‘Mustang Sally' changes its tune
This classic American muscle car is shifting through the gears and heading a more eco-friendly future
Yes, we all know it. steve McQueen’s car chase through the streets of san Francisco in the 1968 movie Bullitt epitomises to this day all that is great about the classic Mustang.
These adored macho muscle cars are famous for having roaring engines, big bulky frames and being effortlessly stylish. Mess with such an icon at your peril.
Yet those brave souls at the Ford headquarters in Dearborn, near Detroit, have done just that. For the latest Mustang Mach-e is pure electric, battery-powered, zero-emissions, and is a crossover sUV. The car is being built in Mexico and marks an American revolution.
To many, they represent the American Dream as much as the statue of Liberty. The car has been celebrated around the world, most recognisably in the song Mustang sally — which was popularised by Wilson Pickett.
When America’s first female Astronaut, sally Ride, went into space aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983, spectators wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Ride, sally Ride’ from the song.
And in september 2019, owners from across europe met in Belgium to help Ford set a new world record for the most Mustangs in a single parade — 1,326.
I attended the global launch of the new all-electric Mustang Mach-e at the Los Angeles Motor show in November 2019 when British actor Idris elba — who worked at Ford’s UK plant at Dagenham — unveiled the new car to the world.
Across five models, the Mustang Mach-e range starts from £41,330 for a 269horsepower rear-wheel drive version with a range of 273 miles. The longest range is the 294hp rear-wheel drive model which will get you 379 miles and accelerate from rest to 62mph in seven seconds. The fastest high-performance ‘GT’ version is on sale ahead of delivery at the end of the year, priced from £67,225 with acceleration from rest to 62 mph in under four seconds.
FLYING START
BoRN the same year as the mini-skirt and in the month the Beatles held the top five slots in the U.s. Billboard chart, the original Ford Mustang was launched at the World’s Fair in New York on April 17, 1964.
A prototype was built in 100 days after Ford executive Lee Iacocca commissioned research suggesting a gap in the market for a sporty two-door coupe with a long bonnet. As a performance car for the masses, the Mustang proved an instant hit.
Ford executives supplied a white convertible Mustang for the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, driven by would-be assassin Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet) in a chase through the swiss Alps against sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5. Another Mustang appears in the 1965 follow-up Thunderball, and in Diamonds Are Forever in 1971.
In october 1965, Ford put a white convertible Mustang — ‘the most successful new car in history’ — on top of New York’s empire state Building, with eight staff dismantling the car, carrying it to the elevators and reassembling it on the 86th floor of the 1,742 ft-tall building.
Ford has repeated the trick twice. In 2014, it introduced a new Mustang on the 112th floor of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, after having unveiled it on the empire state Building earlier that year.
GLITZ AND GLAMOUR
BUT the car’s status was sealed in Bullitt when the 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback — driven by steve McQueen playing cop Lt Frank Bullitt — took part in an epic 11-minute long chase with a Dodge Charger.
For decades, that particular
Mustang was lost. After filming it was sold to a Warner Brothers employee, and later to a New Jersey detective who in 1974 put an advert in Road & Track magazine.
It was bought for $6,000 by Robert Kiernan of Madison, New Jersey, whose wife drove it until the clutch failed in 1980. But Kiernan kept it until his death in 2014, leaving it and documented proof of provenance to his son, Sean.
Kiernan rejected offers for the car, including one from
McQueen in 1977. In 2018 it appeared at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit alongside a special edition ‘Bullitt’ Mustang driven on stage by McQueen’s granddaughter Molly.
In 2020 it sold at auction in Florida for a record $3.4 million (£2.62million) — nearly 1,000 times more than the original $3,500 price tag.
A CHANGE OF GEARS
CLAIMED as ‘the best-selling sports car’, the 10 millionth
Mustang was celebrated at Ford HQ in 2018 — alongside the first 1964 original off the line.
But after six generations of burning gasoline, the seventh has gone electric.
The Mustang Mach-E should be looked on as a new car in its own right — designed to take on Elon Musk’s Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model y SUV.
I’ve tested a couple of the new models and, like the originals, they’re fun, quirky, wellthought-out with some clever ‘wow’ factors, and drive exceptionally well. The only thing they lack is the intoxicating V8 roar or exhaust fumes.
Ford’s global CEO Jim Farley (a true ‘petrolhead’) loves both. He said: ‘I get the same thrill seeing a Mustang in Detroit, London or Beijing that I felt when I bought my first car — a 1966 Mustang coupe I drove as a teenager. Mustang is the heart and soul of this company and a favourite around the world. It’s is a smile-maker in any language.’