The first Mustang was rolled out in 1964, and the company was ambitious about this car. They expected to sell 100,000 of these in the next 12 months – they achieved that milestone in three months.
It has been more than 50 years since then and over 9 million Mustangs have been sold to date.
Its Facebook page alone has 8.2 million likes, more than any other nameplate in the world.
What is it that makes the Mustang such an iconic car, and how has it managed to withstand the passage of 5 decades and remain a favourite among all generations?
Let’s go back to when it all began.
The first generation 1964 Mustang was a huge success. It offered technologies like power steering, power brakes, bucket seats and looks that still make car lovers drool.
Almost synonymous with the term ‘muscle car’, it laid the foundation for numerous cars that would lay claim to the title over the next few decades.
The Mustang had a long bonnet, low roofline and a short boot on the back. To top it all off was a huge, loud engine that pulled this car away like a rocket. And like a proper muscle car, throw a curve in its way and the car won’t know what to do. If you were driving one of the earlier versions of the car, you’d have to start braking 10 km before the bend in the road showed up.
The complete package looked absolutely gorgeous. These cars sell for millions and millions of dollars even today.
The car was so cool that even Mr Bond liked girls who drove around in it.
Steve McQueen, one of the top heroes of the 60s and 70s, who was also called the ‘king of cool’, gave one of his most fantastic performances in Bullitt.
The only real competition to him in terms of gaining fame from that movie was from the Ford Mustang that his character drove. The car chase scene from Bullitt is one of the best car chases in the history of cinema.
And it can put even the latest action movie car chases to shame, even though there was no CGI involved. To give you an idea, here’s a small chunk from that scene.
The Mustang fever was gripping everyone, even rock n roll legend Chuck Berry. He dedicated an entire song to his ‘cherry red Mustang Ford’.
The car continued to be iconic through the years. The number of magazine covers that featured this car are a testament to that fact.
The car chases never got old either.
Nicolas Cage chose the Mustang as his ultimate goal in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds – to steal one of these that is.
It wasn’t just the original Mustangs that became collectors’ items, people also modified these cars to be completely performance-oriented. However, the looks of the Mustang are often left untouched for obvious reasons.
The evolution of the car in itself is an intriguing story.
After half a century, there is a right-hand-drive version of this car coming to India, and it will be launched at the 2016 Delhi Auto Expo.
The price is yet to be revealed. We just hope that it’s priced well, cause overpricing this car will most certainly be disappointing.
Also Read: India Finally Gets an American Muscle With Ford Mustang in 2016
And with that, we’re going to leave you with this sound.
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