Mustang 1964 1/2 – 1973

by Mike Mueller. Published by Motorbooks. Rrp £16.99

Layout:

Well the book which this is and not a (workshop) manual, contains 168 pages with high quality colour photos and some vintage ones in black and white. The paper is an excellent 135gsm or 150gsm weight of paper in a gloss art coating, paper back. There are 9 chapters in all; Introduction, 1) Horse Breeding, Ford Style, 2) Setting the world afire, 3) Happy Trails, 4) Putting the Spurs to the Pony, 5) Variations on the theme, 6) Snake Bite, 7) At the speed of sound, 8) Large and in charge, 9) Epilogue, Index. These chapter titles are a little weird but they make sense, the Mustangs were often refered to as Pony cars, so a lot of the references are horse related. The chapters 5 & 6 are relating the to the Shelbys and the Cobras, hence the snake reference as some those cars were referred to.  The size is an odd size, slightly shorter than A4 height but a good 30mm wider so the book is a square basically. The book is heavy due to quality type of paper used.

Information

This book is a pictorial history of the very early and rare pictures of the concept cars Mustangs in 1962. The text within the book is factual and very well written, liberally sprinkled with technical data. For each particular section the references to figures names dates are all there. There are even some diagrams where designs are compared with dotted lines to show the old shapes as well as the newer designs. Brilliant. The book is in-depth and gives a comprehensive history from concept up until the 1973 Mach  1 era, where the OPEC oil issues in the USA put a stop to the classic muscle cars for a few years. Ford produced some rather average underpowered cars at this time and that is putting it nicely! The crystal clear photographs will show you how the interiors were at the time, what the colours were like, what options there were etc. For me as somebody who recreating the classic car it gives me great ideas of the colours I want. The descriptions of the vehicles gives the facts that are normally found in manuals, such as twin Holley 600cfm carburetors found on the 428 Shelby GT500.

Summary:

A great book for the enthusiasts and petrol heads the same. This will please restoration fanatics as well as the armchair car lover. I reckon anybody who was in love with the American Icons of the 50’s & 60’s would love this book. It’s factual historical data should keep this book on the shelves of many a library or car designer. There has been very few cars as distinctive as the classic Mustangs. This book is a classic to compliment the cars of that era and charts that journey through many of the great cars of that time. You can probably guess I like this book, the reason being it’s not a manual it’s a book on the cars I dearly love. Very well put together and thought out historical and pictorial history of the early Mustangs. In fact there are so many facts in this book it should keep petrol heads talking around a tool box for many hours.

This would make an ideal gift, fathers day, birthdays, Christmas Day, Easter day; in fact any day is a good day to get this book!

Rating – 10 / 10