ECD Automotive Design is expanding its bespoke offerings to Ford’s popular pony car after establishing itself with Jaguar and Land Rover products.
The first example of ECD’s approach to the Ford Mustang is a 1967 Mustang dubbed “Ghost.”
ECD says anything from a nut-and-bolt restoration to an over-the-top custom is in the realm of possibility.
Commissioning a full restoration or a custom car seems daunting, at least from the perspective of one who can’t afford it.
There’s having to place a deposit in the hopes of months—or more than likely years—down the line seeing the fruits of a craftsman’s labor. Adding to that, the fear that your dreams might one day wind up on the evening news.
Fortunately, there are more than a handful of solutions to toss a vintage machine into your collection—for a fee.
From Crumpets to Mustangs
While not the latest to jump into the bespoke restoration and modification world, the folks at ECD Automotive Design have recently set aside their crumpets, scones, and Whitworth tools to expand their offerings to first-generation Ford Mustangs.
The publicly traded restoration and customization firm formerly known as East Coast Defenders made its way, as its name would suggest, restoring and modifying vintage Land Rover Defenders.
Even though the company has found success with its Land Rover operation, it’s been branching out to Jaguars and now the Ford Mustang.
The first example from what is now named ECD Automotive Design started life as a lowly Mustang coupe before going through a fastback conversion at ECD’s facility.
Of course, this fastback conversion wasn’t the only major change from ECD. This ’67 Mustang, dubbed Ghost, now rides on a Roadster Shop chassis and leans on a stroked Windsor powerplant from Roush.
Going down the build sheet, the bones underneath the Ghost read like a pro-touring enthusiast’s trip through the SEMA show after hitting the Mega Millions—seemingly no expense is spared on the hardware.
The Parts and Pieces
“The thing that we do well is we try to build quality into every single aspect of the car,” says Elliot Humble, ECD’s CTO and one of its founders, while walking around Ghost. “So every single part we buy is a quality part. We don’t cheap out on pretty much any area of the vehicles.”
And, he doesn’t seem to be wrong. The high-end Roush mill and Roadster Shop RS chassis are only two, albeit important, pieces of this Mustang. The interior gets Recaro power seats that are finished in custom leather coverings.
The AM radio is gone, and a touchscreen Alpine head unit handles your podcast or Bob Seger playing duties. That Alpine head unit also enables Apple CarPlay, which should help you navigate to the next stop on the Hot Rod Power Tour.
The Roadster Shop chassis comes equipped with the rear four-link controlled Ford 9-inch rear, and the Roadster Shop SPEC IFS control arms manage the front wheels with Fox fixed-valve dampers.
Bringing this Mustang to a halt is a set of Baer four-piston calipers that clamp 11.0-inch rotors at each corner. Those brakes don’t see any vacuum assist, but you do get power rack-and-pinion steering to make the machine more nimble for low-speed maneuvers.
How It Drives
If you’re wondering how this all translates to the driving experience, well, it still feels like a first-generation Mustang, if that makes sense.
Admittedly, we weren’t given the chance to push this Mustang to its limit on a skid pad or autocross, but just cruising around the Detroit suburbs shows that it still has some of the charm of an early Mustang.
Body roll and dive are better managed, of course, and there’s plenty more power on tap than a worn out 289 CID mill.
The beating heart of the operation, the 347 CID Ford small-block from Roush Performance, makes this custom Mustang a treat for the community.
Churning out 465 hp, this Windsor-based Roush Performance V8 breathes in through a set of velocity stacks that are managed by Roush’s own EFI system.
This spendy V8 looks slick with the hood up and offers good part throttle operation, as well as nice throttle management while you’re rolling into it. The tune smelled maybe on the rich side, but that could just be a sensitive nose at play.
That V8 works through a 4R70W transmission from Bowler, which works well and lets the owner enjoy the car as they see fit. Overall, the transmission did what you’d expect from a lightly upgraded 4R70—the shifts are smooth but firm. That said, folks at ECD would be more than happy to give you three pedals and let you row your own gears.
As with any custom car or bespoke build, there will be some options that are more to your taste.
This Mustang, for example, opted for non-power-assisted brakes, which means its owner is going to have great pedal feel from the Wilwood master cylinder, but might have one leg that is a little bit stronger than the other after a few weeks. Just like the transmission, ECD can give your Mustang power brakes.
This is all good, and it’s great to see the team at ECD expand its operations into the Mustang. It’s also great that there’s another seemingly reliable operation churning out collector cars. The downside? The cost.
It’s How Much?!
Commissioning your Mustang from ECD will start at $279,995. Obviously, anyone who has commissioned a ground-up restoration or custom car build from a reputable shop will know the bills start to add up quickly.
ECD wants to set itself apart from the average restoration shop by having tight timelines and keeping their customers informed about the process. “We do absolutely everything possible to hit these timings that we promise,” says Humble. The company notes that for that princely starting price, you’ll also net a two-year warranty.
All in, this Ghost of a Mustang is undeniably a high-end, expensive-feeling custom car. Even more interesting than this particular ’67 Mustang is how ECD is taking a different—and somewhat confusing—approach to the collector car restoration business model.
“The plan is growth,” says Humble. That push for growth is why the company is expanding from the relatively hard-to-find—at least in the United States—Jaguar E-Types and Land Rover Defenders, and is adding a more readily available option.
“People love the car. It’s the American icon, isn’t it?” he says. “So, like, it’s got to be a good first entry into the American car market for us.”
It’s hard to say that a Mustang from ECD is a good value—mostly, because that’s just a ton of money.
Still, having any restoration shop that won’t end up on the nightly news take you through the process of completely rebuilding a car will set you back a good chunk of change.
The company also has a fun configurator tool on their website that you can play with, even if you don’t want to drop over a quarter million dollars on one of their machines.
Do you think you’d ever spend that much on a restoration or restomod Mustang? Tell us your thoughts below.
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