A FORTUNATE MISTAKE

The Mustang was a very fortunate mistake. Ford had had a great success with the Thunderbird, and people wondered why Ford could not repeat that success with a sporty looking car with better handling than the "highway monsters" of that era, that was also affordable.

Ford was in desperate need for a new car for the sports car market. But there were dissenting ideas thought FoMoCo. One group wanted a power packed "corvette smoker". And the other group wanted a sporty looking, generic Ford with a make-over,but still had good handling. More looks than absolute power.

The savior of the mustang was Lee Iacocca. When Lee was presented with an attractive body that he was sure he could sell, he urged Ford to pay to make it a production car. And they did! In April 1964 Ford introduced the 19641/2 MUSTANG at the New York World's Fair. The odd model year was because officially the 1964 model year usually appeared in September 1963.

At the time the largest engine available was a 289 cid (4.7 liters) V-8 with a 210 bhp SAE, which was ideal for the only type of performance important in America at the time, burn-out acceleration in a straight line.

Compared to modern sports cars the Mustang looks like a box with thin wheels. But back in the day it looked very sporty.

Lee Iacocco was right that the Mustangs looks would be the seller. Also people would read about the power packed Mustangs in magazines and although they could not afford the top of the line Mustangs they still bought the six-cylinder versions to look good.

With the straight-six you could hardly do enough to get in trouble. But it looked good and it was CHEAP.

In 1965 things brightened up a little for the Mustang. The base six-cylinder was boosted to a 200 cid (3.3 liters) which put 100mph. in the reach of any Mustang.

Not much changed for the Mustang in 1966. The millionth Mustang was built which was an impressive acomplishment.The success of the Mustang was phenomenal, but Ford knew that soon GM would try the same thing but make theirs look better. Ford needed to try something new for 1967, better looks and more power.

The results were what you would expect. A bigger, heavier, and more powerful car. The looks though were shocking. The Fast Back was great a slope all the way to the concaved tail. The front was slightly angled. And the side vents were great features.The new Big-Block considerably hurt the sale of the 289's. Then in 1968 Ford released the really powerful engines.

The first released was the 427 cid which was put in the GT500's. Then the 428 cid Cobra Jet motor appeared. The extra cubic inch took it over seven liters, which was not use then except for racing. And it was considerably cheaper to produce.

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MORE TO COME SOON!!!!!!!!!!!JUST GOTTA DO SOME MORE STUDYING!

I must give credit to the author of "mustang the classic american sportscar" BILL REYNOLDS. For providing the information to write this.

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