Leave it to small-but-significant builders such as Ringbrothers to constantly come up with automotive examples for the Ship of Theseus thought experiment that’s been occupying our minds for some 2,500 years now. Case in point with the developer’s latest creation, the 1964.5 Ford Mustang Convertible “Caged”, which uses less than 1% of the factory parts, despite being based on an original car.
Greek mythology tells us that Theseus was the founder and king of Athens. And if his ship sat in a harbor and had each and every part replaced—one at a time—would this still be his original ship or a new vessel?
Now, before we leave that to philosophers, be they amateur or not, we have one more question: was anybody concerned about the purity of the new parts installed on Theseus’ ship? We’re asking because this ‘Stang mixes the familiar Coyote swap (here’s one in a 1967 Camaro) with Ford’s current ten-speed automatic.
Perhaps the enthusiast who commissioned the build wishes to make the most out of the free-breathing 5.0L V8’s potential, even though drag racing in such an expensive machine (no, the price hasn’t been mentioned) sounds like one of the most eccentric activities we can think of. Or maybe it was the coziness aura of the two-pedal setup that saw this hardware prevailing. Guess we’ll never know for sure.
Then again, we can be certain of another aspect: with Ringbrother builds (like this 1969 Charger) being the kind that fully captivate the audience at SEMA or cause massive bidding wars at auctions, the experience offered by the Caged Mustang has to be as brilliant as they get.
The Caged Mustang required north of 4,200 hours to build
The center caps for the wheels. Those are the only factory Mustang bits used here, which explains why the project took over 4,200 hours to complete.
Some of the custom bits on this classic Mustang are easy to spot, with examples ranging from the retro-styled exhaust tip louvers to the one-off 18-inch EVOD Industries wheels evoking the Blue Oval machine’s famous Rally wheels.
However, other parts (most of the hardware here consists of one-offs that were fabricated or adapted) require a closer inspection and one done by a trained eye.
For instance, Roadster Shop’s Fast Track chassis was built back into a unibody—the ‘Stang was a unibody effort straight from the factory, but replacing the chassis and installing custom body panels couldn’t have been easy. Speaking of the body, this is now one inch longer and wider (by the same margin).
Sharp reflexes
Is this Mustang Convertible afraid of bends? Given its updated hardware, the answer is a big, fat “no”. The thing comes with Penske Racing Shocks RS Edition performance coilovers all-round (as with an S550 Mustang, the rear now features independent suspension).
In addition, with hefty Baer Barkes installed, the pedal on the left takes its job just as seriously as the one on the right.
And, to answer the question one might have after enjoying the media below, the color is dubbed Burgundy Brave.
