Inside the 'Stang: All you need to know about the 2015 Limited Edition Mustang

One of the unquestioned star cars at the Seventh Annual Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Collector-Car Auction was a 2015 Ford Mustang 50-Year Limited Edition, which sold Saturday night for $170,000.

All proceeds from the sale went to the Get Your Heart Racing Foundation, part of the Henry Ford Heart & Vascular Institute, one of the oldest and most experienced cardiovascular programs in nation.

Ford is building just 1,964 of these models to commemorate the first Mustangs, which debuted in April 1964. And the one auctioned off Saturday will be No. 1,964, the final one of the 50th anniversary models built.

What makes this particular Mustang so special? Well, according to Ford’s Jim Owens, just about everything.

It starts with the paint. The 50th anniversary Mustang is available only in two heritage colors, Wimbledon White or Kona Blue. “Orders right now are about 70 percent Wimbledon White and 30 percent Kona Blue,” said Owens. Wimbledon White was one of the original Mustang colors, a little closer to a cream color than the refrigerator-white color (called Oxford White) used on normal Mustangs.

Buyers of the 50th Anniversary Mustangs can also choose between six-speed manual and six-speed automatic transmission. There are no other options.

“You get two choices – color and transmission,” said Owens. “That’s it.”

For No. 1,964 only, there are two additional choices: The winning bidder can choose to have the same graphics package added to the exterior that will be used on the pace car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ford has also offered to install a supercharger free of charge on this car.

Jim Owens, the Shelby/Boss/50th Mustang Celebration Marketing Manager.

According to Owens, of the 1,964 50th anniversary models, about 1,700 will be sold in the United States, another 150 in Canada and the remainder in Mexico and select emerging markets.

The 50th anniversary Mustang comes standard with Ford’s Performance Package, a $2,495 option on the Mustang GT, adds a strut brace, larger radiator, unique chassis tuning, larger rear sway bar, heavy duty front springs, k-brace on the chassis, improved Brembo brakes, unique tuning on the electronic chassis components, a numerically taller 3.73 rear axle ratio, oil pressure and vacuum gauges and a spoiler delete in the rear.

“It will be the only automatic (transmission) 2015 Mustang that gets the Performance Package,” said Owens. “You cannot get the Performance Package in the automatic, other than this car.”

On the exterior, the 50th anniversary Mustang comes with a distinctive gas cap and louvers in the rear side windows, similar to the ones used half a century ago.

The Limited Edition 50th anniversary Mustang on display at Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas.

“The last piece that was approved and a nod to history in a modern application is our window louvers,” said Owens. “We won’t sell it in the aftermarket, but it is one of the most unique pieces that we have at Ford Motor Co. and it shows a nod back to the ’65 in an unbelievable execution.”

One of the big historical debates about the Mustang is what year it truly was born. Although it debuted at the New York World’s Fair in April 1964, there are no 1964 Mustangs. Some referred to the original Mustangs as 1964 ½ models, others 1965.

“We pulled up 16-and-a-half terrabytes of data on the Mustang when we were studying through this,” said Owens. “And the funny thing is, Ford Motor Co. doesn’t even know what we called it. There are press releases and marketing pieces that call it ‘64 ½ and then there’s press releases and marketing materials that call it ’65.”