Ford’s Mustang – Past, Present, Future

Four days before the new Mustang was officially unveiled in New York at the 1964 World’s Fair, Ford’s Mustang project leader Lee Iacocca gave a televised press conference that was flighted by all three major television networks in the USA. It was also simultaneously broadcast to 11 countries in Europe, and this forerunner of an “online” media launch was covered by some 2 000 journalists across the globe.

Some 20 000 new Mustangs were sold on the very first day!

The new Mustang was then officially unveiled on April 17, 1964 at the World’s Fair, and in a masterstroke, Ford had arranged for the new Mustang to be on display in showrooms at dealerships across America.

The result of this ambitious strategic roll-out was staggering. On that very first on-sale day, some 20 000 new Ford Mustangs had been sold!

An owner slept in his Mustang until his cheque had cleared

Queues had formed outside dealerships all around the America, with people clambering to be first on the block to own this new “sports car” that could accommodate the whole family. One new owner from Texas reportedly slept in the car he had bought overnight in the dealership, until his cheque had cleared.

By the end of that first year, some 418 000 all-new Ford Mustangs had been sold, and two years later sales reached the one-million mark. That event in April 1964 is still rated as the most successful new-car launch in history. And happily, the Mustang has remained a global sales phenomenon ever since.

That original Mustang was available in South Africa in limited numbers

That original Ford Mustang was introduced in very limited number to South Africa in the latter part of 1965. According to reports at the time, some 80 examples of the new, left-hand-drive-only Mustang were made available to Ford South Africa, who offered the cars as special imports through its dealerships across the country.

This was pretty much a one-off offer from Ford South Africa here, regarding the new Mustang. The car was subject to high import duties, as the country had at this stage embarked on its local content program that severely limited the amount of imported vehicles here.The local content legislation was enforced so that motorists were forced to buy locally-assembled cars and thus stimulate production. This local content program would be enforced until the latter half of the 1990s.

Private importation only

Apart from that first South African introductory program for the first-gen Mustang, it is believed that all Mustangs imported here since late 1965 were arranged by private owners, albeit with some one-off-assistance from Ford dealers. This is the reason why today there are still a number of 1965 Mustangs that have been preserved here and can be seen at classic car meets, whereas the number of 1966-to 1968 models are much more scarce. In 1969, with the introduction of the larger Mustang  body size, a smaller number of these cars were imported, and this continued up until 1973 with the even larger Mach I models. But in comparison to other sporty cars that were produced here with some local content, like the Alfa Romeo Giulietta GT series and the MGB GT, early Mustangs remain rare.

Then came the right-hand-drive Mustang!

Some half a century later, in late-2015, South Africans could at last buy a right-hand-drive version of the Mustang, right off the showroom floor. Prior to this, starting from the late 1990s, a handful of specialist firms had converted American-spec Ford Mustangs to right-hand-drive, following  legislation that prohibited any private importation of left-hand-drive cars for sale here that came into being, just before the turn of the century.

The fact that there were enthusiasts who would go to such lengths to have a left-hand-drive converted to right-hand-drive, and pay all the extra import duty, showed what a ground-swell of enthusiasm there was for America’s first “pony car”.

First two years of allocation all sold out in SA!

In November 2015, Ford South Africa announced the introduction of the first-right-hand-drive version of the Mustang, the sixth generation of this famous car. At the same time, Ford South Africa announced that the first two years of Mustang allocation had been sold out!

Since then, the Mustang’s sales longevity has continued to amaze both the public and Ford’s local executives. It has consistently held the title of South Africa’s bets-selling sports car since its introduction here. Last year the sixth-gen Mustang was refreshed with new lighting and other minor styling details, as well as a small power increase and the introduction of a 10-speed automatic gearbox.

The modern Mustang models

As before, the Mustang is available here with a 2,3-litre EcoBoost foor-cylinder motor or a 5,0litre V8 engine. No surprise, the V8 is by far the most popular model, and a very desirable Bullitt special edition model, commemorate the famous Steve McQueeen movie, was also made available.

 As this is written, sixth-generation Mustang sales in South Africa are approaching the 3 000 mark. It remains the best-selling sports car on our new-car market with a 69 per cent share of its segment. And for the past five years, the Ford Mustang has been rated as the best-selling sports car in the world.

The Mustang in motorsport, and a modern media icon

One of the most popular cars on You Tube is a Ford Mustang. American drift artist Ken Block’s 1 000 kW all-wheel-drive twin turbocharged 1965 Mustang, climbing the hazardous  Pike’s Peak in a scary display of car control, has garnered some 30-million views. Before this, the 1968 Mustang known as “Eleanor”  in the big-screen movie Gone in 60 Seconds spawned a whole new Mustang appreciation cult across the globe.

It may interest younger Mustang fans here to know that in 1966 Basil van Rooyen won the South African Saloon Car Championship in a Ford Mustang. Ford South Africa had earmarked two of its special batch of 80 imported cars for competition, one of each going to Johannesburg-based Van Rooyen and Cape ace Koos Swanepoel, to contest the 1966 championship. Van Rooyen’s Superformance-tuned example was the most successful and  he actually shipped the car to England to compete against the top British aces of the day.

What’s next: an Electric Mustang?

Within the coming months, Ford will introduce the next great leap for the Ford Mustang brand. Known as the Mustang Mach-E, it’s Ford’s first major electric vehicle to come to market. The big shock (excuse the phrase) for some Mustang fans, however, is that this electric Mustang is an SUV! It will debut in a wide range of variants, just like the original Mustang did in 1965. It is said that Ford executives targeted a mid-3-second 0-100 km/h time for the top performance model.

With the COVID-19 lockdown having led to so many projects being put on hold, it will be interesting to see when Ford will officially roll out the Mustang Mach E, which was scheduled for a late 2020 launch. Who knows, the launch may well be a virtual exercise. And customers can then circulate stories about how long they remained logged on for, before taking “virtual delivery” of their brand-new Mustang!

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