Ford Mustang, the evolution of the American wild horse

Ford Mustang

The beginning of the birth of the Ford Mustang Bullitt, Ford's legendary muscle car

Steve McQueen is known as an actor who competes with flashy cars. One of the highlights is the Ford Mustang Bullitt, where McQueen is involved in a chase on the streets of San Francisco that lasts up to 10 minutes.

Box office fans consider the Bullitt scene to be one of the best in film history. Unsurprisingly, Bullitt won the Academy Award for Best Picture Editing.

Bullitt is so connected to American popular culture that the Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry in 2007. Several prestigious awards have gone on to make the Ford Mustang Bullitt a special production car.

The film uses two Mustang fastback units with a 6.4-liter V8 engine with manual transmission. The power is 320 hp and the torque is 579 Nm.

Both muscle cars were modified to meet the shooting requirements of the film Bullitt, e.g. B. with no fog lights, a new grille design, and some of the badges changed. This car was modified by the famous American movie star and racing driver Max Balchowsky.

Balchowsky installed heavy-duty front suspension, and a Koni shock then strengthened the suspension mounts. In addition, a roll bar was installed on the car, after which the engine power was increased by increasing the carburetor and gradual polishing.

Of the two cars used during filming, only one survived. Another Ford Mustang Bullitt was destroyed beyond repair. This car apparently disappeared after decades of filming and later it turned out that the car was sold secretly.

Historic Mustang found tragically in a junkyard in Mexico. The Mustang Bullitt was later purchased by a Mustang enthusiast who was not very familiar with its history. He even wanted to recreate the theme of Eleanor's Mustang in the movie Gone in 60 Second.

Ford Mustang

Where did the name Ford Mustang come from?

On April 17, 2014, the Ford Mustang will turn 50 years old. Over the decades it was revealed that many people had no idea where the horse's name and logo came from. Apparently, the inspiration for the name came after a Ford Motor vice president named Lee Iacocca watched a football game at the University of Michigan 50 years ago.

At that time, Iacocca was launching a new sports car and looking for inspiration by watching the game.

On September 28, 1963, the University of Michigan football team known as the SMU Mustangs defeated Methodist University 27-16.

After the match, Iacocca went to the team locker room. “Today, after seeing SMU Mustang play with such talent, we finally made a decision. We call our car Mustang. Because the car is light, like your team, fast, like your team. And it will be sporty, like your team," said Iacocca at the time.

But that's just the official SMU Mustang statement that was released this week. The history of the Ford Mustang car logo is still confusing. Iacocca advisers said that Ford already had several name suggestions for the sports car. In the last 50 years, animal names have become popular autonomous names. Including mustangs.

"Our team heard that GM is also considering using the Mustang name, but we will register it first," said the consultant.

Meanwhile, Mustang historian John Clor, who wrote the book Mustang Dynasty, said the origins of the Mustang are often debated and there is no definite answer. According to him, the history of the University of Michigan should be discussed and Iacocca himself knows the truth.

Clor also said another myth surrounding the famous Mustang name is that it was inspired by the World War II fighter jet, the P-51 Mustang. This title comes from the mouth of Ford stylist John Najjar.

“Najjar has always said the Mustang name was inspired by a fighter jet, and official statements from Ford have repeatedly mentioned this, and neither I nor other Mustang historians have seen internal evidence of this. In fact, the Mustang name is associated only with "the wild horses of America", he said.

Ford Mustang

50 years Ford Mustang:

The history of the pony car

The Ford Mustang is one of the most successful compact cars from the Ford Motor Company and was originally built on the North American platform of the second generation Ford Falcon.

Named the Ford Mustang model year 1965, it was first introduced to the public on April 17, 1964 and became Ford's most successful car since the introduction of the Model A in 1927. The Mustang also underwent several changes to date. the seventh generation Ford Mustang created the "pony car" class in the American auto market: a two-door sports car with a long hood and short deck. In fact, this class later gave birth to various competing cars, such as the Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, AMC Javelin, Chrysler Plymouth Barracuda, and the first generation Dodge Challenger. The Mustang's styling was also inspired by imported US coupes such as the Toyota Celica and Ford Cap.

The early version of the Ford Mustang (model 1965) has three body styles, namely 2-door hardtop, 2-door fastback and 2-door convertible. The first version of the Mustang has a wheelbase of 2,700 mm, length 4,610 mm, width 1,730 mm, height 1,300 mm and weighs 1,109 kg. The Pony is also equipped with a 2.8-liter Thriftpower 6-cylinder engine paired with a three-speed manual gearbox.

The Ford Mustang was introduced five months before the start of the 1965 production year. Early versions of the Mustang were often referred to as the "1964½ Model", but Ford gave the 1965 NIK. Production of the first Mustang began March 9 in Dearborn, Michigan and was unveiled to the public on April 17, 1964. Exhibition New York World.

As for the name "Mustang" itself, there are two people who are considered to be the originator of the name. First, chief stylist John Najjar, a World War II P-51 Mustang enthusiast, is credited by Ford with first coming up with the name. John Najjar, known as the Ford Mustang I, designed the first prototype Ford Mustang I in 1961 in collaboration with Ford stylist Philip T. Clark.

Second, Robert J. Eggert, head of market research at Ford, is also credited with being the first to suggest the name "Mustang". Eggert, a pony breeder, received the book J. Frank Dobie's Mustang from his wife in 1960. The title of the book gave him the idea to add the Mustang name to Ford's new concept car.

In fact, the Mustang designers at the time preferred the names "Puma" or "Torino" (and in fact an advertising campaign called "Torino" was already being prepared), whereas Henry Ford II wanted to name his new subcompact "Torino". . T-Lint II..

Eggert, who is also responsible for naming Ford cars, then submitted the "Mustang" name for public testing in a study that lasted several days. As a result, the name "Mustang" proved to be number one in the "Appropriateness as a name for a special car" category and appeared in opinion polls.

However, the "Mustang" name proved useless in Germany, as it belonged to the Krupp company, which produced trucks under this name from 1951 to 1964. Ford later refused to buy the Mustang name from Krupp for $10,000. The Ford Mustang was sold in Germany as the Ford T-5 until December 1978.

Through the 1971-1973 model years, the Mustang grew bigger and heavier every year. Ford later decided that the next generation Mustang would return to the size and concept of the original Mustang that began with the 1974 model year.**Ms.

For seven years in a row, the Ford Mustang is the best-selling sports coupe in the world

The Ford Mustang is said to be the world's best-selling sports coupe for seven years in a row. The report is based on S&P Global Mobility's analysis of Ford registration data.

Mustang successfully defended its car sales title last year. The best-selling models of 2021 include the 5.0-liter V8 versions of the Mustang Mach 1 and Mustang Shelby GT500.

The strongest demand for Mustangs last year was in the United States. The report states that the US market accounts for 76 percent of the total worldwide sales of Mustangs. In addition, Mustang car sales also increased in several countries, namely New Zealand by 54.3 percent, Brazil by 37.3 percent, and South Korea by 16.6 percent. Compared to the previous year, the growth has almost doubled.

To continue this momentum, Ford is offering five special editions of the new Mustang. These models include the Mustang Ice White, which is available for the Mustang Mach-E, GT California Special, Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition, Coastal Limited, and Stealth.

At the same time, the Mustang EcoBoost is accompanied by the Shelby GT500 which also presents a special version for muscle car lovers of all performance levels. Additionally, the Mustang Mach-E is said to have won four awards as of 2021. Those honors include North American Utility Vehicle of the Year, 2021 Car and Driver of the Year, 2021 Wards 10 Best Awards, and the Kelley Blue Book Best Buy 2022 Awards.

Ford Mustang Logo Meaning Information

The Mustang logo is admired by all car enthusiasts around the world. You can see it everywhere. However, very few people know the origin of one of the most popular badges in sports car history. At the same time, even fewer people know how running horses inspired Phillip Thomas Clark to design the Mustang logo.

Ford came up with the idea to develop a sports car in 1962. We all know that this car was first introduced in 1964 and the production line started a year later. Phillip Thomas Clark was 27 years old when he was asked to design a logo for a new car. He used to work for GMC but left the company to join Ford. He was very excited about the new concept that was coming out. It is expected to be one of the most powerful yet stylish cars in the world. The bang picture appeared only after 100 days of hard work of the designer. Prior to its first launch, the mark underwent numerous redesigns and modifications. Clark is best known for sketching various animals. He designed several for local cafes and other venues. But this time he needed to create something that lived up to his new model name and the American spirit. There have been many rumors and debates about why the Mustang logo horse is galloping to the left. Well, the answer to this question is quite simple.

The Shelby Mustang is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang made by Shelby between 1965 and 1968 and by Ford between 1969 and 1970. When the fifth generation Ford Mustang was launched in 2005, the Shelby line was revived as a new high-performance model, this time designed and built by Ford.

There are dozens of versions of the breastplate, where the horse runs in both directions. Some have argued that the latter's left-handed version meant that Clark was right-handed and that it was easier for him to draw animals galloping towards him. But we don't know exactly. We know for certain that the last wooden sculpture of the world famous pony was created by Charles Keresztes and presented in 1963. It was based on Clark's sketch. The Mustang logo has changed several times throughout the model's history. However, the final version of the logo appeared in 2010. The horse looks sharper and more muscular.