1965 Ford Mustang. A secretary's car.
The venerable Ford Mustang has a few trivial facts. Some of you might already know that in 1963, the Ford brass re-skinned the slow selling Falcon as a new secretary’s car. Under Lee Iacocca’s supervision, the Falcon became the Mustang (why don’t we name cars after animals anymore?). Also the name Mustang came from the WWII fighter plane, not the horse.
This new secretary’s car was designed by a Japanese designer. Because of the name ‘Mustang’, the category of these nostalgic rides is called the ‘Pony Car’. Pony cars now include Camaros and Firebirds.
It wasn’t until Carroll Shelby (Mr. Cobra, himself) created the GT350 by shoving a 350 V8 under the pony car’s hood, that this secretary’s car was made into a beast of a muscle car that we know and love today.
1989 Ford Probe. This could have been the new Mustang.
1987 Ford Mustang. The Aero Fox Body Mustang.
Also, these pony cars were such a huge sales hit, that the first year’s sales of the Ford Mustang still stands as the best new model debut, which stands close to 686,000 units.
The fact that most people don’t know is that in the mid-1980′s, Ford wanted to replace the Mustang with a front-wheel drive car. The front wheel drive chassis was to be shared with the newly acquired Mazda. Did you guess what that car is?
Yep, Ford Probe was the new Mustang… at least until 1986.
With an overwhelming negative response from the Mustang fans and owners, Ford updated the design in 1987. It was mainly the mullet wearing Mustang fanboys who couldn’t fathom the thought that their favorite car was Japanese under the skin, and front wheel drive. We wholeheartedly agree that the Mustang wouldn’t be a Mustang, if it was front wheel drive (a la Mustang II of the mid-1970′s). The 1987 redesign came to be known as the Aero Fox Body Mustang… does anyone remember the Vanilla Ice video?
Then the Probe was introduced in 1988 as a 1989 model.
We could have had a Probestang?
-KF
