At the 1964 New York Auto Show, Ford presented a prototype that anticipated what should be its next sports car, the Mustang. Few imagined that that car would become an icon of the brand and that, 60 years later, it would still be on the market, maintaining the same style and philosophy.
It was a hastily made car. What was shown that April 1964 was the consequence of an almost clandestine meeting, led by Lee Iacocca, then Ford’s commercial director, at the Fairlane Hotel at the end of 1961. Iacocca had observed that a new type of customer was arriving for the automobile. , the baby boom generation. There the foundations of the Falcon Special project were laid.
Lee Iacocca had to convince a large number of committees and Henry Ford himself until he could sign, in December 1962, the Blue Letter Plan, which marked a turning point for the company and gave rise to the birth of the Mustang.
Iacocca, an engineer but above all a salesman and with a vision for the future, had understood that the young American generation was fascinated by European sports cars and Ford did not have a suitable offer for them.
To him, it was clear that Chevrolet had taken the lead. The Corvair, launched in 1961 with a rear engine, had been a failure… but converted into the Corvair Coupé or the convertible Monza version, with more power, it gained the fervor of a young public, who were looking for a different car. G.M. It sold more than 400,000 units in just two years.
Ford was hesitant, but Iaccoca managed to cancel other projects. Thus, the Project T5 Special Falcon was born. The idea was to take the base of the Ford Falcon, with 6-cylinder or V8 engines, and cover it with a sporty body with 4-seat capacity, attractive style, unique appearance and low price. Manage to sell 150,000 units annually with a profit of around $750 per unit.
In December 1961, Iacocca put all the style centers of the group’s various brands to work on the project. They were going to compete against each other. In nine months, 18 clay-molded projects were made.
While Budd, an independent company, also presented a proposal, the XT Bird, which offered a quick solution, a Falcon chassis with a T-Bird body that had followers in high places… However, Iacocca thought that a T-Bird small would not appeal to young people and would annoy T-Bird customers.
Things were not progressing as planned. The car was due to be launched at the end of 1964. With 20 months to go, styling was still a problem. Time was against us and the usual procedures in the creation of new models had to be cut. Thus, instead of generating several clay models to show design alternatives, it was decided to sculpt just one with two different halves, conceived by two different designers based on the sketch presented by a third. Once the project was approved, a fourth designer was in charge of merging the best of both proposals to shape what would become an automobile icon.
Time was pressing. If the car could not be launched at the end of 1964, possibly it should be delayed a couple of years because by 1965 the agenda of new developments was complete.
The success was immediate. In 1964, 121,000 Mustangs were sold despite having been launched that summer. In 1965 the figure reached 560,000 units.
Throughout its history, the Mustang has had four-, six- and eight-cylinder engines. It has had special versions, it has been the basis of the Shelby or Saalen sports cars and muscle car versions with turbocharged engines have been offered.
In Europe, reluctant to view American sports cars as not very dynamic, its launch caused a sensation: the rock star Johnny Halliday took part with one of them in the Monte Carlo Rally. Throughout its history, the Mustang has had many sports cars.
Throughout these 60 years, several generations have developed; The current one, launched in 2023, represents an important change, the possible transformation of the Mustang. In addition to the traditional coupe and convertible versions – with 2.3 Turbo, 5.0 V8 and 5.2 V8 Supercharged engines, this one for the GTD variant and with 800 HP – a completely electric SUV variant has been created. This is the Mustang Mach E, available in versions from 269 to 487 HP, with two or four drive wheels and two battery pack options, with a range of 460 to 600 km.
