ROBERT COUCHER
The Driver
The Ford Mustang is one American car which, unusually, seems at home here in Britain and in Europe. Most Yank Tanks are too big and flash but the ’Stang is of compact proportions. Also, Ford has been in the UK since opening its first factory in Manchester in 1911 and Fords have been top sellers in this country ever since. It’s a local hero.
You could even argue that the Mustang is the slightly larger cousin of the sporty Cortinas that preceded it. The bloodline continued with Europe’s Capri, billed in Britain as ‘The car you always promised yourself ’. Around 1.2 million of us bought into that idea.
In the early 1960s Ford decided, as part of its ‘Total Performance’ gig, to get some European exposure for its impending pony-car, so it entered a team of Mustangs in the 1964 Tour de France Automobile. It also entered three Cobra Daytonas with the aim of overall victory, but none finished.
The TdF Automobile was founded in 1899, four years before the bicycle version, and it continues today as the Tour Auto Optic 2000 run by Patrick and Sylvane Peter. It’s still one of the toughest road races in Historic motorsport. In September ’64 the Tour took 10 days and covered 4000 miles including the flat-out, five-mile, car-breaking Circuit de Reims-Gueux, as well as fast mountain stages and numerous other racing circuits all over France.
Jaguar had won the Touring category of the TdF for the previous five years, and this was the class win the Mustangs were gunning for. Three ’Stangs were prepared by Britain’s Alan Mann Racing, their 289ci V8s built by Holman & Moody. They romped home first and second in their class, winning 13 of the 17 speed stages along the way. The class-winning Mustang of Peter Proctor and Andrew Cowan finished eighth overall, with the top two slots falling to Ferrari GTOs.
Unsurprisingly, the French fell in love with the ‘Moostang’ and the car soon became a cult symbol. French pop culture included a ’Stang in the comedy Le
Gendarme de Saint-Tropez, followed by an appearance in Goldfinger and a starring role in the art-house Un
Homme et Une Femme. Ford even persuaded French rocker Johnny Hallyday to rally one on the Monte.
This was all long before Steve McQueen starred alongside this month’s Mustang in 1968’s Bullitt .Of course, the McQueen effect is huge in the car world, not that I’m a great fan because he wasn’t a particularly pleasant person. He could drive quite well, but perhaps not as well as he thought. Derek Bell tells how they would box him into a procession of racing cars at Le Mans and up the ante. McQueen was certainly brave but not, it seems, as handy as Paul Newman.
In 1994 I took part in the tough Tour Auto in a classic Mustang 350GT. The car, painted in correct Wimbledon White, was a right-hand drive Willment racer that, I later found out, consisted of lots of glassfibre panels. The Mustang’s then owner, Jeffrey Pattinson, called and asked if I’d like to be his navigator on the Tour. Yes please, I said. Only later did I find out I was a long way down his list, and got the seat only because five other victims were not brave enough to sit in the suicide seat next to Jeffrey ‘Give-it-all-the-Beans’ Pattinson. I now know why…
Actually, Jeffrey drove very well. He didn’t crash once and we got the ’Stang across the finish line in Nice. But those early Tour Autos were off-the-wall bonkers. For the Paris rush-hour Jeffrey plugged rousing driving music into our headphones – Tom Petty, U2, Golden Earring – to set the tone. A chill-out selection might have been better. The Tour is fundamentally a flat-out blast to half-adozen circuits all over France where the racing is fullon. I was on the maps and pacenotes so I didn’t see much, but I can remember being overtaken by a red Porsche 904 that went off the road, did a 360-degree roll in mid-air and landed in a field. We also saw plenty of skidmarks and holes punched through vegetation atop some very steep mountain passes.
Meanwhile, ‘Beans’ Pattinson was flat-out everywhere, even on stages where the Mustang would not physically fit. Towards the end was a particularly tight col where hillclimb champion David Franklin three-point-turned his green Mustang. My man didn’t bother; he just shaved ours up the col, the rock faces splintering bits of glassfibre all the way up. We used a whole roll of gaffer tape to tie the old ’Stang together at the top… but we made it to Nice, thanks to the willing, fast and tough Ford Mustang.
‘MY MAN JUST SHAVED OUR MUSTANG UP THE COL, ROCK FACES SPLINTERING THE GLASSFIBRE’