History of the Ford Mustang
The History of the Ford Mustang The Ford Mustang, you see them on the streets on a daily basis. It’s without a doubt, one of the greatest muscle cars ever created. The Mustang is as much a piece of history, as the declaration of independence.
The first Ford Mustang rolled off the line in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 1964, but was dubbed the 1964 ½ by early mustang fans. After the car was introduced in the Detroit auto show on April 17th 1964 and being advertised on all three American TV channels, people were begging to have one, it was the working man’s sports car. It also made an appearance in the James Bond film, Goldfinger. In just the first week of sale, the mustang had sold well over 22,000 models. It only came with a straight line 6 cylinder engine or I-6. It wasn’t until later in 1965 that the first GT came around with a V-8. Also introduced in 1965 was the convertible option or a fast back. Also in 1965, ford introduced the first Shelby Gt350 for the hertz rental company, this car was built cheap for the rental car, but it had the Shelby racing engine under the hood for weekends on the drag strip. These models remained until 1969; this is when the first boss mustang was introduced. The boss was fords own version of the Shelby, and came with a 302 V-8 or the huge 429 V-8, the 429 was pushing out 475 rwhp. The Boss 429 was the fastest mustang yet, but the numbers were limited, only 815 were produced.
The mustang got another facelift in 1972 when a new guy became president of Ford. Also around this time, the U.S. was experiencing the Middle East oil embargos. Mustang fans begged for smaller, more fuel efficient engines in the mustang rather than their gas guzzling V-8s. This was the preliminary round for the “dark era” of the mustang, where body style went bad, and engine power slumped to pathetic levels. The 70’s weren’t all that bad for the mustang, in the early times, it kept some of its 60’s roots but more towards the 80’s is when things got bad.
The first Ford Mustang rolled off the line in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 1964, but was dubbed the 1964 ½ by early mustang fans. After the car was introduced in the Detroit auto show on April 17th 1964 and being advertised on all three American TV channels, people were begging to have one, it was the working man’s sports car. It also made an appearance in the James Bond film, Goldfinger. In just the first week of sale, the mustang had sold well over 22,000 models. It only came with a straight line 6 cylinder engine or I-6. It wasn’t until later in 1965 that the first GT came around with a V-8. Also introduced in 1965 was the convertible option or a fast back. Also in 1965, ford introduced the first Shelby Gt350 for the hertz rental company, this car was built cheap for the rental car, but it had the Shelby racing engine under the hood for weekends on the drag strip. These models remained until 1969; this is when the first boss mustang was introduced. The boss was fords own version of the Shelby, and came with a 302 V-8 or the huge 429 V-8, the 429 was pushing out 475 rwhp. The Boss 429 was the fastest mustang yet, but the numbers were limited, only 815 were produced.
The mustang got another facelift in 1972 when a new guy became president of Ford. Also around this time, the U.S. was experiencing the Middle East oil embargos. Mustang fans begged for smaller, more fuel efficient engines in the mustang rather than their gas guzzling V-8s. This was the preliminary round for the “dark era” of the mustang, where body style went bad, and engine power slumped to pathetic levels. The 70’s weren’t all that bad for the mustang, in the early times, it kept some of its 60’s roots but more towards the 80’s is when things got bad.