Empire games

When Ford was deciding how to celebrate the official 50th anniversary of the Mustang – and there are many, many events being run around the world in 2014 – it knew it had to go back to the top.

That meant recreating history by taking a Mustang Convertible up to the observation deck, on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in New York.

It also meant, once again, a chop job to fit the car into elevators installed in 1931 with no thought about transporting cars.

Ford cut a 1965 prototype into three pieces for its original display stunt but, this time around, it took even more trouble to strip the car and then rebuild the jigsaw puzzle in time for a showing during New York motor show week.

“Like all good craftsmen, our team is measuring twice and cutting once to make sure we can get this Mustang up in the elevators,” says Dave Pericak, the Mustang chief engineer and also the one who oversaw the operation.

“Like the team that did this in 1965, the current crew visited the Empire State Building before starting and took careful measurements of its new elevators and doors before cutting up the car.”