{/link=http://www.vancouversun.com/hers/5248367/story.html}Picture: The Vancouver Sun{/link}

Many young men and their fathers have participated in the building and restoration of a project car. These father-son projects have become a right of passage for many boys who become infatuated with their father’s muscle car of choice. But girls like muscle cars too, and sometimes it is a father-daughter project car that can capture our attention, and sometimes whole families come to revolve around a single car, a family focal point, if you will.

For Lorraine Stomperud and her father John, their shared obsession was a red 1969 Mustang Mach 1. Mustang Evolution and the Vancouver Sun report that  Lorraine and her father share an unusual history with this particular Mustang.

It all began when her father took a test drive in a white ’69 Mach 1 Mustang, becoming instantly smitten with everything but the color. He demanded red, with no stripes, and that is what he got. He kept the car for three years before trading it for a fuel efficient Ford Cortina. As the story goes, Lorraine and her father shared their interest for years to come, and by 1993, Lorraine had located her father’s old Mustang in a field, rotting away.

The owner refused to sell, though she called him every six months, until eventually he told her that the only way he’d give her the car was if she bought him a fully restored Mustang to drive. So that’s what she did, calling it a 30^th birthday present to herself. Her father paid to have a rebuilt engine installed, but by the turn of the millennium Lorraine decided she wanted to restore the car completely, taking over four years to complete the process. But now she and her father have something better than a family crest and slogan to pass on to the next generation, a fully restored Mustang with an incredible family history.