As Werner Henze talked about owning his 1965 Mustang for 44 years, the word devotion kept running through my head. His love and commitment, his dedication and loyalty, his enthusiasm and admiration for the car seemed to epitomize devotion. 

 A lot of car enthusiasts are loyal to a brand, or to a specific car, but few stick with one car for more than four decades.

 Henze, now of Grain Valley, lived in St. Louis. He ordered his car from Sunset Ford of St. Louis. He was 20 years old. The car was built on April Fools’ Day in Dearborn, Mich., and he took possession on April 16. The price was $2,450, including $31 for the performance handling  package. It had the 225-horsepower, 289-cubic-inch V-8. He wanted the high-performance, 271-horsepower engine, but the dealer talked him out of it.

 Henze went to see the car the moment it came into the dealership even though it wasn’t ready to be driven home. One of the first things he noticed was a piece of masking tape near the left taillight. Written on it was “no name.” Henze had asked that the dealer’s nameplate be left off because he didn’t want holes drilled in the body.

 For 25 years of living in St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City, Henze drove his Mustang daily. Salty roads and bad weather took their toll on his dark-green gem, and rust began to eat away at it. In the mid-1980s he decided it was time for a major restoration. It took about 18 months for all of the rusty body panels to be cut out and replaced, but the little Mustang once again looked as fresh as it did when it rolled out of Sunset Ford.

 The engine was rebuilt and pumped up, a new four-speed transmission was added, and in went a Ford 9-inch rear axle with a locking differential. Four-wheel disc brakes were fitted, too.

 Today Henze and his wife, Jole, enjoy driving their Mustang and taking it to car shows.

 When Henze squatted beside his car so I could replicate a photograph taken when he was 20 years old, the glint in his eye was as bright as it was when he was 20. Devotion will do that.