Back in 2008, Patrick Dempsey was busy saving lives on screen as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd, a.k.a. McDreamy, on the TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. In real life, he was making more than a surgeon would and spending it on stuff like custom Mustang builds he could love forever, or at least a few years. The car the actor poured over US$300,000 into to build just over a decade ago is now up for sale in at a garage in Utah. Dempsey, a racer himself, commissioned the restomod from Panoz Custom Sports Cars in Georgia, beginning with a 1965 Mustang fastback as the base and a 2004 SN95 Cobra SVT as a donor.   “The goal of the build was to take a classic design, preserve its beauty and at the same time make a piece of history into something that is practical, livable and completely contemporary for today’s environment,” reads the car’s description on Blacksmith Garage’s website, where there is no price listed. “The Panoz build took two and a half years and more than 3,900 hours of computer-assisted design (CAD), engineering, fabrication, custom molds, assembly and finishing time.” The team tuned the SVT’s supercharged 4.6-litre V8 up to 420 horsepower from 390, and pulled its T56 Tremec six-speed manual as well. They also fashioned a custom side-exit exhaust system with variable-tune mufflers. Suspension is Panoz’s version of the ‘04’s, which it made to improve handling and stiffness as well as provide a crumple zone for passengers. Design, meanwhile, is pretty straightforward: black. Gloss black exterior paint with chrome trim and black leather interior. The Dempsey Mustang has driven some 8,400 miles since Mustang Monthly put it on the cover of its May 2008 issue, writing “If they handed out Academy Awards for resto-mods, actor Patrick Dempsey would get the Oscar for his Panoz-built ’65 Mustang.” True story. If you don’t want to buy the thing but wouldn’t mind looking at more pictures, check out this Silodrome post by a photographer who got to take it for a rip “in the middle of nowhere,
Origin: Patrick Dempsey’s 1965 Mustang fastback is up for sale