Ford Mustang and Continental Mark II Four-Door Proposals

Ford Motor Company's 1956-57 Continental Mark II and the Ford Mustang that was announced April 1964 had coupé bodies (Mustangs also came as convertible coupés).

That didn't prevent Ford product planners from considering four-door versions.  In fact, the next-generation Continentals, the Mark IIIs launched for the 1958 model year, included four-door models.  There never were any four-door Mustangs, however.

Below are some images -- most of marginal quality -- of proposed four-door Continental Mark IIs and Mustangs.

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Continental

This is a 1956 Continental Mk. II, photo via Barrett-Jackson auctions.

Drawing showing a proposed four-door hardtop Mark II.

Clay buck for full-scale four-door alternatives.  Note the scoring for door cuts.

Overhead view of a four-door Mark II clay.

Now for views of a later (fiberglass?) model.

Front.

Rear quarter.

Side view.  Door handles are next to each other, so the rear door is hinged on the C-pillar.  The classic 1961 Lincoln Continentals had this feature.

Mustang

1964 1/2 Mustang hardtop coupe, for-sale photo.

Styling model of a proposed four-door Mustang from 7 January 1963.

A production version could not have been launched before the 1966 model year.

Ford's 2021 Non-Mustang Mustang Mach-E

This is a Ford Mustang.  The original 1964 1/2 model.

This too is a Mustang, 2015 model year.

This is not what I would call a Mustang.  But officially, it's a 2021 Mustang Mach-E, a battery-powered SUV.
I saw my first one 20 March 2022.  Didn't know what it was at first because any nameplate it might have had was either obscure or missing entirely.  I did see outlines of Ford Mustang ponies here and there, finally realizing that this car was one of those electric Mustangs that I had read about months before.

What were Ford's marketing people thinking?  My guess is that since the Mach-E and its GT variant were performance-oriented electric cars, why not slap Ford's performance-oriented Mustang brand name on it to make things clear to potential buyers.

Regardless, I believe a price was paid.  Brand-extensions (putting a brand name on increasingly diverse products) eventually cheapen the value of a brand.  An electric SUV, despite its capabilities, is not a sporty gasoline-powered coupe or convertible.  Short of being a pickup truck, it's about as far from the traditional Mustang image as a marketer could get.

Below are some Ford publicity images of the 2021 Mustang Mach-E GT.

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Lacking a conventional motor, the hood is low.

The profile is curved towards the rear in the manner of upscale SUVs from the likes of Jaguar and Alfa Romeo rather than a more conventional SUV station wagon- like aft area.

Most of the design contains the usual over-done, rather themeless metal sculpting.  The three vertical elements on each taillight assembly do harken the traditional Mustang taillight theme.  Which is about as Mustang-like as the Mach-E gets.

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang

The Michael Lamm and David Holls classic book, "A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design" devotes several pages to the development of the Ford Mustang.  It seems that it was a crash project launched only two years before the April 1964 introduction.  A complicating factor was that Henry Ford II was gun-shy regarding speculative products due to the huge losses Ford Motor Company absorbed in its disastrous Edsel brand effort 1958-60.  The final styling concept persuaded him to okay Mustang.

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.

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1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe - factory photo
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.

1964 Ford Falcon Futura 2-door sedan - Daniel Schmitt photo
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).

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe - Mecum Auctions photo
The Mustang probably shared the Falcon's cowling structure and perhaps the windshield.

1957 Continental Mark II - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
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.

1964 Ford Falcon Futura 2-door sedan
Front quarter view of the Falcon.  Compare to the image below.

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe
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.

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe
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.

Ford Mustang Grille Evolution

A subject I write about fairly often is automobile brand image continuity, and I mostly deal with grilles as the subject.  I usually cite Rolls-Royce, Packard, and sometimes brands such as BMW as examples of grille design theme consistency.  And I also sometimes present examples of car brands whose grille design themes are inconsistent -- Ford is one example.

However, one Ford product has conformed somewhat.  It's the Ford Mustang model, marketed starting in the spring of 1964.  Besides grille design, Mustang has had other styling continuity items including body side sculpting and tail light design. I dealt with some of that here.

Today's post presents examples of Mustang grilles over the six design generation cited in the Wikipedia entry above.  It seems that some high-performance Mustang sub-models were given special grilles and other detailing.  But the images below present basic grille designs at the start of each generation with the exception of the grille design at the end of what Wikipedia considers the first generation.  Unless noted, those images are of cars for sale or, for 2015, a factory image.

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1965 Ford Mustang
This is the original design.  It is mounted high and features a side view of a galloping mustang pony.

1973 Ford Mustang - BaT Auctions photo
This grille at the end of the first generation is lower because the hood has been reshaped.  The pony remains.

1974 Ford Mustang II
The controversial Mustang II had a grille reminiscent of the original, though the pony is not framed.

1979 Ford Mustang Ghia
As I mentioned in the post cited above, the third-generation Mustang was the least Mustang-like of all.  Retained is the theme of the grille opening being framed by headlight.  However, the pony has been moved to a small hood medallion.

1993 Ford Mustang SVT
As aerodynamic testing became common, primary air intakes moved closer to the ground.  The result here is a small opening between the headlights with a tiny pony centered.  Wikipedia considers 1993 the last of the 1979 generation.

1994 Ford Mustang Cobra
The same can be said for the '94 design, though the opening is better related to hood sculpting.

2005 Ford Mustang
Now the major air intake has been raised, better recalling early Mustangs.

2015 Ford Mustang GT
The most recent design features the horizontal chrome strips of the original car as well as framing for the pony.

Some Styling Models of Ferraris

In May I was in Italy with a tour group, but my agenda differed from theirs in that my real goal was to visit three automobile museums.  However, on a Sunday -- a day when much of the country is closed -- the tour included a brief visit to the Ferrari museum in Maranello.  Like the other museums, the Ferrari had a few styling models on display.  Those are the subject of this post.

All the models I saw in the various museums were small, 1/10 actual size and even smaller.  I suppose their main purpose was to indicate actual proportions, something easily distorted in a stylist's rendering.  For mass-production cars, a full-size model was essential for evaluation.  But limited-production or even one-off designs could not be economically justified by that extra effort.

Note that one of the models pictured below was used for aerodynamic testing.  The purpose was to gain a sense of airflow on various parts of the body.  Determining the potential drag coefficient might not have been a primary task due to the difference in scale between the model and an actual car.

Click on images to enlarge (and for reading the museum's captions for the models).

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Model of 1948 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta by Touring (background here).

1949 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta, Touring Superleggeria.

Two models: first, regarding the one to the right in the photo.

The caption states that it's from 1966 by Pininfarina and of the Ferrari Dino 206 GT.

Publicity photo of the Dino 206 GT prototype.

A 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 GT.  Both examples lack the blended headlights seen on the model.

Caption for the model at the left of the reference photo: 1968 Pininfarina design P6.

Ferrari P6 concept model by Pininfarina. This was a engineless "pushmobile" that was exhibited, but did not directly see production.  This model was used for aerodynamic testing.

Photos of the Ferrari Pininfarina P6.

Brand Identity Continuity: Ford Mustang vs. Ford Thunderbird

Two of Ford's long-term models that essentially functioned as separate brands were the Thunderbird and Mustang.

Thunderbirds first appeared as two-passenger sporty cars in 1955, were redesigned as four-passenger cars for 1958 and continued in production through the 1997 model year.  Then for 2002-2005 the make was revived as a two-passenger car, and that marked its end, at least for now.

The Mustang debuted as a four-passenger sporty car in April 1964 and the marque continues to be marketed.  Its visual brand identity remained fairly (but not totally) consistent over the past 55 years.  The same could not be said for Thunderbird over its roughly 45 years in production.

This post presents the initial and most recent front-end designs along with some intervening versions.  Unless otherwise noted, images are via Ford or of cars listed for sale.

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The original 1964 1/2 Mustang.  Note the high grille opening and the shaping on either side.  The grille position, along with the sculpted pony, became consistent brand identifiers.  The shaping reappears decades later.

The first major redesign was in 1974 in the form of the small Mustang II.

The 1979 Mustang is one of the least- Mustang-like designs.  The grille opening remains high, but the pony is now a small element on the hood.

Another weakly identified Mustang is this 1994 model developed at the time Ford was heavily into aerodynamic styling.  Still, there is a high grille opening with a mustang in it.

The current Mustang, announced for 2015.  The high grille, its side shaping and the pony are all present.

Now for the Thunderbird, this initial 1955 model in a Mecum auctions photo.

For 1958, Thunderbird became a four-passenger car.  The earlier grille shape is retained, as is the blanked greenhouse quarter panel.  And there is an air intake feature on the hood, but otherwise the styling is different.

The next redesign was for 1961, as shown in this Mecum photo.  The only carryover features are the quarter panel and hood embellishment.

1967 saw the introduction of a four-door sedan to the Thunderbird line, a feature dropped for the next redesign.  The quarter panel is now something of a broad C-pillar.

The next new body came for 1972.  Aside from the winged Thunderbird badge, the C-pillar is retained in weakened form.

1977 Thunderbirds finally lost the C-pillar / quarter panel trait.  At this point, nothing is carried over from the 1955 model.

A 1985 Thunderbird showing the aerodynamic body introduced for 1983.  The fat C-pillar returns.

Model year 1989 saw the introduction of the final four-passenger Thunderbird.  No carryover but the bird badge.

Thunderbird's last gasp was this two-passenger car introduced for 2002.  Its design was an intentional harking back to the 1955 car.  Note the grille.  The "porthole" window on the greenhouse quarter panel recalls a similar item on 1956 Thunderbirds.