The Emergence of the Pony Car

(page 2 of 3)

In a time when all the design work was being done on the drafting table, most new cars took 3-4 years to reach this point. It had only been 18 months from the time funding had begun on the project. This was a remarkable feat in the early 60's and reflected well on Ford's Leadership.

By February, the news was out on the Mustang. The following $10 million advertising and marketing campaign would set new standards in the industry for release of new vehicles. Targeting the younger generation, Ford heavily courted the female buyer for the first time. With tag lines such as "Life was just one diaper after another until Sarah got her new Mustang" and "Mustang has become the sweetheart of the Supermarket Set," Ford's strategy to target younger woman was met with tremendous success.

February 7th, 1964 - Detroit Mich.

"Today, the Ford Motor Company confirmed that it would introduce a new sports-type car, the Mustang. Already dubbed the "Poor-man's Thunderbird," the new four-passenger car will sell for under $2,500. The Mustang will have a Uni-body design, having a 108-inch wheelbase, 5 inches shorter than the Thunderbird, and will be about 185 long. A six-cylinder will be standard, and there will be three optional V-8 engines."

The men were not left out of Ford's plans for marketing their new car. The Mustang was billed as a sporty car for a new breed. Simply purchasing the new car would transform you from Joe Six-Pack to a successful 'man about town,' complete with the ladies. Ads read, "Two weeks ago, this man was a bashful schoolteacher in a small Midwestern city. Add Mustang. Now he has three steady girls, is on first-name terms with the best headwaiters in town, is society's darling"?. Ford's ad campaign for the Mustang made owning the car just like joining a club. The term "Mustangers" would go on to idealize Mustang owners as part of a fraternity and was just another element in the Mustang's great appeal.

As the ad campaign geared up, so did production of the new car. Production of the Mustang began March 9th of 1964 at the Dearborn Assembly Plant. Within 30 days, some 9,678 cars had been produced. With enough production cars for display, Ford was ready to unveil the Mustang to the public for the first time on a grand scale.

The new car first made its debut at the New York World's Fair on April 13th, 1964. First showings were at the Ford Pavilion to invited members of the press, time enough for news reviews to start showing up in leading magazines in efforts to bolster the public unveiling on April 17th, 1964. By this time, the Mustang was in dealer showrooms, covered from public view. As media hype was at its peek, the unveiling of Ford's new "Pony Car" drove over 4 million people to showrooms across America the first week. During this same period, over 30,000 cars were ordered.

As production requests reached very enthusiastic proportions, assembly plants were opened in San Jose, California and Metuchen, New Jersey. By summer of 1964, over 160,000 cars had been produced. Owing its quick production time to the use of many "off-the-self" parts designed for the Falcon and other Ford products, production of the Mustang soared.

August of '64 saw the end of the 1964 production line. While all of the production had been branded 1965, these early production Mustangs are described as 1964½ models by enthusiasts. Models produced before September of 1965 are considered to be 'true' 1965 models. The 1965 Mustang line consisted of Hardtop Coupe and Convertible models.

By September of 1964, Ford had added the 2+2 Fastback to the stable. The Hardtop proved to be the top-selling model, out stripping the Convertible 3 to 1. The Fastback models seemed to move in their own direction. Offered as one of the first 1965 models, the Fastback appealed to the performance enthusiast. This fact had not gone unnoticed by Shelby-American, who modified 500 of the Fastback models into the Mustang's highest option, the Shelby GT-350.

The alliance between Ford and Carol Shelby would elevate the bar for other manufacturers entering the "Muscle Car" era of the late 60's and early 1970's.