The biggest self-propelling success of the sixties was in reality some 20 years in the making . Since World War II , Americans had demonstrate growing enthusiasm for British and European sports cars with their rakish looks , handy size , tight handling , and intriguing " strange " features like tachometer , floorshift , and individual " bucket " ass . Sports cars attract few sales agreement but tons of care .
Ford Mustang Image Gallery
That ’s why Detroit paraded yearly fleets of sporty two - stern " dream cars " in the Fifties and offered jazzy versions of some subsist models . struggle independent maker Nash and Kaiser - Frazer in reality built credible sports cars as " a difference to betray . " But among the Big Three , only General Motors offered anything like a genuine sports car . Even then , the Chevrolet Corvette met a pitiable reception on its 1953 debut and was almost kill after two year for deficiency of gross sales .
Ford achieved far more success with the 1955 - 57 Thunderbird , a " personal " two - seat convertible with the V-8 power , boulevard drive , and convenience features Americans starve . But Ford Division gaffer Robert S. McNamara reckon a four - seat model would trade even better . The renewal 1958 T - Bird proved him correct . At the same time , however , Americans were fast turning from Detroit ’s garish , gasoline - guzzle giants to modest European cars and thrifty unexampled domestic compact car like the Studebaker Lark . The Big Three respond for 1960 with the succinct Ford Falcon , Chevy Corvair , and Chrysler Valiant . Though the affordable , orthodox Falcon was soon fashion outsell its rivals , the improper Corvair grade a surprisal hit in mid-1960 with the snazzy Monza coupe feature vinyl bucket arse , floorshift , and snazzy passementerie . Ford fired back the next year with a similar Falcon Futura . It was in 1961 that an sharp new Ford Division foreman broached the theme of a more typical sporty Ford . A ego - pretend elevator car - dotty and nobody ’s gull , Lee Iacocca had worked in the rental - railroad car job as a high - schooler , attended Lehigh University , and earned a master ’s in mechanically skillful engineering at Princeton on a scholarship . After link the Ford sale force in Pennsylvania , he devised a novel and successful sale dodge that McNamara used nationwide . By age 35 , Iacocca was a Ford vice - chairwoman . A yr after , in 1960 , he was promote to head Ford Division . The new chief moved speedily to rejuvenate Ford ’s profitable but stodgy lineup . He rushed out the Futura , added more " Lively Ones " for mid-1962 and again for " 1963 1/2 , " and put fastback rooflines on several models . He also launched an all - out racing programme under the same " Total Performance " banner . By mid - decade , Ford was a consistent winner on racetrack and route courses the world over , which boosted sales and the partition ’s bottom line . But Iacocca require something more , surmise there was a market appear for a raw variety of car . He admit his hunch to a 1961 group meeting of the Fairlane Group , an informal planning committee compose of top company execs and Ford advertizement people .
Iacocca betoken out that America ’s immense " baby thunder " generation was come of age , would have money to drop , and would probably go expectant for a low car with high style , a small price , sporty feature film , and enough space for two adults and two tyke . The committee harmonise , and Iacocca tapped engineer and product - planning manager Donald N. Frey to guide up a Modern project dubbed T-5 . The Mustang was on its way .
For even more on the Ford Mustang of yesterday and today, check out the following articles:
The Mustang I Two-Seat Concept Car
Just as chairman Lee Iacocca got Ford roll on an effort for a clean , affordable car , other Ford hands were end up a very different think - young automobile , the Mustang I. Petite and sonsy , this open two - seater borrowed a front - wheel - drive powertrain from Ford Germany ’s mainstream Cardinal / Taunus sedan chair but put it behind the cockpit . Lead designer John Najjar hint this mechanically skillful format , then becoming de rigueur for racing cars . He also came up with the horsey name .
Though just a what - if practice at first , the Mustang I impress design vice - president Eugene Bordinat . As it happen , Bordinat wanted a newsworthy " Vanessa Stephen - ringer " for Ford ’s autumn-1961 Modern - model pressure trailer and rank that Mustang I be transformed from clay - model dream to drivable reality .
railroad engineer Herb Misch and Roy Lunn were name in and rushed to meet a tight 60 - day deadline , working closely with Najjar ’s stave and interior designers run by Damon Woods . Construction was ascribe to Southern California race - elevator car fabricator Troutman - Barnes .
Riding a trim 90 - inch wheelbase , the Mustang I measured 154.3 inch long and scarce three feet improbable at its highest stop , a racy build - in rollover taproom . Curb weight was a feathery 1500 pound , so although the modest , 1.5 - liter German V-4 engine was tuned for only 90 HP , the car could do 0 - 60 mph in a spanking 10 second while squeezing out up to 30 mpg . Predictably , Mustang I was Marco Polo - shot glass agile , thanks to the low weight , a background - hugging posture , and sophisticated European - manner all - independent dangling .
The Mustang I was not only Dearborn ’s first true play car , it was very innovational and thus quite unexpected from custom - bond Detroit . wearied newsman pleaded for a ride at the Modern - modeling prevue , then went home to write shine story . The public did n’t get to see Mustang I in mortal until October 1962 , when race driver Dan Gurney drove it around the Watkins Glen circumference in New York before the starting of the U.S. Grand Prix .
For a time , there was talk of the town that Ford would build Mustang I for sales agreement , and Najjar ’s studio devise a larger windshield , door window , and a lightweight removable hardtop with that possibility in mind . But as Iacocca later told the crush , Mustang I never had a chance .
Where variation - elevator car purists see a dreaming come true , Ford ’s market - savvy top dog saw a car that would be costly to produce . He also know that a tight two - seater with scarce any baggage outer space would be tough to sell in sufficient numbers to repay a goodly profits . " That ’s sure not the car we want to build , because it ca n’t be a intensity auto , " he declared . " It ’s too far out . " Exit Mustang I.
As 1962 flap on , such central points as the number of butt , the price target , and especially the car ’s name were still very much at takings . Learn on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page where these early experiment into a gaudy new car would pass Ford , and new America .
Designing the 1965 Ford Mustang
It was still more than two years before the original 1965 Ford Mustang would make its entry , and Ford was casting about for the correct rule . Engineers , intriguer , and merchandising men were in uncharted territory : No one had ever created the variety of elevator car they were after .
Ford briefly considered another two - fanny estimation , the " XT - Bird , " a revival meeting of the 1957 Thunderbird proposed by the Budd Company , which had built the original trunk and still had tooling . Budd pitch a prototype using a Falcon flesh and a ' 57 T - Bird body with update styling and a flyspeck rear seat add . But though claim product cost were seductively scurvy , Ford could n’t see a two - seater of any kind drawing the sales agreement and profits that Ford Division headman Lee Iacocca was after .
Even so , two - seaters persisted for a while in T-5 work , which bring about scads of sketches , interpreting , and clay model . Major themes were refine through several groups of designs tag Avventura , Allegro , Mina , Median , and Stilletto , to name a few .
The Allegro series alone comprised some 13 physical exercise differing in appearance , size , projected cost , and other key factors . One Allegro , a fastback coupe , was publically shown as a " style experimental gondola " in August 1963 , but it was already a dead duck . Of the many sporty - railway car concepts moil out in 1961 and into ' 62 , none satisfied Iacocca and other Ford execs .
To get matter moving , an impatient Iacocca had the programme restart in August 1962 . A novel package was laid down , and the company ’s three excogitation studio apartment were put to come up with meet proposals . Iacocca feel the in - sign competition was bound to give rise the gondola everyone was search for .
The requirements were daunting : a $ 2500 target price , 2500 - hammering curbing weight , 180 - inch overall length , seating for four , standard floorshift , and maximum usage of Falcon components . Styling was to be " gaudy , personal , and tight . " Marketers threw in the notion of an branch - farsighted option tilt so vendee could equip the car for economic system , luxury , performance , or any combination .
The contest pitted the Ford and Lincoln - Mercury divisional studios against a team from the Advanced Design section under Don DeLaRossa , all guided by design vice - chairperson Eugene Bordinat . Each studio apartment had just two hebdomad to fall up with one or more full - sizing Lucius DuBignon Clay models .
in the end , seven prospect were wheel into the Ford Design Center courtyard for an August 16 executive review . Each had its own part , some more formal than others , but most boast a long hood and a relatively short rearward deck of cards surmounted by a closely - coupled " greenhouse . " This look was at least partially exalt by the sporty yet elegant 1956 - 57 Continental Mark II , a design bench mark among recent Dearborn cars , but it was also the basic look of many genuine sport automobile . Other shared traits included full rear - wheel openings and crisp body lines .
At Last, a Winner
Among the collected seven , one design leaped out , a white notchback coupe . " It was the only one that seemed to be moving , " Iacocca said .
Fittingly perhaps , it came from the Ford Studio headed by veteran designerJoe Oros , studio apartment managerGale Haldermanand administrator designer L. David Ash . Oros had his team paint their cadaver white so as to get management eye , which it obviously did . It look much like the eventual showroom Mustang except for different side treatments left and right – the former would be chosen for production – plus rectangular headlight , dissimilar trim , and nameplates ( more of which shortly ) . Ironically , this mockup was a second - think rush line of work , completed in only three days after the group spend its first week on a design that Oros immediately interdict upon returning from an outside seminar .
Iacocca ’s babe now travel ahead with unusual speed . chance out how Ford ensconce upon its concluding manakin , look , and even the name , on the next Thomas Nelson Page .
The 1965 Ford Mustang Prototype
What would become the epoch-making 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang can be traced directly to the Ford Studio model that was " validated " for output on September 10 , 1962 , less than a calendar month after a courtyard confrontation of competing plan construct .
Except for change typically made for mass yield – suitable bumpers , round headlights , less windscreen rake – the design was essentially untouched . And most Ford mass did n’t want it touch anyway . That included locomotive engineer , who bent a good many in - house rules to keep the styling intact .
The task of " productionizing " the Mustang fell to executive locomotive engineer Jack Predergast and development technologist C. N. Reuter . It was in the main a eubstance engineering job , because the basic anatomy , abatement , and driveline were , by design , apportion with the Falcon and the related " medium " Fairlane , new for ' 62 .
Overall length stop up at 181.6 column inch , a morsel over the specified limit but identical to that of the reskinned 1964 Falcon . Wheelbase was set at 108 inches , 1.5 column inch shorter than Falcon ’s , but enough to accommodate four passenger . Though Falcon trust mainly on six - cylinder locomotive engine , interior decorator Joe Oros ' squad had left tidy sum of underhood outer space for Ford ’s igniter and lively new " Challenger " V-8 , which arrived with the Fairlane and became a new option for top - lineage ' 63 Falcons .
Though Mustang maturation focused primarily on a hardtop coupe , the effort more or less seize that a convertible would also be offered despite its inevitably higher price and abject sale . But with racy fastbacks pop to make a counter in the market , designers mat a slope - cap coupe was essential to give Mustang a believable carrying into action image with American young . Planners okayed the fastback , and it was all but envelop up by mid - October 1963 . However , it would n’t start sales event until some six month after its stable companion .
Why the postponement ? One rationality was that the Mustang was a new idea and thus not a guarantee success , however promising it seemed . While many Ford people intend it would be quite popular , there were a few – include chairman Henry Ford II – who feared a action replay of the recent Edsel debacle . They need n’t have worried . Indeed , marketplace research conducted during the program ’s final calendar month strongly indicated that Ford had a victor on its hands . But the Edsel ’s mentality had been just as rosy , hence a certain amount of bridge player - wringing in previous 1963 .
Names and Icons
By that distributor point , Ford had square off on the Mustang name after month of lookup and debate . Cougar had emerged as the other dearie , one understanding the Oros team model wore Cougar nameplates and a braggy conventionalize cat within its grille . But countless other names were consider along the way , include Torino , Turino , and even T-5 . Chairman Ford like " Thunderbird II " and " T - Bird II . " Ford Division chief Lee Iacocca , railroad engineer Donald N. Frey , and others argued for Mustang , though other horses were in the running for a time , including Colt , Bronco , Maverick – and Pinto .
In any case , the name was n’t finally decided until late in the game . Indeed , some other Mustang closet photo showed production prototype with another heavy cat in the grille . But a gallop horse soon guide its post . This ikon was cast from a mahogany sculpture by sculptor Waino Kangas working from sketches by John Najjar and Phil Clark for the Mustang I. Equine name aside , the only other legacy from the picayune midships buggy was a lowly tri - colour logotype designed by Najjar , which appear on the production model ’s dashboard and lower front fenders .
In many way , Mustang was a perfect name for the sportsmanlike newfangled Ford , evoking quixotic images of free - spirited cowherd astride hefty steed . Just as important , it was easy to spell and easy to call up . As one Ford ad man state , Mustang " had the excitation of the wide - open space , and it was American as all Inferno . "
But it was n’t yet a household name , and Ford publicist require to build up on the buzz created by the Mustang I. The outcome was a newfangled showpiece , a translatable logically named Mustang II . Though bill as another " experimentation , " this was really an exaggerated preview of the salesroom models , built after tooling was dictate with mostly product - line parts .
Differences included a five - inch longer hoodlum , a more pointed front , a bulkier stern , a cut - down windscreen , matching liftoff hardtop , no bumpers , and an intricately cut down custom interior . Ford returned to Watkins Glen in October 1963 to reveal the Mustang II . Response was enthusiastic , which must have lessened some anxiousness in Dearborn . reporter , note the car looked mill - quick , now have intercourse what they ’d mistrust for months : Ford was up to something potentially very big .
The Mustang II kicked off a six - month publicity buildup to announcement day . The next major step came on January 21 , 1964 , when invite reporters break down to Dearborn for a " Mustang Technical Press Conference . " Iacocca , who gestate the Mustang idea , played horde , shine like a gallant young pop . " candidly , we can hardly wait for you to get behind the wheel of a Mustang , " he gushed . " We think you ’re in for a driving experience such as you ’ve never had before . "
A revolution was about to start and the American self-propelled landscape painting would be forever commute . It ’s not too far a stretch to say Mustang helped alter America itself in some elbow room . bump out how in the next section .
