The Complete Story of Ford Mustang

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“May the Horse be with you” the very loud and very mean beast the Ford Mustang is a 56 year old legacy. The sporty youth centric car was introduced as the Mustang 1965 at the World’s Fair in 1964 and was out for commercial sales soon after the launch. The Mustang flourished the era and market of pony cars across America.

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Known as the “Working Man’s Thunderbird” the car’s early models featured long hood and short rear deck. The original engine line-up consisted of a 170-cid straight-six, 4.3-liter V-8, and the legendary 289-cid V-8 with up to 271 horsepower. Thus Ford Mustang effectively gave birth to the muscle car genre and kicking off a generation of tyre-smoking street wars. Since then, we’ve seen a further five generations and ten body shapes of Mustang.

Ford Mustang is synonymous to not just speed but sturdiness and horsepower. The popularity of car is not just on streets but also on silver screens with James Bond driving this in “Goldfinger” in the year 1964 and most importantly in 1968 Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt”.

Within three years of its debut, some 500 Mustang fan clubs had cropped up. In March 1966, the 1 millionth Mustang rolled off the assembly line.

It was in the year 1965 the famous Ford v Ferrari took place wherein came a whole new generation of Mustangs known as Shelby Mustangs. Ken Miles was the first to race it to victory and thus ushered the era of GT350. 

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Soon after the victorious feat at Le Mans the 1967 GT500 was launched. The car which has been shown in the famous Nicolas Cage starrer Gone in 60 seconds is the one of the most valuable and legendary Mustangs out there today. The 67 GT500 was equipped with the “Le Mans” engine and just over a 2,000 of these vehicles were produced.

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In the year 1968 marked the creation of two of the most famous Mustangs of all time, The Boss 302 and Boss 429. Ford worked hard to make sure that the Boss Mustang would appeal to a young crowd who wanted fast cars. As some of the rarest Mustangs produced, and the most desirable, finding a Boss 429 is a lifetime goal and has been a part of the Keanu Reeves starrer John Wick which explains us the attachment that the car has in the movie.

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With sales waning, Ford restyled the 1970 models to look less aggressive. Sales dipped to fewer than 300,000 in 1969 and sank past 200,000 in 1970. Sales continued to nosedive through 1971 to 1973. But in 1974 Ford had something completely different in the works and introduced the Mustang II a subcompact based on a stretched Pinto platform and available as a notchback or hatchback. The Mustang II arrived in the fall of 1973, just in time for the oil embargo, and the timing could not have been better. Sales rocketed in 1974 which marked the Mustang II's best year. Contemporary reviews and audience perception was overwhelmingly positive, and the Mustang II won MotorTrend's 1974 Car of the Year Award.

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The new 1979 Mustang rode on a new platform called Fox, which it shared with the Fairmont sedan. Available in both notchback and hatchback styles, the new Mustang known popularly known as the Fox was the face of Mustang till 1993. From the year 1979 to 1993 America had gone through the second oil crisis and the fall of Soviet which were some good times for Mustang. In 1987 it brought a stunning redesign that featured Ford's aero-themed styling, with flush headlights and a new interior. Sales began to decline after 1989, and with a new Mustang in the wings, changes were minor. From 1987-89 the public outcry against a Japanese Mazda type design of the car was heard by Ford thus cancelling it and created a different version altogether known as Ford Probe thus keeping the spirit of Mustang alive.

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After the 1993 new Special Vehicle Team’s introduction of the limited-production SVT Mustang Cobra, which sported subtle yet distinctive styling cues and performance upgrades it was a time for makeover and going back to its roots. The 1994 Mustang's jellybean shape was augmented with first-gen styling nods and plenty of prancing horses as Mustang fans wanted more recognizable Mustangs rather than the fancy ones. The resemblance was clearer in the cabin, which featured a stylized version of the original Mustang's twin-cowl dashboard. Thus the 1994 model year marked the beginning of the fourth generation of Mustang.

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Ford facelifted the Mustang in 1999 with the company's "New Edge" styling motif which gave birth to the 2000 SVT Mustang Cobra R which was the fastest factory Mustang ever produced. Only 300 units were made making it one of the rarest Mustangs available.

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The 2005 Mustang marked the start of Fifth Generation Mustangs. The 2005 Mustang featured styling with nods to the fastback Mustang models of the late 1960s dubbed “retro-futurism”. The fifth generation appealed both to people who had grown up with first generation Mustangs as well as younger individuals who loved the retro look of an original but who also wanted safety features, like airbags.

The year 2007 marked the return of Shelby Mustang after more than 30 years of disputes. The 2007 Ford Shelby GT500 was based on the new S197 Mustang platform and came equipped with a 500 horsepower. Ford also offered the Shelby GT, a civilian version of the GT-H available with a manual transmission. Ford updated the Mustang in 2010, and the 2010 Shelby GT500 gained an additional 40 horsepower.

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In the year 2011  Ford debuted its own V8 engine codenamed Coyote. The Coyote engine was designed and built as a Mustang performance engine producing 412 horsepower at 6,500 rpm in the 2011 Mustang GT. The Coyote engine design allowed enthusiasts to not sacrifice performance for fuel economy, and it was termed as the beginning of a great thing. The changes did wonders for performance that is the Mustang GT went from 0-60 mph in just 4.3 seconds and covered the quarter mile in 12.8 seconds.

The year 2015 marked Mustang’s 50^th anniversary. Nearly every inch of the 2015 Mustang was brand new. It was much sleeker and European looking and the updates gave the Mustang something enthusiasts had been clamouring for ages: an independent “integral-link” rear suspension. An improved interior received higher quality materials, more space, and better ergonomics. It maintained that distinct "Mustang" look, inspired by the past 50 years of Mustang styling. Ford also brought back the fastback styling that was so prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s in the new Mustang.