Those of you that read StangTV might recognize the byline on this story, which is the first I have written for StangTV. I’m the Mustang enthusiast who purchased 2012 Boss 302 #0001 from a dealer without even knowing I had until it was time to sign the paperwork. It has been a very interesting and strange couple of weeks for me owning the car.

On the one hand, I love the car. I love everything about it. I love the power, the way it drives, the way it looks. It is 100% my dream car. I searched for it, bought it sight unseen, and after the luck of finding the exact color I wanted right in my own proverbial backyard with the exact options I wanted it turned out to be the first 2012 Boss 302 built, #0001. To say I was stunned to find the car was #0001 would be an understatement. If you missed the original story, you can catch up with the original story that ran on StangTV.

If you follow the Mustang world or frequent any of the forums that I happen to participate on, you may have noticed something else with #0001 going on today. I placed the car up for auction on eBay Sunday night and the car is already bid up to nearly $70,000. Over the weekend, I took the car to a local car show and found something about me and my love for #0001 – I worry about it constantly.

I worried walking around the car show and having lunch with my friends that someone would scratch the car or steal the serial number plate. The odds of that happening are slim I know, but the worry is real. I worried driving the car the 1.5 hour to the show that it would get rock chips. I worried when it rained that it would get dirty, I worried that it might hail and ding the car up. In the 2010 Mustang GT, I traded for this Boss I never had that kind of worry, and I don’t want it now.

I knew in that 2010 GT anything that happened was a simple body shop trip to get fixed and if the worst happened and the car was totaled out, my insurance would replace it. The reason I worry about my Boss is that there is simply no replacing the car. There is no other Boss 302 #0001, and each mar, each defect lessens some of what is special about #0001 and its intrinsic value. The only person that might be glad to see #0001 totaled would be an investor who owns #0002.

Rather than become an overbearing owner who fears every cloud as some collectors do, I want the car to go to someone who knows its value and is willing to have a garage queen only driven on sunny days. I don’t want a fair weather car. I want a car that I can rip down to the store in on rainy days, drive in the snow if needed, and run wide open at the track without worry that tearing up the factory splitter is going to destroy the value of the car. I don’t want to worry that if some teenager sending a text or playing Angry Birds rear-ends me, the value of the car is gone.

I just want a daily driver to have fun with, so the car is up for sale. I hope to get enough to pay the car off and buy another Boss. I don’t know if that will happen. I may end up keeping it, because I do love the car. If I keep it, I will drive it, but I will worry more than a guy who purchased a new car should have to worry. The worry takes some of the fun out of owning such an excellent Mustang. I don’t care if I own #0001 or #3469, so I am giving someone who wants the number and has the space and the means to collect special cars their chance to own it. If you are such a collector or just a normal enthusiast of means like me that isn’t prone to worry, I am looking for you.