This Disabled Boy’s Restored Mustang is Your Feel-Good Story of the Day
After vandals destroyed a vintage Mustang Mach 1, the car community came together to restore faith in humanity.
Earlier this summer, Nino Welcome lost something very dear to him: His 1970 Mustang Mach 1. Nino, a 7-year-old car enthusiast, suffers from Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, which confines him to a wheelchair. Although he’ll never drive a car, he happily sits in the passenger seat as his father drives. But that seemed to come to an end this summer when his Mach 1 – a gift from his grandfather – was set on fire by vandals.
Magic happened soon thereafter. As soon as Nino’s story started spreading, the donations and goodwill of the car community nearly overwhelmed the Welcome family.
Popular car enthusiast sites donated t-shirts and hats to Nino. Mustang organizations treated him to die-cast models of Ford’s pony car. A GoFundMe effort even raised $15,000, which will go towards work on the replacement Mustang: A 1969 GT.
There’s no way replicate the car that was lost. Instead, the family will start fresh and new. So, the GT will be built differently.
The new (to them) Mustang’s factory gray paint stands in contrast to the Mach 1’s distinctive orange paint. The bodywork is being done as a class project by a local community college.
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What’s more, Nino will have a pseudo-console build for him, complete with Hurst shifter and a Shelby steering wheel to replicate as much of the driving experience as possible.
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