Fox Mustang Magazine Issue 2 | Page 24

SHOW COVERAGE & EVENTS >>>> EVENTS/ SILVER SPRINGS FORD AND MUSTANG ROUNDUP 2012 , INSET: Silver Springs’ glass-bottom boats take park visitors on a fascinating tour of the natural springs feeding the headwaters of the Silver River, where gators, waterbirds, and flying fish hang out. photography by Austin Shaw and Tom Shaw With its main showroom just down the road in Ocala, National Parts Depot, the show’s primary sponsor, always brings an interesting sample of its outstanding car collection. This ’79 Ghia is Fox Mustang No. 100,001, powered by the turbo 2.3, and optioned out with leather seats and vinyl top. It was sold new in the Chicago area, driven for about a year, then stored. NPD also has the very last Fox Mustang produced. Good weather and great cars in an old Florida nature park 24 FOXMustangMagazine.com I f you’re ready for a breather from the latest Arctic cold front, the annual Mustang Roundup in Silver Springs, Florida, is where to be. This year, nearly 1,000 cars packed the park to take advantage of the good weather and wild variety of superb Fords and Mustangs, and maybe even an interesting Mercury or Lincoln. Silver Springs, an attraction dating back to the 1800s, became a major draw for Florida visitors in the 1950s, as the park welcomed 800,000 guests a year. It has also been the location for filming over 100 episodes of Sea Hunt, 1930s-era Tarzan movies, and parts of James Bond movies, among many others. Today, the nearly 100-percent-pure water still flows millions of gallons every day. And every January, a long line of fine Fords flows into the park, forming a powerful attraction of nature and automobile that’s hard to resist.