The Ford mustang Lee Iococca had asked his team to create a new 2 seat vehicle. He needed a car that would give all the other European cars and the American Chevrolet Corvette a run for their money. Iococca was the General manager of Ford. Donald Frey and his design team formed the project, which was called the T-5. Lee was anxious about this car because his last car, The Ford Thunderbird had not been quite as much of a success. Lee Iococca did not enjoy the work that was happening and hired Davis Ash and his design team who renamed the project the “Mustang” . The mustang became a big hit and gave credit to Davis and his team for the success. The Beginning The Ford Mustang was released five months prior to the start of the 1965 production year. Production began in Michigan on March 9, 1964 and was released on April 17th. The mustang was named the Indianapolis pace car in 1964. The pace car was a convertible that was blue and had white racing stripes on the hood and the trunk.Ford then made another 230 pace car models that were sold to the public. The 64 ½ convertible had a 289 cubic inch engine and the hardtops were a 260 V-8. 35 convertibles were sold to dealerships and 189 hardtops were given out in dealer contests that April. The Ford Mustangs were then everywhere. One was in a Bond movie (Goldfinger). It was the most successful release Ford had …show more content…
It was built mainly on parts from other Ford vehicles. Most of the Mustang's interior, chassis, suspension, and drivetrain were used from the Ford Falcon and Fairlane. Doing this shortened the demand for assembly and repair workers. It also provided Ford dealerships to pick up the new car and not have to get new parts along with it. It was thought to not sell over 100, 000 in the first year. Ford had passed that mark in the first three months. Just over 318,000 were sold within the first year of sales. Nevertheless, within 18 months, 1 million Mustangs were