Myrtle Beach Mustang Week falls short on second attempt to break world record | News

For the second consecutive year, Mustang Week attendees fell short of breaking the world record for the longest Mustang parade.

Todd Smith, who organized this year and last year’s attempts, said 660 Mustangs were counted Thursday morning cruising around Broadway at the Beach.

The world record for the longest Mustang parade was set in Sept. 2019 when 1,326 Mustangs cruised together at Ford’s Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium, according to the carmaker’s website.

Despite falling short of the world record, Smith said this year’s attempt surpassed last year’s record of 566 Mustangs in Myrtle Beach.

“It really is a tough thing to do,” Smith said.

While almost 850 people registered for Thursday’s event, Smith said he ran into major issues late Wednesday night as the registration website crashed, rendering the opportunity to register unavailable for almost three hours.

Smith said he did his best to ensure folks could register by paying the $20 fee in cash at the event Thursday before sunrise.

The attempt to break the world record comes during Mustang Week in Myrtle Beach.

Joe Lamberti had heard about Mustang Week for years, finally coming down from Massachusetts with his 2007 California Special Mustang to try and be a part of history. And Mustangs have always been a part of his life.

“My grandmother definitely had one. I know my dad had a couple back in his day,” he recalled. “My grandfather, pretty sure he had one or two.”

For Lamberti, there’s something about a Mustang that has been drawing people like himself in for nearly 60 years.


“It’s a beautiful car, a beautiful machine to see,” he said.

Jeff Diefenbacher pulled up to Thursday’s event in a classic 1966 Tahoe turquoise colored Mustang. He drove all the way from Fort Wayne, Indiana to try to help break this record, knowing this year was the possibly the last year for Mustang Week.

“I wasn’t going to miss it,” he said.