In April of 1964, Ford introduced the world to a car that would change the automotive landscape forever, the Ford Mustang. But the Mustang name had been around for several years already, on a number of concept cars to roll out of Ford’s Dearborn headquarters. The first one took just 60 days to put together and its design would influence later Mustangs down the road.
With a new Mustang just months away, Ford thought it would take the time to remind everyone where the Mustang originated with some of these pictures of the original concept vehicle. With pop-up headlights and only two seats, this was a very different Mustang from the car we came to know and love.
In fact, there isn’t a whole lot of similarity between the Mustang Concept and any Mustang ever actually sold. Besides only having two seats, the concept car’s engine was a paltry 90-horsepower 1.5 liter V4. So even though the concept only weighed 1,500 pounds, it still took more than 10 seconds to go from 0-60 mph. That’s not the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from a Mustang.
The Mustang I debuted in October of 1962, almost two years before the first production Mustangs would go on sale. With Mustang fans the world over counting down the days until the 2015 is revealed, it’s important to remember the roots of this American icon. In almost 50 years, it’s incredible how far the car known as the Mustang has come.