7 Crazy Historic Facts About the Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is legendary and historic, but don't think you know everything there is to know about it. Here's 7 crazy facts you may not have heard.
1. Too Fast
When the production Mustang was just an idea, Ford was working on a sports car described as fitting between a go kart and the Corvette. Taking cues from the Chevy Corvair with its rear engine, the Mustang 1 sports car used a Ford of Germany FWD V4 motor and transaxle, mounted in back. It was meant to be sporty, however, things may have gotten a little out of hand. Once the prototype was ready for public, Dan Gurney drove it around the legendary Watkins Glen Grand Prix track in New York in front of a crowd of race fans. Gurney's driving, combine with the race car like suspension, aerodynamics, and ample power turned in a lap only a few seconds short of the then current Formula F1 race-cars' times.
2. Gutsy Promotion
Ford had no plan to sell a rear engined 2 seat sports car like the Mustang 1 concept, but that didn't stop them from promoting the crap out of it. It was lent to all the big magazines for road tests, and shown at all the big shows. Images like this appealed to the hip young crowd who had no interest in a Galaxie 500 or pedestrian Falcon in 1962.
3. Mustang - Cougar
Early sketches show the falcon based Ford Mustang production car being called the Cougar. In fact, there were other names being considered for the car, like Panther and Torino, before Ford decided to go with the legendary horse. The company did exhaustive market research, however, and the Mustang name was the most popular by far.
4. The Pony Name
Designer John Najjar originally suggested the name "Mustang" from the World War ll P-51 Mustang fighter plane, but the name was quickly rejected. The very designer pitched the same name again a few days later, only this with connection to the legendary American horse. There is a rumor Lee Iacocca visited the locker room of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs football team and told them they were so tough against Michigan he was naming a car after them. That's a nice story, but there are pictures of pre-production cars with Mustang emblems on them from before that game.
5. Station Wagon
In the beginning stages of the development of the Mustang, engineers were thinking about a Mustang Station Wagon. There are plenty of pictures around of full sized clay models of the Mustang wagon from the early days (1964-68) of production, but none were ever made. Or, almost none. Carroll Shelby and his team made up two or more Mustang wagons in their spare time between Cobras and GT350. These cars weren't offered to the public, but were used for errand running and general shop transportation, which is how one of them ended up stolen.
6. Swivel Bucket Seats
For some strange reason, some of the original engineers for the Mustang thought it would be a good idea to put a swiveling bucket seat for the driver. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this crazy prototype never made it to the production line. Someone may have been spying from GM though, because in the 1970s they did introduce swivel bucket seats in their intermediates, like the Chevy Malibu.
7. McLaren Mustang
Ford collaborated with McLaren to create 11 Ford Mustang McLarens in 1981 based on the Fox Body. Shortly after, they collaborated with American Sunroof Company to make a line of McLaren Mustang convertibles. This picture was the official advertisement for the unique, Formula One inspired, McLaren Mustang collaboration.
Want more vintage Mustang images and trivia? Check out this piece on Thrillist.
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