It happened in 1964...

[Grand Torino]

1964

April 17 The first Mustang is introduced by the Ford Motor Company at the World's Fair in New York. It is named after the P51 Mustang fighter plane from World War II and the car's design is based on the compact Ford Falcon. Since the Mustang is introduced toward the middle of the year, it's nicknamed 1964½. Sept. 17 Goldfinger becomes the first major motion picture to feature a Mustang. While being chased by James Bond in an Aston Martin DB5, Tilly Masterson drives a white 1964½ Mustang convertible.

1965

The 1965 Mustang is released. It is the most successful launch for the Ford Motor Company since the Model A in 1927. Along with the coup and the convertible, Ford adds a fastback to the year's lineup. The coupe out sells the convertible and fastback five to one, initially. The first Shelby Mustang is also introduced. It has no rear seat and the spare tire is stored under the rear windshield.

April

The first Mustang GT is introduced. This GT includes a dashboard instrument cluster that becomes the standard by the following year.

 

[No_0ne]

And it's amazing that a $2000 car, built to be pretty much disposable, still commands so much attention and interest as the early Mustangs do today.  The originator of the term "pony car" ...

[Ray Z]

If I recall, the first ones came out at $1400 and a little bit. I remember when Ford came out with the Mustang. It was pretty much to combat the VW bug. It started out with a 6 cylinder engine, no radio, stick transmission, and it didn't even have a door on the glove box. If I remember right, it was the first unibody construction that entered the market. Only problem with that was it wasn't strong enough to put 4 high school football players in. OH! let me take that back. You could fit them in [barely], but you couldn't close the doors. Frame sagged too much. Later they came out with Mustangs with a 289cc engine in it. It was stronger than the 6 banger but not much. Then they came out with the real muscle cars, in [460] I think. With the right tires, you could almost get the front wheels off the ground. That is just before you snapped a rear axle or drive shaft. Ahh those were the days. That one pretty much kept up with dodges 426 heimie. [I know I didn't spell it right. What do you want from a 71 yo construction worker.]

[volshayes]

If it wasn't for Iacocca the Mustang would have never been produced.  If you are a car guy and haven't seen "Ford Mustang - The First 50 Years" on Amazon, you should take the time to watch.  The Mustang has an incredible history.  Even after the hardtop was produced and was successful, the fastback almost never even made it to a clay model.  Had it not been for a few designers working after hours on their own time at night in a back room, the fastback may have never been a reality.  I had a '68 hardtop and a '72 hardtop.  The '72 was special ordered with a Mach 1 suspension and 351 4bbl Cleveland, but it had the lighter hardtop body placed on the frame instead of the fastback.  It was what we called a "sleeper" back then.  It was plain white with no stripes when I got it.  I did add some stripes later on.  It did have the NASA hood scoops and Magnum 500 wheels.  The only way you would know it was a muscle car is when it pulled up beside you and you could hear the rumble from the dual exhausts.  Factory horsepower ratings were way underrated back then because of insurance rates.  That '72 with the light body was incredibly fast.  Wish I had the foresight to keep that car.  No telling what it would be worth today.  It's possible it could have been a 1 of 1 the way it was special ordered.

[No_0ne]

From Oldride.com:

Quote

In 1964 Ford produced 97,705 Hardtop Coupes and 28,833 Convertibles. The base price for the Coupe started at $2368.00.

As for unitized construction, Citroen introduced the first back in 1934, other played around with it for years before Chrysler moved a significant portion of their production over to unibodies in 1960.

Iacocca's influence on the Mustang remains controversial.  While there's no question the Iacocca was quick to take credit for the car after it's initial success, a number of biographers and historians have questioned his actual involvement and support for the development of the Mustang, insisting that the car was primarily conceptualized, devloped and marketed by Don Frey instead.  As in most of these controversies, the true story probably lies somewhere in the middle ...

[OLDNEWBIE]

I had a 69 with a 351 windsor. That car sucked! It kept getting speeding tickets.

I know that car was tame compared to other Mustangs but I'm lucky to be alive after having that as my first car. 

It was as fast as anything my friends had and the lousy drum brakes took FOREVER to stop.

1964, the birth year of Mustang and myself!

[Raoul]

42 minutes ago, OLDNEWBIE said:

I had a 69 with a 351 windsor. That car sucked! It kept getting speeding tickets.

I know that car was tame compared to other Mustangs but I'm lucky to be alive after having that as my first car. 

It was as fast as anything my friends had and the lousy drum brakes took FOREVER to stop.

1964, the birth year of Mustang and myself!

I'm gonna go off topic for a funny.

My first car was a 68 VW. First week in January I got it we turned it over on a slick country road. It landed upside down balanced on the roof.

We got out, flipped it over, I reached inside and smacked the ceiling and it popped the concave dent it had made, and off we went.

 

[Quavodus]

My brother and uncle both had '65 Mustangs. Nice cars.

[bersaguy]

On ‎11‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 11:32 AM, Ray Z said:

If I recall, the first ones came out at $1400 and a little bit. I remember when Ford came out with the Mustang. It was pretty much to combat the VW bug. It started out with a 6 cylinder engine, no radio, stick transmission, and it didn't even have a door on the glove box. If I remember right, it was the first unibody construction that entered the market. Only problem with that was it wasn't strong enough to put 4 high school football players in. OH! let me take that back. You could fit them in [barely], but you couldn't close the doors. Frame sagged too much. Later they came out with Mustangs with a 289cc engine in it. It was stronger than the 6 banger but not much. Then they came out with the real muscle cars, in [460] I think. With the right tires, you could almost get the front wheels off the ground. That is just before you snapped a rear axle or drive shaft. Ahh those were the days. That one pretty much kept up with dodges 426 heimie. [I know I didn't spell it right. What do you want from a 71 yo construction worker.]

I had to laugh when you mentioned the 460 lifting the front tires just before breaking a rear axle or driveshaft. The drive train had so much torque that I saw a couple of them actually pull the Pinion gear out through the front of the differential housing.

They were notorous for that only because they would not put the 9 inch hog head rear diffrentials in the Mustangs and traction ladders to stablize the rear end and stop the wheel hop they had. All the Mustangs had wheel hop with a v-8 engine in the early years and it took Carroll Shelby to show them how to correct the problem when he built the first fast back Shelby Cobra with the 429 CID engines in them.

A kid in my home town had his dad buy him one of the first Shelby's and it was so fast the kid was afraid of it and I don't think he ever really opened it up to see what it was capable of. I moved south so never did find out what he did with it.............LOL

Edited November 18, 2018 by bersaguy

[No_0ne]

Ford never installed a 460 in the Mustang.  There were 2 different 429's installed, the first was the 69-70 Boss 429, which actually wasn't installed in the Ford plants, but rather by Kar Kraft in Detroit who specialized in factory-authorized modifications of production vehicles.  The second was the 429CJ (and SCJ variant as well) as a one year only option in the 1971 cars. The big block Shelby's used the 428, and in 1968 on, the 428CJ. BTW, the 1965 Shellby GT350's were fastbacks, with an amped-up version of the 289Hipo under the hood, and "Shelby Cobra" is normally used for the AC roadster based Shelby's, some of which were eventually offered with the 427 for competing in various forms of racing ...

Edited November 18, 2018 by No_0ne
Old age, it was the 427 GT that eventually won Le Mans

[bersaguy]

5 hours ago, No_0ne said:

Ford never installed a 460 in the Mustang.  There were 2 different 429's installed, the first was the 69-70 Boss 429, which actually wasn't installed in the Ford plants, but rather by Kar Kraft in Detroit who specialized in factory-authorized modifications of production vehicles.  The second was the 429CJ (and SCJ variant as well) as a one year only option in the 1971 cars. The big block Shelby's used the 428, and in 1968 on, the 428CJ. BTW, the 1965 Shellby GT350's were fastbacks, with an amped-up version of the 289Hipo under the hood, and "Shelby Cobra" is normally used for the AC roadster based Shelby's, some of which were eventually offered with the 427 for competing in various forms of racing ...

Yea, I knew Ford didn't install any but their was a few custom car shop in Detroit that would like Kar Kraft. I was not much on Fords back when I was a kid. I was a Mopar nut and love those Hemi's.................

[No_0ne]

Once upon a time, I put a 460 (bored .030 over for 466 cid) in a 67 fastback, using the Fox body oilpan for those conversions and custom motor mounts that we built.  The exhaust manifolds ran right up against the shock towers, no room for any type of headers, in fact I had to cut a couple of holes in the towers to get the spark plugs in. Ran it on the dragstrip for a short while, it was never much of a combination due to the poor traction and abysmal weight distribution.  Eventually, I pulled the motor, warmed it up with more carb and a bigger cam, and installed it in an 80's Tbird with a back half job and a 4-link.  It ran really well until one of the stock CJ rods let go, oiling the track and ripping the side of the block out.  From then on, it was all aftermarket parts for me, but I stuck with the 429-type engines from then on out ...

[dralarms]

I had a 70 cougar (mustang cousin) that had a 351 Cleveland that was built. Boy would that sucker run. 

[bersaguy]

9 hours ago, No_0ne said:

Once upon a time, I put a 460 (bored .030 over for 466 cid) in a 67 fastback, using the Fox body oilpan for those conversions and custom motor mounts that we built.  The exhaust manifolds ran right up against the shock towers, no room for any type of headers, in fact I had to cut a couple of holes in the towers to get the spark plugs in. Ran it on the dragstrip for a short while, it was never much of a combination due to the poor traction and abysmal weight distribution.  Eventually, I pulled the motor, warmed it up with more carb and a bigger cam, and installed it in an 80's Tbird with a back half job and a 4-link.  It ran really well until one of the stock CJ rods let go, oiling the track and ripping the side of the block out.  From then on, it was all aftermarket parts for me, but I stuck with the 429-type engines from then on out ...

One thing about them Hot Rods motors. When they break they BREAK!!!!