The Mustang is a feral horse found in the western United States. The name mustang comes from Spanish word mesteno or mestenco meaning wild or stray. Originally these were Spanish horses or their descendants but over the years they became of numerous the breeds. These were the horses which changed the live of the Native Americans living in or near Great Plains. As European settlers come further west they brought they hoorses with them. Some were lost to Indian raids others were freed as wild stallions tore down fences to add the tame mares to his herd or tame horse escape from the settlers as the original horses escaped from the spanish. Draf breeding was among the horses which added to the Mustang herds. Also the Indians bartered and captured horses between tribes making the distribution more complete.
Mustang is an American horse which is strictly connected with life of Native Americans and colonists.
Ford is one of the worlds biggest car companies in the world. It proudly represents American automotive industry, and some says that?s the leader. Without any doubt we may say that Ford is one of the pioneers in constructing car engines and cars. That?s probably why he is no. 1 in America.
In the middle part of the 50?s Ford realized that the future of automotive business is in hands of their teen customers . The teens in the middle fifties represented the ?baby boom? from 1946 through 1957 - 76 million babies were born. That?s almost a third of the U.S. population in 1980. Ford kept a really careful eye on the ?baby boomers?.
But not only that pushed Ford to build Mustang. In the 1930?s big cars were riding on the street but these were reserved only for wealthy people. Other?s were squzzed into something more similar to cans with gasoline engines not similar to cars. In the fiftie they started to sell big cars even in economy class. Peoples desire run to small sporty cars. Not becouse of economy, they wanted light cars becouse of their fashionably sporty image.
Ford had to be up to the desires of their customers. Designer had to make a car which was distinctively sporty and distinctively styled - preferably witha dash of foreign flavor.
?Before we started sketching, we worked up a list of do?s and dont?s and tacked it up on the wall. We didn?t want the car look like any other car. It supposed to be unique?
said Joe Oros, chief stylist of Ford Division Team.
Competition in the market and position of competitors is also an important point when the Mustang was coming out. Only one car that could compete with the Mustang was Chevy Corvair Monza Spyder. They were selling it for $2599 with the150 horse power (hp) engine when the Mustang supposed to be cheaper and with newer technology. Some people were saying that Corvair could only hide somewhere before the Mustang will come out. Other companies were also not ready to compete with the Mustang.
Ford had one basically good car in the begining of the 60?s. The Falcon is also one of the record braking cars. He broke the record of the best selling Ford. Quality of this car was very high so people knew what they were buying. But design and appropriation of that car were not absorbing. Ford needed something more then quality to get out from depression. The Design of the Mustang a good shot. To succed Ford used lot of parts from Falcon.
Ford reached his goal. He designed a small sporty car that was appealing to the tastes of people, price was very low and quality high as long as performance.
After drudgery Work of designers in spring 1964 the Mustang was ready to see the daylight. The ?Pony? was introced to the public on April 17, 1964 at the New York World?s fair. This was the spark of America?s most cherished icons.
The fashionably sporty image of The Mustang caused a great interesting in people. Not only silhuette made that, the price was also very attractive. The base price was $2368. 22000 orders were taken on the first day. In the first 12 months over 417000. To put this in perspective, iit out sold the 1990 best selling car in America, the Ford Taurus which sold just over 350000 vehicles. Option list was very short, there were engines only two engine but that was enough to succeed.
That year was decisive in whole history of Ford. After depression in 1940?s in America which affected also Ford, Ford started getting out from it. Success of the Joe Oros? Ford Division Team was success of Ford.
In 1965 Ford decided to make his offer more attractive to customers.
Option list was getting longer. They added option with automatic transmission or either four sppeed stick shift. Power package including power sterring was available. And finally air condition could be picked.
Ford also came up with new version of the Mustang. It was called 2+2 or just simply Fastback.
The Shelby Mustangs of 1965 through 1970 were the products of Ford's great success with the Mustangs. The sporty looking sales sensation of 1964? didn't have much of a performance image. Ford decided to get it accepted for sports car racing but failed. They asked Shelby to help them and before you knew it there was a factory at the Los Angeles, California airport pumping out a couple of hundred GT350s a month. Pretty small numbers by Detroit Standards, but it seemed like there were thousands of them because everyone remembered their white paint with blue stripes. A dozen were actively involved in racing and it seemed like about half of the cars in the races were GT350's and they always finished up front. The non-race cars looked just like the race cars so everyone thought that all Shelby Mustangs were race cars. Advertising cannot build images like racing can. Ford sold Mustangs like they were ice cream. Since the early Shelbys were all painted white, you could call them vanilla ice cream but with Jalapeno peppers under the hood.
By 1967 the performance car market in the United States demanded a big engine in a small car and Shelby responded with a GT500, a 428 cubic inch engine in a modified Mustang chassis. The GT350 was enlarged to 302 cubic inches. Later, the factory was moved to Michigan and the engine was made 351 cubic inches and the 428 engines were replaced by a Cobra Jet 428.
This sparked the "Legend of the Mustang". That legend attracts new fans who want to drive a Mustang from the 60?s. Becouse of that the value of the 60?s Mustang is growing day by day - originals are wanted. The amount of
