On April 17, 1964, Ford put its new model on sale Mustang. The launch price in the United States was $2,368, a really low value for the time. And the result was overwhelming: 400,000 units in the first year and one million accumulated in the first two years.
What came after finished cementing the legend that it became: sportier and spicier versions, participation in competitions and Hollywood cinematic chases.
Fans of this sports car and the oval brand celebrate today the Mustang Daythe day in which They celebrate the best-selling sports car in the world and one of the few models that has been sold uninterruptedly for more than 60 years. It is equaled by the Porsche 911 (also from 1964) and only surpassed by the F Series (1948), also from the oval brand.
This date coincides with the confirmation of the arrival of the seventh generation of the model to the Argentine market, confirmed for the third quarter of 2024 and with a version with a V8 engine.
“Mustang is the heart and soul of this company and a favorite around the world,” Jim Farley said at the time, when he was not yet president of Ford Motor Company as he is now. Today he is the driving force behind the most famous sports car in the world having entered its most powerful and furious era.
The genesis of a legend
Ford had the complicated numbers in the early 60s and a successful replacement had to be created to replace the Falcon. There was not much room for error since the failure of the Edsel had caused the oval brand to lose millions.
Without the possibility of making large investments, the brand decided to use the Ford Cardinal, developed for Europe, as the first option to occupy that place. A young man Lee Iacoccalater considered the father of the Mustang, was in charge of going to see the potential of the vehicle.
“With the Cardinal there is nothing to do, another failure with the Edsel being so recent could be fatal for the company. We cannot release a new model that is not going to arouse the slightest interest among young buyers,” Iacocca recalled in his autobiography, still used today as an example in management and marketing careers.
Success in competitions led by Carroll Shelby, like this Shelby GT350, were key in its evolution.From there, Henry Ford II, grandson of the founder of the brand, entrusted Iacocca to take charge of the project and with the urgency of obtaining quick results, since the idea was to arrive with the model ready to enter production in early 1964 and present it to the public at the New York World’s Fair.
Several prototypes were discarded until the lines of the young designer Joe Oros appeared, who presented a proposal with the almost definitive lines of what later became the Mustang. Internally they began to call it Cougar (cougar, in English) because of the feline features that the model had.
Ford was satisfied and confident with the potential the vehicle had. They had achieved what they were looking for: a cheap car but with a novel and sporty design that would undoubtedly reach young buyers.
It was almost Turin
The Mustang had to be attractive to both men and women.But the name had to be defined. Although Cougar remained one of the options, the idea to capture a growing predilection for European models in the clientele of those years offered options such as Monaco, Montecarlo and Torino.
Finally the last one was chosen. And while the advertising campaign for the future Torino was being worked on, a call from the public relations department of the oval brand changed everything. “You have to find another name,” Charlie Moore, head of the area, told Iacocca.
The thing is that Henry Ford II, while carrying out the procedures to get divorced, had met Cristina Vettore Austin, a member of Italian high society, with whom he began a relationship. Within the company they considered that naming a new model with an Italian name was going to generate bad publicity and it would fuel the gossip.
The Ford Mustang Boss 351 was produced only in 1971.Iacocca himself recalled that he commissioned the Detroit Public Library to collect other animal names. The finalists were six: Bronco, Puma, Cheetah, Colt, the original Cougar and Mustang. This had the acceptance of the company’s leadership and also of the advertising agency. And so a whole advertising machinery was set in motion.
A success from day one
On the day of the public presentation, April 17, 1964, the Mustang was not only exhibited at the New York World’s Fair, but was also in all official Ford dealerships in the USA, which opened their doors so that the public can see the brand new model.
Also that day its price was announced: $2,368. During the first weekend of sales, 4 million people visited the agency salons of the oval mark. And in 23 months and 23 days, it reached the first million units sold.
That popularity increased when more powerful and sporty versions began to appear, such as the Mach 1, the Boss and the powerful Shelbys, developed by Carroll Shelby himself.
The new Ford Mustang GTD, with 800 horsepower, is the most powerful in history.It was not without fiascos, like the second generation, which due to the oil crisis came to the market without the verve or the halo of superiority that the first generation had left.
But not even that could with the Mustang. And the passage of time and the different generations only continued to enlarge the figure of a car that was born as an economical model and that became a legend.