The 2000 Mystic Cobra, the Mystic that never was!
The 2000 Cobras were to use a new color called Mystic Gold. This color would have been limited to 800 cars and would have been used on convertibles as well as coupes, the numbers to be decided by the orders for each. Since the 2000 Cobras were cancelled the color never saw the production line, and it was not part of the 2001 Cobra options.
Corral.net reported that Mystic Gold was not carried over to the 2001 model year due to problems with the paint working with the new paint shop:
“Paint compatibility problems are reportedly the cause of the Mystic Gold edition not carrying over into 2001. With the new paint shop coming on line the Mystic Gold paint is apparently not compatible with the new process.” (Full Article).
SVT confirmed this: For 2001, Dearborn Assembly switched to a more environmentally friendly water-borne paint process for Mustang. Unfortunately, the Mystic Gold was developed under the old oil/solvent-based spray-booth paint shop system. There was no funding left in the 2000 Mystic Gold program to rework the paint for 2001, so it was dropped.
The base color of Mystic Gold is a solid gold color, and in bright light the color shifts are into the yellow and green ranges of the spectrum. DuPont made the Mystic Gold, as with the Mystichrome used on the 2004 Cobras.
Unfortunately Ford destroyed the Prototype sometime in the mid 2000’s if you have any other photos of this please let me know.
Ford used very similar versions of the same Mystic Gold photo for the three publications
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- 1. Published in volume 2, issue 3 of SVT Enthusiast magazine
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- 2.Sent to dealers as promotional material for the Mystic Gold Cobras
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- 3. This is the info on the Mystic Gold that was part of the 2000 Cobra Brochure.
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- 4. By Dave Stuart in April 1999 at the Ford 40th Anniversary show in Charlotte, NC.
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- 5. Following 2 taken at the 1999 Charlotte 40th Anniversary Show. They were taken by Rich Plescia, and he describes the color like so: “The color shift was very, very, subtle. It was sort of a yellow gold to orange gold. Not nearly as obvious as the ’96 or ’04 models”. Note the MUSTANG on the rear bumper. The 2000 Brochure shows the final version 2000 Cobras would have had COBRA on the rear bumper, indicating that this was a 1999 Cobra that the paint had been applied to.
