THE FORD ICON THAT NEARLY WASN’T

WHEN FORD whipped the covers off the Mustang on April 17 1964 few would have tipped it to be one of the auto industry’s biggest hits, that continues to flourish over half a century later.

But the Mustang almost didn’t happen. You see, Ford was deep in the financial fertiliser due to the utter failure of its muchtrumped Edsel. The last thing it could afford as a brand, and financially, was another flop.

But Ford President Lee Iacocca was sure the Mustang was a winner and convinced the board members of this. Armed with $75 million the Mustang was developed and built within two years, about half the normal time for a new-from-the-groundup model. When they saw it Americans fell in love with the Mustang and demand was so overwhelming that Ford had to tool up three plants to try and keep up. The plan was to produce 100,000 Mustangs in year one but its dealers sold 418,000.

The Mustang created a new breed of cars, originally dubbed ‘Pony cars’ but with engine and performance upgrades they were soon dubbed muscle cars. However it wasn’t all plain sailing with the Stang losing its way and its muscle car tag on more than one occasion. You only have to look at the woeful fourcylinder mid-90s offerings to see how far Ford had strayed from the original concept. Unsurprisingly, given our love of performance vehicles, Australians have fallen for the Mustang, well the 5-litre V8 version, making it the biggest selling sportscar in this country, a crown it’s unlikely to lose, as the Ford that nearly didn’t happen, closes in on 10 million sales globally.