A brief history of the creation of a style icon.
It often takes years after a car’s launch to fully appreciate its cultural impact and influence on the automotive world. But in the case of the Ford Mustang, its place in history was cemented practically overnight. From their very first glimpse at the Mustang more than 60 years ago, Americans knew they were witnessing the rise of a revolutionary class of car. But, who designed the Mustang? To answer that, we have to look back at the automotive landscape of the 1960s, the conditions that led to its creation, and the people making decisions at Ford Motor Company.
The Birth of the Mustang
The 1960s were a time of revolutionary change, not just for the auto industry but for the entire country. The Baby Boomer generation was coming of age, and with that new demographic came a palpable shift in values and buying preferences. A few innovators at Ford set out to create a vehicle that would appeal to a new generation of buyers. This new car had to be small, affordable, and, most of all, captivating in both appearance and experience.
Who Designed the Mustang?
Lee Iacocca: The Visionary Who Invented the Mustang
It was his idea to develop a stylish small car targeted at the youth market. Shortly after his promotion, Iacocca hand-picked a team of young product planners to explore ideas for the new car. They would come to be known as the “Fairlane Committee,” after the Fairlane Inn Motel, where they held their weekly secret meetings. The meetings were kept secret because Iacocca’s boss, Henry Ford II, wasn’t onboard with the idea of a new sporty car.
Having just been named Vice President and General Manager of the Ford Division in 1960, Lee Iacocca’s goal was to provide a sporty yet affordable car that would cater to the youth market and take Ford to the next level. Only a few years prior, Ford had bet big on a revolutionary car of his own, the Edsel, and lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The Edsel’s failure made the Ford President and CEO reluctant to dive back into uncharted waters. On top of that, the Ford brand had recently launched its first compact, the Falcon, which was already a commercial success in spite of its bland styling.
By 1961, the Fairlane Committee had settled on a few parameters for the car that would become the Mustang. It should have a wheelbase no greater than 108 inches, weigh about 2,500 pounds, and be priced around $2,500. Although the first Mustang concept that debuted to the public was a two-seat sports car, Iacocca insisted early on that the production version have a back seat. Once Iacocca believed his hand-picked team had built enough of a case for the Mustang, he presented the plan to Henry Ford II. Using his uncommon powers of persuasion, Iacocca managed to convince Ford to approve the project. With the model now officially green-lit, it was time to get to work designing Iacocca’s sporty youth model.
Gale Halderman: Designer of the Mustang
In 1962, Iacocca gave the specifications for the new model to Ford’s three design studios. Each team had three weeks to dream up a winning design for the sporty compact. Gale Halderman, design manager for the Ford Division studio, was tasked with sketching some potential looks for the car. He brought in five or six sketches the next day, which were put on a board along with 20 drawings by other designers. Out of all the drawings, it was one of Halderman’s side profile view sketches that was selected as the basis for the clay model that would ultimately be selected for development.
Though no single person can claim credit for who designed the Ford Mustang, the one with arguably the most influence on its styling is Halderman. While the well-known Mustang designer wasn’t the one who came up with the Mustang’s name and concept, his contributions were crucial to its technical and engineering success. The Mustang still had a long way to go before it was shaped into the car we know and love today. At this point, it wasn’t even a Mustang yet. It was a Cougar.
Dave Ash, Joe Oros and John Foster: Refining the Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang’s design process truly was a team effort, and it took a village of seasoned artists to massage the original pony car into its final form. Designer and sculptor Dave Ash was in charge of the first clay model, which was deemed too blockish and mundane. Unhappy with this look, Ford studio head Joe Oros ordered the team to start again from scratch. It was at this point that Halderman’s sketch was selected to be rendered in clay. Ash, Oros, Halderman, and another lead designer, John Foster, spent three days tweaking this second model. Called the Cougar, their design was presented alongside the six others from the competing studios and was quickly chosen as the winner for its striking wide-mouth grille and athletic proportions.
Many styling elements from the clay mockup made it to the production version, but the prowling cat emblem in the grille would not. They chose the running horse as the final emblem or the Mustang, as the horse symbolizes power, speed, and freedom.
Numerous names were proposed before Ford finally settled on “Mustang” for the imagery of freedom and the American West it evoked. Designer John Najjar is credited as the first to come up with the moniker. The executive stylist was actually a fan of the WWII P-51 Mustang fighter plane, so driven by this inspiration, he pushed the car to be named after the iconic aircraft. As for who designed the Mustang’s modern and sporty 2 + 2 cabin, you have John Foster and chief interior designer Damon Woods to thank.
Design Elements That Define the Mustang
The Ford Mustang looked like no other car on the road at the time. Its defining features included a long hood and short rear deck, slender chrome bumpers, three-element taillights, that characteristic wide-mouth grille, and body side sculpting that terminates with faux rear brake cooling ducts. At launch, the Mustang was offered as a coupe or convertible. The coupe model featured a sleek C-pillar that lent the car a unique silhouette and greenhouse shape.
Launch and Reception
In April 1964, the Ford Mustang debuted to the public at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. To say the car was well received would be a colossal understatement. A carefully planned marketing campaign had hyped up the public leading up to the debut, and they were not disappointed. Crowds poured into the Ford Pavilion at the World’s Fair for a glimpse of the new car. At the same time, Ford dealers opened order books and sold roughly 22,000 Mustangs on the first day. The week it was unveiled, the Mustang made the covers of Time and Newsweek. By April 1965, the Ford Mustang had sold 418,000 units, beating the previous record set by the Falcon. When was the first Ford Mustang made? Production began in March 1964, but because it went on sale in the middle of the year the first cars are referred to by Ford as 1964 ½ model years.
Something about the Mustang resonated with Americans from all walks of life. Not only did it appeal to the younger demographic as Iococca had planned, but empty-nesters, retirees, and families looking for a second car took to the car as well. The Mustang’s bold design, affordable price tag, and impressive performance for the day made it an enticing proposition.
An Enduring Design Legacy
Those who worked on the Ford Mustang benefited greatly from its runaway success. Dave Ash was promoted to chief stylist of a brand new Ford design studio. Lee Iacocca was promoted to Vice President of the car and truck group in 1965, and named President of the company in 1970. Shortly after finishing up the coupe, Gale Halderman designed the Mustang fastback, which went on sale as a 1965 model and is today the form most closely associated with the Mustang. Halderman was always modest about his role in designing the Ford Mustang, often preferring to let others take the spotlight. The man who designed the first Mustang went on to style many more cars for Ford before retiring in 1994.
As you might expect, the Mustang’s debut had a big impact on the automotive world, starting first at Ford. Because Iacocca liked what competition did for the Mustang, he wanted more teams cooking up ideas for future Ford products. That led to the formation of new studios, such as the one Dave Ash was in charge of. As for the rest of the industry, it would take competitors General Motors and Chrysler a few years to respond with true Mustang fighters of their own. When they arrived, the pony car segment was born.
The Mustang’s Evolution Over the Decades
Despite being the freshest thing people had seen from Detroit in years, the Ford Mustang continued to evolve throughout the 1960s. Ford was already in business with a certain race car builder named Carroll Shelby, so taking the Mustang racing was the natural next step. In order to do that, Shelby-American and Ford had to build a minimum number of production cars similar enough to the racing version. When was the first Shelby Mustang made? The first Mustangs to wear Shelby badges were strictly homologation specials and sold as the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350. For these cars, Shelby removed excess weight, added performance parts, and slapped on some racing stripes. They proved to be surprisingly popular–so much so that Shelby-American made even more for 1966, only this time they were softened for the street.
The 1967 model year brought the biggest changes to the Mustang since its introduction. The car grew in size by a few inches and gained concave headlights and taillights, a rear fender scoop, and more muscular-looking curves. By 1969, the car grew again by several inches and introduced quad headlights and revised body side sculpting. Though by this point, it was a completely different car, and differed in design from the original Mustang, it was still unmistakably a Mustang. The last year of the 1960s gave us a number of special Mustang models with unique designs. On the Shelby side, you had the 1969 GT350 and GT500 designed by John Chun with their distinctive front and rear ends. On the regular Ford production side, you had the ’69 Boss 302 designed by Larry Shinoda with its characteristic hockey stick side graphics, chin spoiler, and optional rear window louvers.
Fast forward six generations later, and you can see plenty of first-generation Mustang design cues in the current car. The long hood and short deck proportions, sleek fastback roofline, prominent rear shoulders, aggressive wide-mouth front end, and three-element tail lights all harken back to the days when Mustangs ruled the streets and topped sales charts. Though they’ve been refined and modernized, the styling elements of the original Ford Mustang are clearly visible and just as striking as they were 60 years ago. With such an iconic look, you can expect the first-generation Ford Mustang to continue inspiring car designers for decades to come.