We Attended One Of The World's Largest Mustang Shows And It Was Incredible

Take a town of approximately 6500 people, add over 500 Mustangs representing every single generation of the iconic American pony car, and what do you get? Naturally, you get one heck of a car event, but this isn’t just any old town, this is Sturgis, South Dakota—home to the largest annual motorcycle rally in the world. In fact, just a few weeks ago, over 1 million people packed this small town and the entire region with motorcycles in celebration of the rally’s 75th anniversary. As you’ve probably guessed, then, Sturgis knows a thing or two about throwing parties for petrolheads, and the Sturgis Mustang Rally is no exception.

2015 marks the ninth time Ford Mustang owners and fans have flocked to the infamous American town in western South Dakota. The nearly week-long event draws people literally from coast-to-coast, and there’s a little something for every kind of car nut. Official events include poker runs, autocrossing, drag racing, drift exhibitions, burnout contests, and of course the requisite car show where the entire downtown business district of Sturgis becomes a Mustang parking lot. With so much to offer, it’s no wonder this is one of the largest Mustang-specific gatherings in the world.

I was able to check out some of the action at the autocross and car show, so rather than spill paragraphs of info, let’s just let the photos do the talking.

Mustangs can’t turn! Well, the earlier models aren’t the best for taking corners, but most of the autocrossers were running later model Mustangs which do actually handle quite well. And I was pleasantly surprised to see a few old-school cars out there just having a blast, steering with their feet instead of the wheel.

Later model Mustangs comprised the bulk of the cars on-hand, and among those was a large contingent of Shelby owners. All of the cars in the photos above are 2007-onwards Shelbys, from GT500s to extremely rare Super Snakes. There were plenty of old-school Shelbys as well, including this outstanding 1969 model (below) that was listed as an unrestored original with 70,000 miles.

I’ve always been a Fox Body fan, and there were plenty of drool-worthy stock and modded examples. Notchbacks, convertibles, t-tops, and lest we forget, before EcoBoost there was the Euro-inspired 2.3-litre turbocharged SVO.

And you can’t have a big Mustang event without noted tuners Roush and Saleen:

Below is an extremely rare 1969 Mustang Boss 429, conservatively rated at 375bhp - actual output is over 500.

And now for the resto-mods:

This was obviously just a few highlights of an epic Mustang event. If you want to know more about all the action, check out the Sturgis Mustang Rally’s webpage.