The year was 1965: the Mustang was a recent addition taking the car world by storm and the late George Barris was already a custom car legend. So, when the was tasked with creating a ‘Stang that would increase the on-screen aura of Nancy Sinatra, the elder daughter of the legendary singer, he naturally came up with a wild project. Enter the 1965 Zebra Mustang.
Zoom in on this movie car all you want, it won’t be easy to tell it’s a Mustang. And that’s because Barris completely redefined the exterior, while adding some interior changes that would simply appear impossible nowadays.
The designer created the vehicle for the Marriage on the Rocks, a romcom starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra. And while the pony-gone-zebra only didn’t enjoy too much screen time, having Nancy riding shotgun for some sequences was enough to get people talking about this exuberant creation.
Yes, that’s a zebra fur treatment (allegedly using man-made material) you see on the outside and the inside of the machine. As for the departure from the factory shape of the ‘Stang, this starts up front. Barris (here’s his controversial 1969 Corvette) elongated the nose, while fitting a pair of vertically-stacked, Euro-style square-oval ligh clusters on each side. In between the headlights, we find a fabricated slatted metal grille.
The cabin packs less custom bits, but may be even crazier than the exterior
And while the taillight pannel at the back is perhaps less impressive than the nose job, the upper section of the car will definitely catch one’s eye. For starters, this sports an open roof, but only for the front passengers—you might expect targa roof panels, but there simply don’t exist.
The rear seats still feature a top, while the fastback factory profile was shaped into a pair of butretresses. Those organ-shaped goodies adorning the rear deck? They’re speakers, while the TV set, mounted right next to the console shifter of the automatic gearbox brought a small screen to the big one.
Diving further into the cabin, we find a rear-seat mounted bar, with cocktail-friendly cupholders completing the hedonistic vibe of the interior. Of course, one might be worried about driving safety. But, as Petersen Automotive Museum curator Leslie Kendall explains in the YouTube video below, this Mustang wasn’t exactly built for spending time on the road.
So, while many attention-grabbing movie cars don’t bother with upgraded tech sides, this Ford has special reasons not to (it packs a factory V8, probably a 289).
It’s been well-preserved, save for this detail
As you’ll notice by comparing the stills included in the video to the showcase of the video on the museum floor, the Cragar wheels presently on the vehicle aren’t the original four-spoke units Barris installed. However, with their white-letter tires, the former do a great job at maintaining the vibrant image of this classic Hollywood machine.
For the record, the Zebra Mustang, which wears Barris’ branding on the driver’s side front fender, entered the Peterson collection back in 2001, with the late late Robert E. Petersen having purchased it from a collector named Don Chambers. And it remains just as quirky nowadays as it was the day when the legendary customizer created it.
