When I’m drunk and armed with a Sawzall and absolutely no safety equipment nor any prior planning, there’s nothing I enjoy more than cutting the rear end from a perfectly serviceable car and “converting” it into a pick-up truck. I don’t really, of course; but if eBay and Cragslist are anything to go by, there are an awful lot of people out there who do. Not all of them can string a sentence together, but they all have access to power-tools. Usually, though, they start off with some rough old beater before commencing their round of “improvements”. This machine, seen on display at the Cartier Style Et Luxe competition at Goodwood, promised to have rather more provenance; though I’m not quite sure. Make your own judgement after the jump. The process of “Aminoing” anything from General Motors, “Cheroing” a Ford or “Mpaging” a Dodge has been going on ever since the invention of power cords long enough to enable somebody to to take their electric saw to where their car is parked. Of course, the vast majority of these portmanteaus are far from being official, factory productions. This rather well presented “Mustero” is an interesting example of the breed, but I refuse to pass judgement until I know a little more about what I’m looking at. I’ve been blowing a little dust off The Internet to try and get a bit more solid information on these cars, and there are a whole load of conflicting back stories. The car was displayed by a UK based Mustang specialist, and their web listing quotes as follows: “1966 Mustang Pickup. One of the most unique Classic Mustangs on the road. Reputedly based upon one of very few remaining Beverley-Hills Musteros from ‘66 but extensively restored and improved over original specs in recent years and now a better conversion than ever they were.” When you Google for “Mustero” “Beverley-Hills” it usually throws up a whole list of very similar results where one story has been cut-and-pasted and spread widely throughout the internet. The popular story is that Ford, in 1966, licensed a company called “Beverley Hills Mustang” or similar to convert 50 Mustangs into pick-ups, of which apparently 35 ended up in Europe. Also being banded around is that the cars ended up with a similar list price to a Shelby Cobra when new. Does that sound right? I know that none of my reference books make any mention of an officially Ford sanctioned Mustang Pick-Up conversion. In fact, the internet doesn’t seem to provide much in the way of hard evidence that these things were built in the ’60s or that they were approved by the Blue Oval. Elsewhere, a number of sources cite that these were actually converted in the ’70s from 1965 and 1966 Mustangs which had been fully restored, which would rubbish the story of them ever being a Ford Licenced product. The conversion itself looks to have been carried out to a very high standard; or perhaps any crudity in the original chop-job has been concealed under layers of restoration. This particular machine is described thus: “331 Stroker engine with a Tremec T5 Gearbox and a Hydraulic clutch..supplied by Trans Am Racing in California, On the Dyno at the Shelby Works it produced 463 BHP” So it’s probably quite quick, but I’d question the validity of the GT350 stripes. Could this car have ever been a genuine GT350? Would somebody ever have taken a cutting disc to one of those, whether licensed or not? And with or without provenance; what is this thing worth? Is it a rare and exotic gem with worthwhile improvements and deserving of a high, high price tag (It’s being advertised at £59,999) or is it a hacked-about outcast which has lost all trace of its original identity? Somebody on here must be able to tell us once and for all. (Images copyright Chris Haining and Hooniverse 2014)