Entry #4: Ford Mustangs 1960's Edition

 Welcome back to the blog. By looking at the title, I would be surprised if you haven't figured out what today's blog is about. Today I will be talking about my dad's favorite car, the Ford Mustang, but a little bit of background information would be well worth the time for this topic. I prefer the 1965 Mustang Fastback, but the identical Mustangs came into fruition in 1964 at the World's Fair in New York on April 17th. This also happened to be the first pony car which was a nickname given since they were named after horses.

When the Mustang first came into production, it changed America's automotive landscape. The Mustang is now over 50 years old, and still people love it. Ford didn't really think that they would get many orders for the Mustang within the first year; they expected around 100,000 orders for it. They weren't expecting 22,000 orders on the first day alone for the Mustang. By the end of the first year alone, 418,812 Mustangs were sold. They also kept the price reasonably low so that young car buyers could afford to buy one. In April of 1965, the first Mustang GT option was available. The GT had between 225- and 271- horsepower engines, which at the time was really good. The transmission options included a three-speed or four-speed manual plus a three-speed "Cruise-O-Matic" transmission. Mustang GTs also had very recognizable lower body side stripes, fog lamps in the grille, and a unique GT badge. Sadly, though, the Mustang GT option was only available from 1965-1969. Now some of you may be like wait a minute, but I see GTs out there these days as well. Well, funnily enough, they brought it back permanently after 1982 to the lineup again and man did people love them.

Not only did adults love the cars kids started to want their own Mustangs as well. So, they made Mustang pedal cars for kids. do note that these are just toy cars that kids have to actually pedal with, like a bike, not an actual car. They also created the 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350. In case you were wondering, they went to racing legend Carroll Shelby to design and name the car. 

In the year 1966 Ford really only made some cosmetic changes to the Mustang. It offered a new grille with chrome edges and horizontal inserts instead of a honeycomb pattern. They also opted for a tri-bar logo behind the horse emblem. They added 34 different varieties of interior colors and styles as well. They also redid the taillights by giving it the three-fingered rear quarter panels and backup lights. I would say though that this is one of the most recognizable features of the Mustang to this day. One good thing this year, though, is that sales went up, and people could rent Mustangs. In March of 1966 though Ford sold its millionth Mustang and after two years of sales that was pretty impressive back in the day.

Throughout the rest of the 1960's though most of the new Mustangs just came out with new cosmetic options for the car. In 1967, they developed a new Shelby model called the GT500 Mustang. It had a 428 CID engine and was the first American car to come out with a factory roll bar. In 1968 it received a new AM/FM stereo radio along with front and rear side lights. They also made a unique California Special GT. This had practically all the same features as the Shelby. The only key difference was they were remarketed in Colorado under the High-Country Line. 

The reason why people loved the 1960s Mustangs so much was because they were affordable. They were one of the cheapest muscle cars appealing to middle-class buyers. Now I can probably tell what you are thinking if you aren't a Mustang enthusiast, they wreck a lot and aren't reliable. Well, luckily for you, that's not completely true. The older models of Mustangs are actually a lot better built than the new kind. Also, as it's never really the car that's the problem it's the driver, though I would love to see what you all think of this as well. Most people aren't ready to handle the high horsepower that comes with the Mustang and so that's why many people crash them. I digress though, that people know this but still like to blame the car anyway and give it a bad rep before they even try it. 

I am going to end here because if I didn't, I would probably keep rambling about this topic. Thank you all for reading this blog and if you get the chance comment on your favorite car and the year that you would buy. Thank you all for your time. See y'all next time, peace. 

A link to the website that I got all this information from is 1960s Mustang Info.