For most auto companies, the most important and talked about offerings are the best sellers, the bread-winners and dependable work horses. Honda has the Civic and the Accord. Toyota has the Camry, which it needs to absolutely ace with each redesign. But Ford may be a different story, because its pony sets the pace.
The Mustang has been pushing Ford’s brand image for five decades now, an amazing feat for the blue-collar hero. It’s been an eventful 50 years, but it hasn’t always been pretty. The looks have been everywhere from chiseled to pathetic, with some generations being a downright embarrassment. So, here’s a brief, “live rear axle” crash course through the Mustang’s semi-illustrious past in hindsight:
The first Mustang you know like an old friend, even if you know next to nothing about the specs. You know the charisma and charm improve with age perfectly congruent to George Clooney, and you know that driving one is like living out a Beach Boys song with thundering V8 handling harmonies. The legend is founded on these 60s Mustangs, and they’ve never let us down.
But as soon as the book closed on that decade, the Mustang started to stumble. The early 70s brought a fat, bloated redesign and a driving character in line with the growing consumer demand for luxury oriented cruisers. The result was a car claiming to be a muscle car, while secretly behaving like a very crude Cadillac. It was a sacrilegious state of affairs, but sadly it was only the beginning….
By the mid 70s, consumer trends shifted again under Ford’s feet, as buyers began to side with smaller, more economic and nimble cars. Again, Ford sent the Mustang after a foolish consumer trend like a puppy after a stick. The result? A tiny, efficient, and utterly gutless little Mustang based on the Ford Pinto. THE FORD. PINTO. It couldn’t get any worse than that, right?
Wrong, because the 80s decided to happen. The auto industry hit an all-time low of uninspired slushboxes, and the Mustang followed suit. In fact, Ford announced that they’d smashed their heads down a full flight of stairs and decided to change to a front wheel drive configuration and discontinue the V8 engine option. After several torch-and-pitchforks backlash from enthusiasts across the nation, they said “Oops never mind” and rolled out an slightly updated version of the previous generation: a safe, weak eco-hatchback with the audacity to buzz around in Mustang badges.
It wasn’t until the mid 90s that the Mustang finally began to find its way again. Granted, they were baby steps, but they were steps in the right direction: back to the pure formula of the 60s. Rear wheel drive with a rumbling V8 option, and decidedly more muscular looks. 1999-2004 brought an even stronger jaw-line and the return of actually desirable special editions, including the ultra rare Cobra-R, which was beautiful lunacy inside and out. Finally, a Mustang you want to put on your wall not from the 60s!
In 2005, Ford one-upped themselves and took the 5th generation even closer to its roots. They did it by tricking lead designer Sid Ramnarace into thinking it was 1964, creating an overtly retro exterior and interior that appealed to 13 year olds and 63 year olds all at once. Cue the waiting lists, the TV cameos, and the mid-life crisis mayhem. Was it a dynamically excellent car? Not particularly, but it looked like a Mustang inside and out, and if you paid extra for the 5.0 liter V8 rumble (let alone the 500+ horses on tap in the revived GT500) it felt like a Mustang too.
And now, after 50 years of ups and downs, the next chapter in the story is here. Ford has unveiled the new 2015 Mustang, and at first it looks comfortably familiar. And yes, it still takes strong cues from the glory days, but it’s no longer almost comically retro. It’s still rear wheel drive, but for first time in 50 years the car wheel feature a custom developed independent rear axle. Inside you’ll find the telltale 3-spoke steering wheel, but also a level of detail never seen before in a Mustang.
And finally, we come to the muscle. The 3.7 liter V6 and the immortal 5.0 V8 are essentially carryovers with minor refinements, but nobody is complaining there. The V8 will put over 425 horses to the pavement with a timeless rumble well worth the price of admission. The V6 will put out over 300 horses, which is more than the 2005 Mustang’s V8 offered originally. But the 2.3 liter “ecoboost” turbo four cylinder steals the news in the engine department, and is quite possibly the most interesting thing Ford has done dynamically to the Mustang in its entire history.
To the Mustang purist, a turbo four banger is like slapping Lee Iacocca in the face. It’s what the Japanese hatchbacks and overpriced Euro coupes use to try and outmatch their American muscle. But this shouldn’t be a real issue, because the V8 version will be better and more muscled than ever. Nobody will mistake a twin turbo four banger Mustang for the ultimate incarnation. And, nobody should ignore that you can get a 300+ horsepower, twin-turbo muscle coupe with a modern chassis, refined interior, six-speed manual transmission and 33 mpg on the highway for around $26,000. Yes, Ford had to break a few rules, and it took a long time to get back to this place. But for the first time since the 60s, the new Mustang has the potential to be a great car.
Images selected from Creative Commons and the Ford Media Newsroom.