The Mustang design was more of a committee effort than usual, but Lamm and Holls praised the unlikely success of that kind of venture known for yielding less-than-stellar results. Mustang was an aesthetic success and, even better for Ford, a sales triumph.
That Mustang would sell 121,538 cars in model year 1964½, followed in 1965 by 559,451 was far beyond the imagination of Ford management. So rather than create an expensive special body platform, it was decided to use the 1964 Ford Falcon compact car as the Mustang's basis.
Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.
The original Mustang design seen on what seems to be a pre-production car. As best I can tell, production 1964 1/2 Mustang grilles included a thin, horizontal chrome bar bracketing the pony.
The Falcon, whose platform the Mustang shared. Both had the same length, 181.6 inches (4613 mm). But the Mustang's wheelbase was shorter, 108 inches (2743 mm) compared to the Falcon's 109.5 inches (2781 mm).
The Mustang probably shared the Falcon's cowling structure and perhaps the windshield.
Lamm and Holls state that the Mustang's fenderline was inspired by that of the 1956-57 Continental Mark II. The wide Continental C-pillar was often used in later Ford designs, including Mustang.
Front quarter view of the Falcon. Compare to the image below.
Windshields appear to be the same, though Mustang's is slightly more raked. That might explain the different relationships of the A-pillar and the door front cut-line -- the base of the Mustang's windshield is slightly forward of the Falcon's. Note the front of the hood projecting forward of the headlights. This helped provide the Mustang with a longer hoodline than would have been the case otherwise.
Like the 1961 Continental, raised fenderline sculpting helped to visually "nest" the hood, trunk, and passenger compartment greenhouse. Those three-segment tail lights became a visual trademark for some Mustang generations.
Sorry to disagree again, but I don't think they shared cowls or windshields. The Falcon windshield is definitely more wrapped and goes with flat rather than curved side windows. The Mustang cowl is definitely a couple inches lower. Dashboards are the same but trimmed differently - the Mustang suggests a double cowl like a'61 Lincoln, a look they mostly kept over the years, but the Falcon (which previously had that kind of look) turned more unitary for 1964.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course basically the same platform and all kinds of other bits and pieces. Lucky for Mustangs the original 1960 Falcon front and rear suspensions and probably other stuff got tweaked a bit with the restyled 1964 model.
But despite a lot of budget compromises like the triple tail lights being one unit and so on the original Mustang was and is a design hit. I think it's too bad the more recent ones reflect more the bigger and rounder next Mustang model, not the taut original. And that includes the E-Mustang.