For more than 30 years, the Imperial Mustangs of Polk County brought together Central Florida Mustang fans to share their appreciation of Ford’s original pony car. Just a few years after forming, the club began hosting its annual show, Mustangs & Mustangs, which celebrated its 27th anniversary this year on Saturday, February 22.

While the show long had an affiliation with local airfields where Ford Mustangs shared the stage with the legendary P-51 Mustang fighter planes, in recent years moved to the Lakeside Village shopping center in Lakeland, Florida. This setting offers plenty of shopping and dining options to occupy attendees between viewing the beautiful Blue Oval machines on display.

Mustang media legend and current Mustang Club of America Mustang Times editor Donald Farr was on hand in the Imperial Mustangs of Polk County tent, selling and signing his latest book, Ford Mustang 60 Years.

This year’s show operated on a Modified Judged format where pre-registered cars, 2023 and older were judged by the club. Meanwhile, 2024-and-newer cars, as well as those registered on show day, were eligible for a popular vote award. Club member cars competed in a separate class to keep things fair. The club also used the event as a canned food drive in support of a local charity, Volunteers In Service To The Elderly.

Of course, we were there to scope out the cars in the show and share some of our favorites with you. Despite the show’s name, it is open to all Fords and there were some great non-Mustangs in the field as well. It was fun finding 10 standouts from the show, so keep reading to see the cars that caught our eye…

10. 1966 Fairlane GTA

Fairlanes are gaining in popularity as project cars, and looking at Tim Vorick’s 1966 GTA, it is easy to see why. Looking mean and clean wearing that Emberglow paint, his tasty two-door is powered by a 360-horsepower, 390-cube V8 backed by a C6 automatic transmission.

9. 1968 Mustang Fastback

While there were plenty of beautiful stockers in the show, we tend to go for the modified Mustangs. Richard Bakan’s 1968 Mustang Fastback fit that bill. Tastefully modded, the classic stallion rides on chrome Foose wheels, which offer a nice accent to its red paint. It was the underhood upgrades that stole our hearts, however. It is powered by a pushrod 5.0-liter engine with an MSD ignition, a serpentine belt drive, and a scene-stealing Roots supercharger delivering some nostalgic boost.

8. 1972 Maverick

Sadly you don’t see a lot of clean Mavericks in the wild, but this makes two shows in a row, where we saw examples worthy of attention. Ronald Aul’s 1972 Grabber model is a sleek sleeper wearing a sharp green hue. Underhood a nicely detailed small-block provides the motivation. This ride looks like a fun trip in the way-back machine.

7. 2010 Shelby GT500

Making the trip up for the day from Palm Beach, Jamie Marrero drove his spotless 2010 Shelby GT500 to the show. It must have been a fun ride up because the cars are brawny and bold. At the show, you’d never know he drove several hours to get there. The car looked just right on black, multi-spoke Shelby wheels, his Sterling Silver snake’s blown modular breathes deep through a carbon fiber JLT cold air intake, surrounded by a few shiny accents in the largely stock engine compartment.

6. 2004 SVT Mustang Cobra

In the era of Ford’s vaunted Special Vehicle Team, the 2003-2004 Mustang Cobras are legendary. They brought independent rear suspensions and six-speed manual transmissions to non-R-model production Mustangs and supercharging into the production mainstream. In 2004, the light-refracting Mystichrome paint option made a special snake even more alluring. Seeing one in the wild is still a treat, and Kimberly Smoot’s example raises the stakes with a Whipple supercharger upgrade underhood.

5. 1990 Mustang LX

It’s hard to go wrong with a sharp Fox coupe, and Michael Platt’s ’90 LX coupe is clean with sleek gray paint and mean thanks to a nicely detailed, carbureted small-block underhood. Inside it is largely as Ford intended save for a double-din audio head unit and a Fun-Haver steering wheel. It must be a blast to slip the shifter into drive, crank up the tunes, and then drop the hammer in this one.

4. 1966 Mustang Coupe

Richard Piazza picked up this rust-free 1966 Mustang coupe from New Mexico with the intent of building a small-block-powered street rod. The result is this blue restomod powered by a stout, fuel-injected 347 stroker filled backed by a five-speed manual feeding power to a stock rearend fitted with a Traction-Lok diff.

3. 1990 Mustang LX

Mark Houlahan is an old friend of this scribe, but taking that out of the equation, his former magazine project Fox is a stunner. Reborn from a weathered daily driver into a show-quality stallion in the Week to Wicked series, this 1990 Mustang LX sports a period-correct pushrod powerplant breathing Vortech boost through a Holley SysteMax II intake manifold. Its sleek paint by Spike’s Performance & Refinishing, accented by those bronze five-spokes, drew lots of attention at the show.

2. 1967 Mustang Convertible

Another beautiful restomod classic at the show belongs to Scott Meredith. His Nightmist Blue 1967 Convertible. Featuring tasteful upgrades like aftermarket wheels and custom seats, his droptop is powered by a stout small-block. It must be a blast to drive this classic with a manual transmission in the tunnel, and looking over at the dash signed by luminaries, like Carrol Shelby, would make anyone smile.

1. 2017 Mustang GT

Coyotes love boost, and what’s not to love about boosted Coyotes? James Truitt’s Lightning Blue 2017 Mustang GT checks all those high-performance boxes. Motivated by a modern 5.0-liter engine enhanced by two turbos, it might just look like a clean S550 from the outside, but it sports serious performance under the hood. Inside, its infotainment system is upgraded with a big vertical touchscreen interface and a DiabloSport tuner makes all the underhood hardware get along.

So there you have it. We hope you enjoyed our 10 favorites from the show, but if our picks don’t suit your fancy, you can scope out the gallery above to choose your favorites. If you happen to be in the Central Florida area next February, it will be time for the 28th installment of the Mustangs & Mustangs show, so you could stop in and look for your own top choices, and even participate in that popular vote.