The Windham Auto Show, an annual parade of flashy, classy and well groomed vehicles, is on deck this weekend at Wal-Mart in Windham.

The Windham Athletic Boosters benefit event has become a big draw over the years and spectators are routinely treated to a variety of classes, everything from antique classics to dressed up hot rods. There’s a car for every taste.

Car owners come from around New England and nearby towns. One local owner is Wayne Usher, of Raymond, who regularly attends the Windham event and won Best in Show last year with his Ford Mustang.

“I should have bought one back in the 70s,” he said. “Back when they were well under $5,000!”

What Usher should have bought was his dream car. But he did get one, finally, just two years ago. It cost a little more than $5,000 though. Try $50,000.

“I didn’t think I was going to get one,” he said. “I would find them all the time, for $35,000 to $50,000. All beat up! I couldn’t see paying all that money, and not have the rest to fix it up proper.”

But Wayne finally caught a break at a local car show two years ago, when he spotted a showroom condition 1968 Shelby GT500KR Mustang. (The KR stands for King of the Road.)

“I didn’t think I was going to get it, but I had to ask,” he said.

Wayne approached the owner, a Maine resident from Leeds, and began to talk cars. After a few shared anecdotes, and an established passion for the legendary Shelby Mustangs, he asked the man if he ever thought of selling.

“He said he’d thought about it,” Usher said. “He admitted that he never really drove it much, except to the car shows. So I said to him, ‘if you do consider it, could I have first option?'”

The man agreed. Six weeks later, Usher pulled into his driveway with an old, new ride.

“I don’t fully understand why, but for some reason he must have taken a liking to me,” Usher recalled.

Perhaps he saw Usher’s shrine to the Ford Mustang, a few shelves holding models of years past, surrounded by a collage of posters, some with pictures, some with statistics, all with Mustangs. The two of them still talk and correspond through mail.

“‘How’s the Mustang,’ he says,” Usher says into an imaginary phone. “Good, very good,” Usher replies as he pats the car.

Usher purchased the car with the bonus he received upon his retirement from S.D. Warren. After 38 years of service to the company as a pipe-fitter and welder, S.D. Warren saw it fit to reward their faithful employee with more than his planned retirement package, and threw in the bonus.

“It was pretty nice of them,” he said scratching the back of his head. He looked back at his car and smiled.

The Mustang, second to none, with four first place trophies to prove it, is quite the ride. Under its sculpted hood, the car cradles a CobraJet 428 V8 monster. Under its giant black and chrome air filter, the engine can generate 405hp. The speedometer registers up to 140 mph, but Wayne has never seen the needle hit it.

“It says one-forty,” he says. “I’m sure it gets there.”

So, you’ve never opened her up?

“No, no, no. I’ve had her up a little over the limit on some of the open highways. You know, just cruising speed. Never done that though.”

How quick does it get up to cruising speed?

“Oh… it don’t take long! You’d be surprised,” he says gleefully. One of the posters lists several models of Mustangs from the car’s era. While a 428 CobraJet engine is not listed, a similar model with a slightly less powerful engine is.

Its 325hp engine lists a 0-60 time of 5.9 seconds. With an extra 80hp, Wayne’s Shelby easily accelerates at a rate well over 10 miles per hour, per second. Your head rests itself snugly into the headrest. Snugly. You don’t need the double shoulder harness to keep you deep in the leather. The gas pedal works fine. But just to feel safer, the car comes reinforced with a rollbar.

The interior of the car is just as glamorous, just as plush as the paint on the hood. Its black leather seats are soft and amazingly un-cracked with age. Wayne conditions them often.

“I’m just glad he took such good care of it,” he says of the previous owner. This was truly a rare find, he assures.

“To find a car like this, in such turn-key shape…” he says and loses himself in thought, smiling again at the car.

Wayne Usher, of Raymond, takes a break from building a waterfall in his back yard to appreciate another man-made device. Usher will be trying to regain his status as Best in Show at the the Windham Auto Show, occurring this weekend at Wal-Mart.

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