50 Years of Mustang, pt. 2
The second act of an all-American story
“Google my mother.” Famous last words —as told to me by Ron Muccioli— that should be remembered by everyone who works on the Mustang. Anna Muccioli famously questioned Henry Ford II about the Mustang’s inflated mass at the Ford shareholder’s meeting of 1968. Ford II’s response six years later was the Mustang II, an economy model which regrettably is remembered more for its modified Ford Pinto chassis (nicknamed the “toilet seat”) than its role in Charlie’s Angels or impressive sales figures courtesy of the early ‘70s oil crisis.
The lesson of Anna Muccioli was two-part: If you want to build a small sportscar, make sure the emphasis is on “sports”. And if you’re crazy (and lucky) enough to build a small sportscar, please kindly keep it that way.
By the late 1980s, the Mustang was celebrating its 25th birthday, an event usually marked by a mid-mid-life crisis. But the Fox-bodied Mustang weathered the transition into middle age well; Ford engineers kept the weight of the third-generation Mustang to within 90 lbs. of the original — no easy feat. Better still, the “Fox” was lighter than the economy-minded Mustang II. Yet, the performance-oriented 5.0L ‘Windsor’ engine in the top-of-the-line Mustang was nearly twenty years old. That engine was only one of a list of features which would need a refresh if the Mustang was to reclaim its sports car credentials…
Ford Mustang SVO — 1984
From the beginning, the story of the Mustang was shaped by its competition. The original Mustang, more or less, had none. Second generation Mustangs had to contend with the Camaro, Charger, and ‘Cuda. By the third generation, Ford set its sights on foreign competition: The BMW M3. A small team of about 30 Ford engineers calling themselves “Special Vehicle Operations” assembled in Dearborn to plan a car to take on the world. To beat the high-tech Germans, the engine in the SVO Mustang wouldn’t be labeled ‘Cleveland’ or ‘Windsor’. Instead, SVO chose a intercooled and turbocharged 4-cylinder, which was fed a steady diet of 14psi of air pressure courtesy of a ram air scoop on the hood. The car featured a user-adjustable KONI suspension and the widest factory tires ever fitted to a Mustang. Car and Driver, in their 1983 review, found the SVO’s drivetrain “lacked the smoothness of the BMW 318,” though they praised the car’s featherweight shift effort and frugal economy (32 mpg on the highway). And the SVO Mustang’s product planner deserving of so much credit for producing a car which perfectly balances performance with efficiency — a truly potent small sportscar—well, his name was Ron Muccioli.
Ford ‘GN34' — 1985
Emboldened by the success of the SVO project, Ron Muccioli and the rest of his team set about designing a prototype sports car to bring Ford into the 1990s. While not specifically intended as a Mustang replacement, this Ford (codenamed ‘GN43') was designed to challenge the Corvette’s reign at the top of the American-made sports car. Like with the SVO Mustang, when the team couldn’t source a part from the Ford bin, they went shopping in the global market: Muccioli helped inked a deal with Yamaha to use their high-revving, lightweight V-6. This engine packed 220 hp and was mounted mid-car for precision handling — closer in layout to Roy Lunn’s original Mustang I concept. Sadly, it never powered a production GN34—when Muccioli’s team pitched the project to management, the big bosses chose to build a small 4x4 instead—Ford couldn’t afford it. While the Explorer proved to be a cash cow for Ford throughout the 1990s, the GN34 became more of a “what-might-have been”. Two preproduction mules were built and are kept now in a museum outside of Detroit owned by Jack Roush. Muccioli works for Roush now; a rendering of the GN34 (shown above) hangs in his office. Ford had to find a new use for all those Yamaha engines—they later found a starring role in the Ford Taurus SHO.
‘Bruce Jenner’ (left) and ‘Rambo” (right)
Ford Mustang — 1990
After the premature demise of the GN34, Ron Muccioli and the SVO team could have given up. But by the late ‘80s, the Fox-bodied Mustang needed a replacement, and Ford wanted Muccioli to bring his product planning expertise to a mainstream car. The fourth-generation Mustang—like the first—took its underlying architecture from another car. Instead of the Falcoln, the ‘Stang used a Fox-body suspension tuned by Bob Negstad, who came out of retirement to consult on the project. ‘Mustang’ being synonymous with ‘muscle car,’ the design department took inspiration from some of the noted muscle-bound actors of the era. The concept shown to the left above was named “Bruce Jenner” for its lean sculpting, while “Rambo” concept shown opposite was more flamboyant. The winning design was a combination of the two—and perhaps America’s favorite muscleman—“Arnold Schwarzenegger”.
Ford Cobra R — 2000
Only 300 of these Cobra R models were built, making them some of the rarest factory-made Mustangs of the late 20th century. Though Carroll Shelby only donated the name to this Cobra (a name which Shelby claimed appeared to him in a dream in February of 1962), like the racecars Shelby nailed together thirty years prior, this Mustang was equally known for which features it didn’t offer: Neither sound deadening nor air conditioning. One could specify the car without its backseat to save weight. The 5.4L engine in the Cobra R was conservatively rated at 385 hp and could rocket to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. Jack Roush was brought in as a tuning consultant, and he recommended a list of the finest performance manufacturers in the world (Brembo, Recaro, Elibach, K&N, et al.). Maybe it was a nod to Henry Ford’s mono-color tendencies, or maybe it was just that Ford knew its customer base — either way, the Cobra R was available in any color one would want, as long as it was red.
Ford Shelby GT-H — 2006
Ford were feeling nostalgic in the early 21st century. 2006 marked the forty-year anniversary of the original rent-a-racer: The Shelby GT350-H, which was offered for daily test driving by the Hertz company two years after the debut of the Shelby GT-350. All the way back to the origin of the Mustang, the car was planned to be as affordable as possible. Renting a Hertz Mustang was likely the ultimate expression of value—a day spent with a GT305-H cost around $17 in 1966 and only 17¢ a mile thereafter, meaning one could lap Watkins Glen endlessly for under thirty bucks. The 2006 retro refresh jumped to more than ten times that fee ($175 per day), but the newer car raced to 60mph more than a second faster. Only 500 were built, making them twice as exclusive as the original. All were bought by the Hertz corporation. These cars actually pre-date the return of the Shelby Cobra to the Ford product lineup, and many customers were eager to get a sneak preview of the upcoming Shelby at their neighborhood car rental establishment.
Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 Super Snake —2013
Forty-seven years after Carroll Shelby announced the first Super Snake may appear to be shy of a proper anniversary, but Ford chose to celebrate the man rather than some arbitrary date. After nearly ninety years of life—a good 70 of which were devoted to the pursuit of speed—Carroll Shelby died of complications from angina pectoris in 2012. The original Super Snake was designed to be Shelby’s personal car, and Shelby liked his cars (duh) fast. The 427 Cobra Jet engine wasn’t fast enough, so he supercharged it: Twice. The dual Paxton units gave the original Super Snake over 800 horsepower. Not to be outdone, the Ford remodel in 2013 also carried a supercharger, this time courtesy of Whipple Industries. The new car comfortably developed 850 hp. (Shelby America countered with a version called “Shelby 1000," and you can probably guess how much power that car offered). Fifty years after Ford asked Shelby to turn their Mustang into a racecar—and forty-eight years after the partnership was disbanded—the engineers, managers, and marketers at Ford’s head offices in Dearborn had the expertise (and more importantly, the drive) to build a proper performance machine. There could be no more fitting tribute to Shelby than that.
Ford Mustang—2015
Fifty years later—through eight generations—a new Mustang is still news. This year’s edition echoes the past, with tri-bar headlights evoking the character lines of the original. The triple taillights make an appearance, too, though the non-functioning side scoop has been softened. Moray Callum, Ford’s design V.P. and younger sibling to Ian Callum of Jaguar fame, led the styling. Callum was behind the company-wide redesign at Mazda in the mid 1990s, so he is experienced with both preserving and updating storied nameplates. The 2015 Mustang’s interior is said to harken back to the original inspiration for the car — not some wild stallion, but a WWII-era fighter plane codenamed P-51—so all of the dials on the dashboard display an aviation influence. Choice of power is more varied than ever before, with a range of engines for sale starting at a turbocharged 4-cylinder (the first offered in a ‘Stang since the SVO) and moving up to the 5.0L monster seen in the car above. As with every generation of Mustang, the car will likely grow in size and power from this introductory model: The future will be filled with Cobras and Jets and quite probably a Shelby or two. The best Mustang, as always, is yet to come.
Of course, the second part of any history would not exist without the first.
Iacocca, Lunn, Gurney, Shelby, Ford II: The list of names who gave life to the Mustang stretches 50 years long, and should not exclude the still-longer list of women and men who fabricated and fastened, wired and wrenched, cut and sewed, managed and marked and sold the Mustang. In my time researching Ford’s remarkable pony car, it’s been made evident to me just how difficult it is to convince a small company —or even a large one— to build a sports car. Without the years of (profitable) austerity under Robert McNamara, there would be no Ford Falcon for Iaccoca to re-imagine. Without Henry Ford II lifting the ban on racing, Ford wouldn’t be in the performance game whatsoever. And, of course, there was Anna Muccioli to guard the tradition, and Gail Wise, who bought and kept the first Mustang ever sold. Wise restored it just in time for the car’s 50th birthday.
First, a word of thanks to Ron Muccioli and Randy Leffingwell for their help in the writing of this. Both men are experts on opposite sides of the industry — one on building cars, the other on dissecting them. Randy’s favorite Mustang is the SVO; Ron, of course, helped build the SVO. Ron was kind enough to send along that lovely image of the GN34 (which made me gasp audibly). Randy is the only auto writer who would end a book on the Mustang with a T.S. Eliot quote: “Tradition by itself is not enough; it must be perpetually criticized and brought up to date…”
