18-05-2025
Color-Changing 'Mystic' 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra Found on BaT
The 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra was the first production car with optional color-shifting paint, which relies on tiny prisms that catch light and refract it.
The technology was originally developed to prevent counterfeit banknotes, meaning this Mustang's paint is related to the ink found on the 1990s $100 bill.
This example is up for auction on Bring a Trailer until May 22.
In the early 1990s, Baden Aniline and Soda Factory—better known as BASF—was interested in printing money. The company had just harnessed a new technology that contained a suspension of tiny platelet prisms, ones that would split light into multiple colors depending on the angle. BASF sold the tech to the U.S. Treasury Department as an anti-counterfeiting measure for the just-redesigned $100 bill. Then BASF stopped thinking about Benjamins and started thinking about Mustangs.
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You can see the shimmering result in this 1996 Mustang SVT Cobra, up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). The '96 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra is the first production car to feature color-shifting paint, which Ford called Mystic.
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Only 1999 Mustang Cobra coupes sold to customers were painted Mystic, although there are officially 2000 out there since the press car found its way into private hands. That makes this a fairly rare car, but the appeal is really more in the way the color-shifting paint gives it a unique 1990s appeal. It should be noted that Ford also produced a later color-shifting paint for the early-2000s-era Cobra, though that was a DuPont formula named Mystichrome.
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This version's the real deal BASF formula shared with the $100 bill. This example has decent mileage at 69K miles shown, and it has been modified. Still, let's not get precious about those mods as it's a mid-'90s Mustang, not a 1960s Porsche 911. It has an aftermarket X-pipe, headers, and a Flowmaster exhaust to let that modular 4.6-liter V-8 grumble a little more authoritatively. The FR500-look wheels are also not the factory five-spokes, but they suit the car.
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That 4.6-liter was factory rated at a respectable 305 horsepower, sent rearward through a five-speed manual transmission. The engine here has been rebuilt, with a new clutch and flywheel, as well as replacement of various other items like a new A/C compressor and radiator. It looks mechanically sorted.
As a driver that comes with a great story for your next '90s-themed car show event, it's perfect. The color-shifting paint looks different from every angle and changes with the light, from cloudy overcast morning to glowing sunset. Every time you park and look back at it when walking away, it'll make you feel like 100 bucks.
The auction ends on May 22.
Brendan McAleer
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
