Ford Mustang

Alongside the Chevrolet Corvette, there is per­haps no car more truly American than the Ford Mustang. In terms of sheer sales impact it is unrivalled among mass-produced cars. Mass-produced it certainly was, being the fastest-selling car in history, notching up a million sales in under two years.

The Mustang was a real trailblazer. In the US, coupes are even referred to as ‘ponycars’ in honour of the Mustang. It was the start of the craze for ‘рег-sonal coupes’, affordable sports-type cars designed to reflect the individualistic tastes of Americans.

The man behind the Mustang was Lee lacocca. He reasoned that there was a market for a sporty-looking four-seater that was cheap to build and could sell for under $2, 500 (just over £ 600). The very first Mustang, seen at car shows in the early 1960s, was nothing like that: it was a small, two-seater sports car made of fibreglass - not what lacocca had in mind at all.

The real Mustang was created by Ford's styling studio and was the work of Joe Oros, David Ash and Gale Halderman. It was reported that they transgressed 78 official Ford design rules in arriving at the shape, which broke new ground with its long-nose, short-boot approach. Three body styles were conceived: a convertible, a crisp notchback hard-topped coupe and a pretty fastback 2+2 coupe.

If the styling was advanced, the mechanical package played it safe. Because the Mustang was meant to be a cheap car, the power range started with a ba­sic six-cylinder 170 cu in (2788cc) engine, taken di­rectly from the Fairlane compact saloon. It developed just 101 bhp, enough for a meagre top speed of only 90 mph. Optional was the 260 cu in (4260cc) V8, whose 164 bhp powered the car to over 100 mph. Gradually, Ford introduced a policy of ‘Total Performance’, spiralling power outputs of its big block V8 engines up beyond 300 bhp (a high point of 390 bhp was reached in the 1968 line-up).

Ford sold the Mustang as a car ‘designed to be designed by you’. In other words, the basic car really was basic, and the customer would then select options from a huge list of possibilities, like automatic or manual gearboxes, column or stick shifts, handling packages, disc brakes, power steering, bucket or bench seats, air conditioning, interior trim packages, GT packs with firmer suspension, and so on.

The Mustang arrived in April 1964, too late for the ’64 model year and too early for ’65. So Ford's marketing department pulled off a coup by calling the Mustang a ‘1964 4/2 car’. The public went wild. Truck drivers crashed while looking through showroom windows and dealers auctioned cars off in the face of a 15-to-1 demand-to-supply ratio.

One East Coast dealer sold a car this way and the owner slept in his car overnight to ensure it wasn't sold from under him until his cheque cleared!

It wasn't long before other companies realised what a jackpot Ford had scored and came up with their own ‘ponycar’ imitators. As a result, sales began to slip and Ford had to fight back.

After a minor facelift for 1967 (which included the dramatic Sports Roof fastback), the Mustang was ex­tensively restyled for the 1969 model year. An extra four inches were added to its length, it gained an ex­tra pair of headlamps, the sides were ‘de-sculpted’, the rear arches were smoothed out and a new luxury version called Grande was added.

The most exciting news for 1969 was the launch of the Mach 1 fastback, which boasted a 250 bhp V8 en­gine, stiffer suspension, a special front grille and a black bonnet with an air scoop.

If buyers really wanted more power, though, the best place to turn was Carroll Shelby' s Los Angeles factory. He took near-complete fastback Mustangs and fitted them with 306 bhp 289 engines with high-lift camshafts, four-barrel carbs and free-flow exhausts. They also got stronger axles, fibreglass bonnets and were almost always painted white with blue stripes. The most fearsome models were the GT500 of 1967 with its 428 engine (for an advertised 355 bhp but probably more like 400 bhp), and the mighty GT500KR (King of the Road) with up to 425 bhp to tap into.

Ford responded to the success of the more power­ful Shelby Mustang with its own version in mid-1969, and called it The Boss. Based on the Mustang which was successfully dominating the SCCA's Trans-American race series, these had 290 bhp small-block V8 engines, chin spoilers and aerofoils. More powerful was still the Boss 429, sporting Ford's hemispherical combustion chamber and alloy-head Cobra Jet engine, whose power output went as high as a formidable 375 bhp.

A lack of interior space was addressed in the second major restyle of the Mustang, which was launched ready for 1971. This added yet more length and width, and significantly more weight, to the det­riment of performance and fuel economy. Apart from the March 1 429 and the Boss 351, there was little of any interest in the new Mustang range. It was beginning to rely on fancy trim packages and colour options, like the Sprint package (white paint with red-edged blue stripes).

For the final year of production of this trial-blazing first edition of the Mustang (1973), federal law insisted on the fitment of 5 mph impact bumpers, rubber-covered switch gear and emissions-restricting equipment, which also strangled power outputs. The most potent '73 Mustang had just 156 bhp to its credit and the standard was a miserable 95 bhp straight-six power plant. Performance had plunged below the level of mediocrity.

In the last year of production, the original Mustang sold a paltry 135, 000 units. It was looking increasingly out-of-place in the fuel crisis ridden early 1970s, as it become bloated and lost much of its authentic appeal.

As Ford's design vice-president, Eugene Bordi-nat, admitted:

«We started out with a secretary's car and all of a sudden we had a behemoth».

The Mustang's 1973 successor, the Mustang II, was a very different car, no less than 20 inches shorter and 4 inches narrower than its predecessor, and some 500 Ib lighter. Also there was no V8 option to begin with, simply an 88 bhp four-cylinder or 2.8-litre V6. The third-generation Mustang arrived in 1978 and lasted for the next 15 years, and the current Mus­tang is still notching up a very successful sales rec­ord.

Nothing, however, could ever match that first 1964 Mustang. For the bravery of its lines, the ‘must have’ factor it inspired, and the dizzy heights of performance it reached, there really has never been an American car to match it.

That is very much reflected today in the high values placed on sound, original examples. If car en­thusiasts want to own one of the Shelby Mustangs, they can expect to pay more than the price of a brand new Jaguar. However, it must be remembered that not all Mustangs have big-block Cobra Jet V8s under their bon­nets; far more likely is a rather timid six or small-block V8 lurking in the engine bay.

For most people, it's the classic ail-American shape of the Mustang which inspires such enthusiasm. Paint it white and add some blue striped down the mid­dle and anyone could imagine they are a NASCAR or Trans Am racer!

The Ford Mustang was not just a car; it symbol­ised the entire youth culture of America during the 1960s. Ford of Europe tried the same trick with the Ford Capri; it could go fast and looked a million dol­lars and scored a similar hit.