1990 Ford 25th Anniversary Limited Edition “7-Up” Convertible
The Anniversary 7-Up Convertible was a special edition car for 1990 only. The car was originally developed as a promotional “give away” for the 7-Up brand. The plan was to build 30 cars for the competition, but after only 2 had been built, the whole promotional scheme collapsed in a heap. In the end, Ford went ahead with production, but for an entirely different reason. It became known colloquially as the “7-Up Mustang.”
Basically this was a one year only deal and was the result of a fall out between 7UP bottling company and Ford Motor Company over Ford’s refusal to keep the paint code an exclusive for 7UP. Color surveys showed Ford that Teal shades were very popular in general and they believed they’d be losing too many sales to limit that hue to the small number of Prize Cars that 7UP planned to use. Ford said, “no, we’re releasing that color in 1991 as well.” The deal went south at that point and the planned NCAA basketball hoop shoot promo never happened and none of the cars were awarded by 7UP.
When the promotional ended quickly Ford was able to salvage the plan to build the actual cars. Buyers had been unhappy with the low-effort Anniversary car from 1989/1990 so they took the work on the “7-Up Mustang” and instead just called it the Limited Edition. The cars were basically a 1990 Mustang LX convertible with the very desirable 7UP promo paint & interior package.
Instead of just 30 cars, they ended up opening it up and in all, 4,103 cars were built. All examples of the Limited Edition were finished in Deep Emerald Green Clearcoat Metallic and featured color-keyed exterior trim, 15″ GT alloy wheels, and a White power top.
Under the hood of the Limited Edition, you would always find the 5.0-liter HO V8 engine, producing 225hp. Other standard features included power steering, power brakes, a Traction-Lock rear end, and upgraded suspension with different spring and shocks. The big choice that owners had to make was between a 4-speed automatic transmission or the T5, 5-speed manual. Only 1,360 owners chose the T5, and that is what I believe that you will find in this one.
Choosing a Mustang Limited Edition in 1990 meant choosing an interior trimmed predominantly in white. You received white leather on the seats, along with lashings of white vinyl and white plastic as far as the eye could see. The same basic deal was available in 1991 however with subtle differences in interior trim and ID codes.
