Ford’s Sporty Mustang fun car changed the way we perceived automobiles 60 years ago. Instead of boring economy cars, Ford’s Vice President and Ford Division General Manager, Lee Iacocca, concluded transportation didn’t have to be boring. He also saw a hot market coming for affordable sporty automobiles. Sporty didn’t have to be expensive. Instead – it would be a mass market ride.
Iacocca’s enormous challenge was building an affordable sporty car for a buck a pound. Several concepts were examined, with only one concept meeting the objective – the Falcon/Comet platform, which paved the path to Mustang. Ford product planners, engineers, manufacturing people, and marketing gurus had 18 months to get Mustang to market.
It was the summer of 1962.
Iacocca staged a design competition from three Ford corporate studios – Advanced, Lincoln-Mercury, and the Ford Division studio. All were expected to roll out their vision of what the Sporty Ford Car should be. On a warm August morning in 1962, each brought their concepts to the Ford Design courtyard. One stood out – the sporty Ford “Cougar” clay concept conceived by Gale Halderman, Dave Ash, and design boss Joseph Oros. All departments went to work developing what would become Ford Mustang. This meant working day and night around the clock, seven days a week, for a timely rollout at the New York World’s Fair in April of 1964.
The Sporty Ford Car project known as “T-5” was something everyone wanted to be a part of. The raw excitement of something totally new – a youth market car conceived specifically for baby boomers coming of age. However, the Mustang became something even more – buyers of every age bought Mustangs – even if they didn’t need a second or third car. People bought Mustangs for reasons they couldn’t fathom just to say they had one. The elderly bought Mustangs to feel young again. Ford called it a “youth movement…”
I’ve had the good fortune of living the Mustang life for more than 50 years. It has been a good run for me. My passion for automobiles became a career as an automotive writer and historian. I was handed my dream shot with an up and coming publisher specializing in niche automotive enthusiast markets such as muscle cars, hot rods, classic cars, and more specifically – the Mustang.
The result has been never being bored going to work each day. What I have learned from this experience has been to always pursue what you love doing. If you can make a lot of money doing it, all the more reason to do it. I have not become wealthy as an automotive journalist; however, I’ve earned a comfortable living doing so and managed to meet people who’ve become friends and extended family. And now – it is time to expand my writing experience and look to the next chapter of a life spanning nearly 69 years. I would like to invite you to come along.
As Mustang’s 60th year winds down and the seventh decade lay ahead, what about your dreams and that next chapter? What will you do next?
Boomer Journey... 
Everyone points to the Mustang as the rise of the “pony car” but 10 years earlier the original Corvette and T-Bird were small and sporty. By 60 the T-Bird had forgotten that format. I wonder if it was marketing, or price or something else because the first gen Cutlass and Nova came in small sporty convertibles. The cutlass wasn’t much bigger than a Corvair, with way more engine. I had a 66 Nova SS (with a 6?) I preferred to the Mustang. But history picks its winners. When the Mustang went the way of the t-bird by 70-71 they lost me. 1969 was primo for Camaro, Mustang. Oh well…
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Very interesting piece of history thanks!!
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