Fifty years ago today 17th April 1964 there was a debut of one of the most iconic cars ever produced and turned the phrase “Pony Cars”, that car of course was the Ford Mustang. The Mustang was unveiled by Henry Ford II at the New York Worlds Fair costing $2,368.

Nothing before or since in the automotive world has rivalled the Ford Mustang’s launch spectacular across all media platforms. The car was even taken apart and reassembled on top of the Empire State Building. A feat which is due to be repeated for the 50th Anniversary by Ford.

The publicity was in the big magazines at the time (forgive the pun), such as Time, Life, Newsweek etc. TV adverts teased the viewer with “coming soon”, newspapers you couldn’t get away from “the” car for the masses. Dealerships were primed and ready to go for the big day. Ford’s publicity department absolutely nailed this launch and they have never looked back, except to see just what a massive impact the car had on the start of the American Muscle Car market. The Mustang has been copied but never equalled in status, design and that classic name “Mustang”. Ask anybody to name an American Muscle Car, you can bet that “Mustang” would be the first words they say. Every generation young and old seems to know what a classic Mustang is and can point one out of any model style going down the road.

The dealers were inundated with requests for the sleekly-styled new vehicle, to say it was an instant hit would be an understatement. In Garland, Texas, 15 customers thronged to bid on the same Mustang. The winning bidder resorted to sleeping overnight in his new car so that it wouldn’t be sold out from under him before his check could clear. Ford initially forecasted annual sales of about 100,000 units. On the first day alone, dealers took 22,000 Mustang orders. Shortly after its introduction, the fledgling vehicle’s success was official when it was featured on the racetrack as the pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500. During the Mustang’s first 12 months on the market, sales built to an astounding 417,000. Within two years, sales had catapulted to one million.

dubbed the 1964½, because it was launched at an unusual halfway point during the year. ” performance and luxury variants, which featured the most extensive roster of options Detroit had offered to date. Three distinct body styles were manufactured; convertible, hardtop and fastback. an original print ad declared, and it was true.

Everyone who owned a Mustang believed no one else had a vehicle like his, and yet the Mustang had enduring universal appeal. Despite its status as an icon of automotive lore, the Mustang remains as wildly popular as ever with enthusiasts everywhere, from the already five generations old of Mustang to the sixth starting in 2015.

Happy Birthday Mustang.

Long live the pony!

Sources:

Ford, Corporate.ford.com, Life Magazine, Wikipedia, Indianapolis speedway

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I have now come to realise that I just can’t live without my cell phone! This week I was waiting for my train home and dropped my phone from the little bench I was sitting on. It couldn’t land on the side or the bit where the cover was on could it? No, it had to land on the very corner that the cover came off and hit the concrete with a delicate “dink”, because it only feel about eighteen inches it didn’t even bounce. But that little impact shattered the screen from the top left corner to half way down the screen on the other side. I even surprised myself with the torrent of new swear words that flowed instinctively from deep within my subconscious thoughts, the flood of words formed into incomprehensible sentence without breathing, one word per crack it would seem. With that in mind it still worked so I should be thankful for that, sadly the screen was difficult to read obviously. I ordered a replacement glass screen that evening from eBay, every time I looked at that screen I was reminded of the fact that I really should pay more attention to what I am doing, along with the fact that I should apologise to a few fellow passengers who were near by. Those poor now scared for life souls must have thought that I was some sort of nutter trying to recruit people into my fledgling cult using a strange chant, using a strange language mixed in with copious amounts of Cockney Rhyming Slang! Friday night I replaced the glass which took me almost four hours in total. The reason it took so long? I was tired and just didn’t want to damage it, I wasn’t sleeping because I was worried about my phone. Now my phone is back to its former glory and works again, and my life is a once again organised into some sort or order, but I can’t help feeling the phone has been tainted in some way. When you have a minor fender bender in the car, you never feel the same towards the car again, or is that just me? Off the back of this traumatic event of mine, I need to ask a question though; Can you live without your cell phone? I came to realise that my functioning life was on that phone and I definitely can’t live without it; My contacts, my personal emails as well as the emails for this blog, my diary, things to do, passwords & website logins (all encrypted via an app of course), birthdays, anniversaries, text messages, photographs and in fact just about everything is on there. It felt like my hand had a finger removed because I didn’t use the phone as much, let alone being the extension of my arm that it usually is. I have now backed up my phone and the important things I need just in case I damage it beyond repair or it doesn’t turn on one day.

On a Friday afternoon at work we tend to ask each other what we have planned for the weekend, things like going to see parents, BBQ’s, chilling out, going to the movies etc, when they get to me I get “What are you doing on the car this weekend Mart?” Now either I am predictable, or I have just conditioned their thoughts to expect me to be working on my project or obsession depending who you talk to that know me. This week I was asked if I was going to be out “Tinkering” with my car? That was an expression I haven’t heard for a long time and I don’t normally associate the term with “working on the car” as I tend to call it. Does anybody else have a little phrase they use for their car work? I would love to know.

On my Twitter account I saw a reference to a great story from 1966. That year Ford provided their latest model Convertible Mustang for a promotional exercise in conjunction with the Empire State Building. The car was perched on the 86th Floor and taken up to the top floor by means of only the passenger lifts, no helicopter or winches were used. It’s an incredible read and amazing what they managed to do with a team of Ford engineers, six hours overnight and a few small lifts! It stayed up there on the building for the next five months.

I have posted the rest of the photos and the full story of it in my “Articles” menu or you can click here for the quick link.

This weekend I have been doing a little bit of tidy up work where the door pillar on the right hand side. There were a few little rust holes that needed treating and the seams strengthening. I got the Dremel out and slowly sanded down the seam filler for a good base for the filler to cover up the imperfections. Next weekend I hope to get the car out and rub it down smooth ready for some anti-rust treatment primer.