Myth Buster
Ford Mustang
1 IT WAS NAMED AFTER AN AEROPLANE
Designer John Najjar suggested Mustang in tribute to the World War Two P-51 fighter. His boss, Bob Maguire, felt it was too ‘airplaney’, until John pointed out the wild horse connection. There’s also a tale that Ford vice president, Lee Iacocca, chose it after seeing the Southern Methodist University Mustangs football team play the University of Michigan in 1963, but the Mustang moniker had already been picked by then. Other names considered were Cougar, Torino, Avventura, Thunderbird II and… Allegro.
2 THE HERTZ CARS WERE RACED
In 1966, rental firm, Hertz, offered 1001 Shelby Mustang GT350Hs, with 306bhp V8 engines, for hire, for $17 a day and 17 cents a mile. Many were allegedly taken racing at weekends (with roundels and roll bars added) and some drivers even took the engines out, put them in their own Mustangs to race, and then dropped them back in the Hertz cars afterwards. These weekend racing claims are, however, sadly unproven.
3 McQUEEN DID HIS OWN STUNTS IN BULLITT
Hollywood actor, Steve McQueen, was a talented driver, but did he do all his own stunt work in the 1968 film, Bullitt? Well, he wanted to, but then he spun out on a corner while pursuing Bill Hickman’s Dodge Charger and nearly took out a camera. As such, stunt double, Bud Ekins, was brought in for the trickier stuff. Incidentally, of the two Mustangs used, one turned up in a Mexico scrapyard last year, the other’s reputedly in a secret location somewhere in the US.
Richard Gunn
Find out more about buying Ford’s pony car in our Expert Buyer feature on page 46.