A love of Mustangs

Look at this car! The styling cues, the shapes and the chrome emphasis. It is not surprising that this year of Mustang is one of the most popular.

The Mustang in the USA is seen as a very ordinary car, and when introduced in 1964 was based on a "compact car" called the Ford Falcon. It was quite a humble car too mostly sold with a robust 6 cylinder engine with a an optional V8. Even the V8 was a lazy thing and no ball of fire. Ford was struggling to get hold of the concept of compact cars and although the Falcon sold reasonably well Ford management clearly preferred its more glamorous cars.

Thunderbird for instance had grown from a 2 seat sports car built to take on the popular British sports cars, into a "personal car", powered by a huge V8 befitting its ever larger size. By this time Thunderbird was a vast "Cigar bird", and about to be superseded by the "Thelma and Lousise" bird, a huge car by today's standards. The Corvette had meantime appeared and hoovered up the sales vacuum left by the original Thunderbird.

Enter the Mustang.To be honest it was a highly cynical bit of marketing that spawned the car. Take a humdrum car like the Falcon, dress it with a sporty body, make it as cheap as possible and see if it sold.

It did. Massively so.

There were initially 2 body styles the Convertible and the hardtop, with 2 engines, the 6 cylinder and the V8. Just about everything was an option. Including options on the brakes that just amaze today at how cynical Ford Motor Company was at the time. The car above has for example, drum brakes with no servo assistance. Yes they work, with a good shove, but just about any modern car will stop much faster. Think too, even the humble MGB had rack and pinion steering, and servo disc brakes at this time.

Ah yes, Mustang steering. A steering box and a complex linkage with many joints gives vague and sloppy steering. If you test drive one for the first time you will be told "they are all like that", yet a well maintained one drives much better than a scary one. A scary one seems like you have little control over the steering at all. It is no surprise to me, that many owners modernise the car with a kit of rack and pinion steering and disc brakes. The kit is complete at around $3,500 dollars and bolts straight on. Even those who scream "its not original" will accept that this kit makes the car vastly safer and more useable. Nor does it devalue the car unless it is a concours trailer queen. In fact many prefer to buy a car with this work already done.

So here you are, presented with a Mustang, you have done your home work, saved your money, and dreamed for many years, now here it is, you can touch it and drive it. What you are looking at is a 50 year old car and one built down to a price, they are really quite basic with styling doing its work to sell the car, added with a splash of chrome here or there. You can easily find your self with more work to do than you originally thought you might have to do.Look at that all metal dash, you might want to upgrade the seat belts. Thankfully just about every part is available including trim. Nothing is expensive either.

In today's world the 6 cylinder is the car no one wants unless it is cheap. Everyone wants the V8. It suits the car much better and keeps up with modern traffic to a point. That point being you will most likely not want to travel at high motorway speeds knowing the inadequacies of the car. The Mustang is not a rip roaring snarling machine , it is a soft suave cruiser, and burbles along making a fabulous noise. Automatic is again the best option, very suited to the car. Do though, look for puddles of automatic gearbox fluid under the car. The gearbox is notorious for leaking, and at this age will often need new seals. Look out too, for a slow take up on the torque converter, before the car moves. If you raise the revs when the car does this, it will come in with a bang and spin the wheels. This all spells trouble.

Mustangs are also nicknamed "Rustangs" for a very good reason. Ford did not believe in rustproofing at all. Floors often rust out, and if they do you can expect some big body work bills.

Buying a car in need of restoration, is most likely the expensive way to own a Mustang. Buying a car that does not need work is far better. But be careful of cars that have been flipped or poorly restored, all sorts of problems can manifest themselves.

Many 6 cylinder cars get engine swaps to the V8, but beware of the brakes needing an upgrade too. Values for these cars sit between a original V8 and a 6 cylinder. So if you really want a V8 but see a nice 6 cylinder it can be the way to go and in the Mustang world unless you get to the high end concours world none will blame you for doing the conversion. Lets face it, most 6 cylinder cars that have survived would have been the grocery getter car, doing low mileages and being garaged, often but not exclusively being owned by females.

In late 1965, a fastback style was introduced. This was an option that did not sell as well as people might have thought, being a 2 seat car in essence but its style has stood the test of time well, and is perhaps the most valuable ordinary derivative of this era of Mustangs.

This mid sixties era of Mustangs, was also the time of Ralph Nadar the car safety campaigner. The car he crucified the most was the Chevrolet Corvair and he virtually killed it with his "unsafe at any speed" campaign.

Perhaps he should have highlighted the Mustang too, as it has a vice. A very nasty one too. If a Mustang gets rear ended in an accident, the first problem is that fuel filler is in the middle of the back of the car. Very bad in an accident, as the most likely initial area for an impact, and more than likely to be a source of fire. Secondly the fuel tank itself has a trait of rupturing, and spewing the contents over the rear seat passengers, which of course is not at all good in terms of fire. Many Mustangs were involved in fiery ends killing their occupants.

One can be comforted today, a little, in knowing that a Mustang today is far more likely to hit the modern car in front as it cannot stop so effectively. The modern car of today is less likely to rear end it as the modern car can out brake the Mustang. Never the less an awareness of fire is vital in owning an old Mustang.

And what of those rip roaring snarling sporty Mustangs? This era, based on the cute fastback spawned the original "Shelby" Mustangs with much bigger engines, manual gearboxes and all the snarling you can imagine along with improved handling and brakes.

In 1967, the Mustang became more aggressive to look at with more recessed headlights, and this time there was a proper fastback style like the car in Bullitt. It spawned some very fast Shelby derivatives. The fastback of this era is now one of the most sort after versions as not only did it rust as badly as any other, not so many were sold, add attrition of time, and the prices for these become double or even treble what a convertible is worth. Shelby versions getting even higher prices if they are original. If you have seen the film gone in 60 seconds, this is the era of "Eleanor".

Ordinary Mustangs though, can be surprisingly cheap to run in terms of parts. Jobs are simple and often suitable for the home mechanic. Thus they make an excellent classic car choice with style and glamour. The shape generally appeals to everyone and is much loved.

After this era, Ford launched the Mach 1 and Boss Mustangs. A much more powerful variant, with 3 body styles, Convertible, Coupe and fastback. These cars are much more aggressive and the fastback has a virtually horizontal rear window making it difficult to see out of. They all rusted badly, and only now are we seeing a resurgence in values.

After this era came Mustang nemesis. A bewildered inept Ford management emasculated the car so completely it lost its focus altogether and in came the ghastly Mustang II. These horrors can be seen in "charlie's angels."

Having almost killed the brand off, Ford re launched it again in the nineties with a bland style, of generic coupe and convertible versions. Into these they slipped a grumbling V8 version as well s a 6 cylinder. They sold. But if you see one today you probably would not notice it. It must be said that they have yet to develop a following and can be considered a cheap way into Mustang ownership.

Then in 2005 Ford launched the retro styled series we see today. It was an instant hit with production hitting almost 100,000 a year and only declining to 75,000 a year as the competition from Challenger and Camaro woke up. Initially it had 2 engines, the 3.8 V6 and the 5.0 litre V8. At first the style looked as non aggressive as a 1965, then in 2010 a slightly more aggressive style appeared. This lasted 2 years before the car was upgraded with the Ford "Corporate face" style, which again only lasted until the launch of the 2015 "world car" Mustang. The 2015, offered the V6 engine and eco boost, and the 5.0 litre V8.

The 2005 onwards Mustangs, also heralded an ere of brutal Shelby and Roush versions, these are tyre shredding, snarling, brutal cars and can be considered very hard core. There are tuning companies pushing the power to extraordinary levels too.