Mustang

(Photo by Jeff Koch.)

My Hemmings Classic Car magazine has finally done it. They featured the darling car of the Boomer generation, the Mustang.
Took ‘em long enough. Hemmings Classic Car has been around for some time.
The Mustang is the car that reversed the fortunes of Ford Motor Company, which prior seemed to be falling apart.
General Motors could have done it. They already had components in place: their fabulous SmallBlock V8 engine, and a four-on-the-floor transmission.
But GM didn’t have a car. Ford had its Falcon, which could be reconfigured into a Mustang.
There already had been sporting versions of the Falcon, like the Futura with Ford’s new small V8 and a four-on-the-floor tranny.
Chevrolet had it’s Corvair, which was hardly a Falcon.
You could get sporting versions like the Monza, but it was weird.
Its engine was air-cooled and in the rear. The Corvair was a great car, but weird.
It didn’t sell as well as the Falcon — what sold were the sporting versions.
The success of the Monza told Lee Iacocca of Ford there was a market for sporty cars, not weird like the Corvair.
So take the Falcon and put a sporting body on it.
Move the passenger-compartment back so it could have a long hood and short rear-deck, sporting attributes.
Give it the new Ford small V8 and a four-on-the-floor tranny. Give it attractive styling up front.
VIOLA! Slam-dunk attractive and sold like hotcakes.
It’s what American-youth wanted. A sporty-car that wasn’t weird.
It was such a success, Chevrolet had to bring out its Camaro to compete with it.
And Chrysler had to redesign its Barracuda to make it long-hood/short-deck.
Henry Ford II, head-honcho of Ford Motor Company, and grandson of company-founder Old Henry, was justifiably hesitant to invest in the Mustang after the Edsel debacle.
But the Mustang wasn’t an imitator, and the market for sporty-cars was obvious.
The Mustang was what America wanted, and it was Ford that supplied it, not General Motors.
Chevrolet had the components for a ponycar, particularly its phenomenal SmallBlock V8 engine.
Ford’s small V8 was a response to the Chevrolet SmallBlock, but it was Ford that brought out sporty-cars.
The Mustang was such a success, the General had to respond. The Camaro is Chevrolet’s Mustang. Like the Mustang is essentially a sporty Falcon, the Camaro is a sporty Chevy-II, Chevrolet’s Falcon clone, what Chevrolet had to do after the Corvair failed.
And the Corvair was eventually ditched. 1969 was its final year. —And that was after a later version was introduced for 1965 that was much better, almost a Porsche.
American buyers would be more inclined to purchase a Mustang than a Porsche, another weird car.
When I was in college a classmate’s father purchased his son a Mustang, but it was only an inline-six, three-on-the-floor.
Nice to look at, but more economy transportation. What we dreamed about were the V8 Mustangs with four-on-the-floor.
Although I’m from before Mustangs.
The cars I dreamed about all had the SmallBlock Chevrolet V8 with four-on-the-floor.
With stuff like that, Chevrolet could have hit the sporty-car market first, but didn’t.

• The Chevrolet “SmallBlock” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the SmallBlock. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “SmallBlock” was revolutionary in its time.
• “The General” is General Motors.