The first Ford Mustangs were released to the public in early 1965. The first model, colloquially known as the 1964 1/2 Mustang, had a body style based on the Falcon and Fairlane, was available as a coupe or convertible, and had a straight-6 engine.

A GT equipment package and a V8 block engine were introduced later in 1965, along with front fog lights and disc brakes. The coupe model continued to be the style of choice, but Ford introduced a fastback Mustang as well.

From 1967 to 1970, the Mustang got larger and larger to accommodate the bigger V8 block engines, and from 1971 to 1973 New product design manager Budie Knudsen saw the Mustang through it’s period of largest engine size. At this point in its history, the Mustang could accurately be called a “Gas Guzzler.”

That all changed with the Arab Oil Embargo. With gas at all time high prices and all time low supply, Ford listened to its customer base and began shrinking the Mustang. The Ford Mustang was completely redesigned based on a Pinto body in 1973, under the guidance of Ford President Lee Iacocca. This new design went on to become of the best selling versions of the Mustang.

Ford badly misread consumer desires for the Mustang beginning with the 1979 redesign of the Mustang, based on Ford’s “Fox platform.” This era saw some of the lowest powered versions of the Mustang in its history, with the V8 rated at only 120 horsepower. Sales slumped throughout the eighties, and the Mustang was facing extinction.

In 1994, a radical new design for the Mustang Body, codenamed SN-95, breathed new life into the car and is generally credited with saving it from extinction. Although some fans bemoaned the lack of a fastback version, the sleek lines of the new Mustang made it an overwhelmingly popular car. It was selected as the pace car for the Indy 500 in 1994, and became Motor Trend’s Car of the Year for the third time in its life. The SN-95 design stayed with only slight design changes until 2005 when another radical redesign was undertaken.

The 2005 Mustang was a complete retro redesign, with design cues taken directly from the 1960s. Ford called it “retro futurism,” and even the interior dials and controls harkened back to the sixties.

Mustang remains one of the only original muscle cars in constant production and continues to be one of the most popular cars in North America.

Tags: classic cars, Ford, ford motor company, ford mustang, mustang gt, used cars

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.