rejected Ford’s request to declare the new 1965 Mustang 2+2 a “sports car” (crucial for competition eligibility), Ford turned to popular SCCA Cobra racer Carroll Shelby to serve as a negotiator and messenger. Stepping back, Ford let Shelby work with SCCA to determine the steps needed to get the Mustang accepted for sanctioned SCCA race events. One sticking point was its back seat. Proper sports cars simply didn’t have them. As plans for the 1965 GT350 solidified, the elimination of the back seat was a primary detail. Thus, each of the 562 1965 Mustang GT350s was delivered to the retail customer as a two-seater with a textured black plastic package shelf replacing the stock 2+2 folding rear seat. For 1966, the SCCA loosened its standards and approved Ford’s desire to offer an optional back seat in ’66 GT350 Mustangs. As a result, approximately 100 ’66 GT350s were built as two-seaters. The remaining 2,274 had normal Mustang back seats.
This floor panel helped overcome SCCA concerns about Mustang’s status as a sports car.
8 Before that Mustang II (Ford’s controversial Pinto-based 1974 model), the name was used a decade earlier on an experimental show car that debuted in October 1963. Although it featured an exaggerated sloping nose, extended rear quarter panels, and other never-made-it-to-production touches, the Mustang II served to fan the flames of public anticipation for the real Mustang during the six months before its first public showing on April 17, 1964. IMC released a highly detailed 1/25-scale plastic model kit of the 1963 Mustang II show car was shortly after. The kit is still available today from Lindberg.
9 Did Ford really hang a new Mustang from the Empire State Building? Yes, but unlike the famed 1933 movie primate clutching a Fay Wray doll, the car wasn’t clinging to the spire, but was instead carefully positioned atop the outdoor observation deck, 1,472 feet above the sidewalk. Most folks today assume the stunt was part of the initial 1965 Mustang launch, but it happened on October 20, 1965, as part of the hoopla surrounding the 1966 model rollout, Mustang’s second year of production.
10 The October 1966 Empire State Building Mustang publicity stunt centered on a new 1966 convertible. Rather than attempt a lift using a helicopter, Ford’s Experimental Garage took a stock vehicle, removed the engine and transmission, and then sliced it into four sections. The stunt car was shipped to NYC and unloaded on the street in front of the Empire State Building at 10:30 p.m. Then the car was disassembled for loading into passenger elevators to the observation deck. By 4:30 a.m., the car was reassembled and ready to be photographed by waiting news helicopters. At 11:00 a.m. the car was disassembled and brought inside the observation tower, where it remained to greet more than 14,000 visitors in the months that followed.
11 Timed and priced perfectly to appeal to baby boomers, Mustang’s success was so newsworthy it caught the attention of the traditionally non-automotive press. Time, and Newsweek ran simultaneous cover stories on the Mustang phenomenon. It was not the last time Iacocca appeared on Time’s cover. Two decades later, the March 21, 1983, issue featured Lee’s illustrated mug sprouting from the grille of a Chrysler Town & Country convertible. The headline read “Detroit’s Comeback Kid.” By then, Iacocca was Chrysler’s chairman and savior.
12 Wilson Pickett’s 1966 hit R&B single “Mustang Sally” isn’t one of the great car guy songs (packed with meaningful gearhead tech lyrics), but its infectious backbeat and stylized keyboards more than make up for it. But did you know Pickett’s version was actually a cover of a song originally written and performed by Mack Rice in 1965? According to music historian Tom Shannon, the song was initially titled “Mustang Mama,” but Aretha Franklin suggested the name change. Although Pickett seemed fine singing the lyric, “I bought you a brand-new Mustang, a 1965 h’uh!” when the subject car would have been last year’s edition, the Young Rascals updated the model year to “1966” in their same-year cover of the tune. Years before Mack Rice wrote and sang the first version of “Mustang Sally,” he was part of an R&B group called The Falcons (1957–1960). That’s ironic when you remember the fact that Ford based the Mustang on its compact Falcon economy car platform.
13 The Kingston Trio’s Bob Shane may be well known for his role in re-popularizing folk music, but he also holds a very special place in Mustang history. In 1966, Carroll Shelby wanted to evaluate what a GT350 convertible might be like, so his company built four of them, an Ivy Green car with an automatic transmission (6S2375), a Spring Yellow 4-speed (6S2376), a Candy Apple Red 4-speed (6S2377), and a Sapphire Blue automatic (6S2378). They were used for testing and PR duties in Los Angeles and Detroit. Eventually, the quartet broke up and the Candy Apple Red 4-speed was sold to Bob Shane. Today the car exists in pristine, restored condition (see Fact No. 125).
14 The Falcon (Mustang’s platform donor) was Ford’s answer to growing public demand for compact cars in the late 1950s. Spurred by successful imports such as the VW Beetle and Renault Dauphine as well as existing domestics including the Rambler American and Studebaker Lark, the Falcon joined the Plymouth Valiant and Chevrolet Corvair for a 1960 model year rollout. Falcon’s most popular 1960 models were the two-door sedan (193,470 built) and four-door sedan (167,896 built), followed by station wagons with two doors (27,552 built) and four doors (46,758 built). So, with the Falcon platform’s ability to accept a station wagon body, did Ford ever make a Mustang station wagon? Yes and no. Although Ford stylists rendered numerous long-roof design proposals in-house, each was quickly shot down by Ford styling chief Eugene Bordinat, who saw Mustang as a sporty personal car and nothing else. By the way, Falcon convertibles were not offered until the 1963 model year.
15 Car and Driver magazine started the Mustang station wagon rumor mill churning with its October 1966 cover shot depicting a dark green Mustang station wagon. Looking very much like a teaser for the real thing, the car was actually built in Italy by Intermeccanica, a Turin-based custom vehicle outfit. A collaboration between automotive journalist Barney Clark, Detroit stylist Robert Cumberford, and car enthusiast Jim Licata, the wagon began life as an early 1965 coupe (289/C4 automatic) to which a steel roof extension was added. Looking very stock and fully detailed, the carpeted cargo space measured 44 inches wide and 36 inches deep with the rear seat folded down.
16 Sadly, Clark and Cumberford were rebuffed by Ford, which turned a blind eye to their Mustang station wagon project. Undeterred, the Car and Driver story published Cumberford’s mailing address, should interested parties elect to have Intermeccanica build one for them. It is not known whether any orders were taken. Today, Robert Cumberford’s written design critiques can be seen every month in Automobile magazine. The informative column is called “Cumberford by Design.”
17 Were any four-door Mustangs built by Ford? The idea was certainly tossed around, and a photo of a full-size styling buck, dated January 7, 1963, depicts the passenger’s side of a very austere-looking Mustang coupe with four doors, 13-inch whitewall tires, base Falcon hubcaps, and a front license plate marked “Falcon SP 9C 03.” A look through the clear windows reveals that the driver’s side of the body has the standard Mustang two-door configuration. Likely built to allow decision makers to easily see how two- and four-door treatments worked on the same model, the four-door was probably nixed for fear it would cannibalize Falcon sales.
18 The secrecy surrounding Mustang’s launch was so tight, even Motor Trend magazine wasn’t given the whole story when it awarded its coveted 1964 “Car of the Year” trophy to the entire Ford lineup. That’s why the cover image on the February 1964 issue of MT depicts a Galaxie, a Falcon, a Fairlane, a Thunderbird, and no Mustang. In those pre-Internet days, as many as three months passed between the words on the reporter’s typewriter and their arrival at the local magazine stand. When editor Charles Nerpel visited Ford to photograph and write the Car of the Year story, he did so in November 1963, nearly a half-year before Mustang’s Friday, April 17, 1964, launch date.
19 It very likely
