Breakdown/Story: 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback GT 390

Lou Costabile tracks down Jeff Battaglia and his 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback GT 390 at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, where the car — restored over seven years at Platinum Custom Cars — makes its very first show debut. It’s not the Bullitt car, and nobody involved is pretending otherwise. This is a family restoration with its own story to tell. Watch to see how it all came together.

It looks enough like Steve McQueen’s Bullitt Mustang to fool a casual glance across a parking lot, and Lou Costabile makes sure to address that comparison directly before anyone gets the wrong idea. This particular 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback GT 390 isn’t a movie car and never claimed to be — it’s a family car with its own history, restored by a father-and-son team who brought it back to a Chicago-area car show for what turned out to be its very first public debut. Filmed at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, this is the story of what it actually took to get there.

Not the Bullitt Car, and Nobody’s Pretending Otherwise

Costabile addresses the Bullitt resemblance head-on early in the video, making clear this Fastback GT 390 is not the actual car from Steve McQueen’s famous 1968 film despite sharing a broadly similar silhouette and color scheme. It’s an important distinction for a car this visually striking, since fastback Mustangs from this era inevitably invite the comparison whether the owner wants it or not — and Battaglia’s car earns its own reputation on its own restoration story rather than borrowed movie fame.

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A Car That Belonged to Jeff’s Dad First

Before it was a show car, this Mustang belonged to owner Jeff Battaglia’s father, which gives the restoration a personal weight beyond the mechanical work itself. Battaglia brought his father’s car to Platinum Custom Cars in Mateno, Illinois seven years before this video was filmed, entrusting it to restorer Mike Dumas for what turned into a multi-year project bringing the fastback back to its original condition rather than a modernized reinterpretation of it. That patience is exactly what separates a true restoration from a quick resale flip.

Seven Years at Platinum Custom Cars

Seven years is a long restoration timeline even by classic car standards, and it reflects the level of detail Dumas and his shop put into getting the car right rather than rushing it to market or to a show floor. That patience shows in the finished product, and Costabile makes a point of highlighting the shop and its owner directly in the video, giving credit to the specific craftsmanship behind a build most viewers only see in its completed form.

What Made the GT 390 Special in 1967

The 1967 Mustang Fastback GT 390 paired Ford’s 390-cubic-inch FE-series V8 with the GT performance package, giving buyers a genuinely quick, well-equipped fastback the same year Shelby’s own GT500 debuted — proof Ford didn’t need the Shelby badge to build a fastback with real teeth. The 390 wasn’t the biggest engine Ford offered that year, but it struck a balance between usable street performance and daily drivability that made it one of the more popular high-performance choices in the ’67 lineup, and that balance is a big part of why so many survivors are still driven regularly today.

A Show Debut Seven Years in the Making

This particular appearance at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois marked the car’s first-ever car show debut, according to the video description — meaning viewers watching this segment were seeing the finished restoration presented publicly for the very first time. That kind of debut carries real weight in the show car community, where a car’s first appearance is often treated as a genuine unveiling rather than just another weekend outing.

The Restorer Behind the Build

Mike Dumas and his shop, Platinum Custom Cars, don’t often get the spotlight in videos like this one, but Costabile takes time to credit the restorer by name and location, treating the craftsmanship behind the build as just as newsworthy as the finished car itself. It’s a small gesture that matters enormously within the restoration community, where skilled shops frequently do career-defining work that goes unrecognized outside a tight circle of clients and fellow restorers.

Fastback Styling That Defined an Era

The fastback body style itself deserves some credit for why this car photographs and shows so well. Ford introduced the fastback roofline in 1965 specifically to compete with sportier European coupes, and by 1967 the silhouette had matured into one of the most recognizable shapes in American car design — long hood, sloping roofline, and a stance that reads as fast even parked motionless on a showroom floor. That same styling is exactly why fastback Mustangs from this era keep drawing Bullitt comparisons whether owners want them or not.

Why My Car Story Finds These Cars

My Car Story has built its entire format around exactly this kind of encounter — Costabile walking show floors and parking lots, finding owners willing to talk through their car’s specific history rather than reciting generic facts available in any brochure. That approach is why the series consistently surfaces stories like Battaglia’s, where the car’s value comes as much from a family connection and a specific shop’s reputation as it does from its factory specifications.

A Family Restoration, Not a Trophy Hunt

At its core, this is a restoration built out of family history rather than an investment strategy — a father’s car, entrusted to a respected local shop, brought back not to flip for profit but to bring back to a show floor and share. That motivation runs through every detail Costabile pulls out of Battaglia in the interview, and it’s exactly the kind of story that separates a genuinely personal restoration from one built purely to chase collector-market value.

A Debut That Outlasted the Show Floor

Car show debuts are fleeting by nature — a weekend of judging, conversation, and photographs before the car heads home again — but this My Car Story segment gave Battaglia’s Fastback a second life online, letting a single afternoon in Rosemont reach viewers who never set foot in the show hall. Years after it was filmed, the video remains one of the more complete records of both the car’s finished restoration and the family story behind it, which is more than most show debuts ever get to keep. That kind of staying power is worth noting for a niche automotive video, and it’s exactly why stories built on family history tend to outlast ones built purely around a car’s price tag.

Watch the full video and tell us what you think — comments are open below.

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