm) back in the day. It's been fitted with powered steering, a new radiator, and the air cleaner from the Windsor V8. It's pretty funny that Jay was around when the Mustang was brand new and remembers all the features and the options, knowledge he now passes down to the enthusiastic next generation.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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