Mustang "Prehistory"

Soldiers brought dicast models of the sports cars they had seen in England home thus introducing the sports car to the United States. In 1953 Chevrolet introduced the United States' first sportscar; the Corvette. In order to keep up with Chevrolet, Ford was forced to create a sportscar of their own. In 1954 the Ford Thunderbird came into production and sold many more cars than the Chevrolet Corvette. In 1958 the Thunderbird became a much larger car with four seats. Although sales continued to go up, Ford received tons of mail every day requesting ford to make two seater thunderbirds again. In 1960 Ford began to design the mustang. In 1962 ford introduced the Mustang I prototype. It is a two seater car with a rear engine. Their was tremendous hype and an all around good reaction from the public so Ford continued with the project. The Mustang I's were sent out and "durability tested" (basically driving fast over potholes). They destroyed themselves because their frames were nowhere near rigid enough. In 1963 Ford designed the Mustang II which added more steel and made it a 2+2 model which was basically a two seater with a small backseat. This car was functional but not as attractive as the Mustang I. Ford took design cues from the two prototypes to create the first mustang. When the Mustang was being designed the word "economy" was not allowed to be used especially in interviews because people didn't want economy at that time. To consumers of that time; economy was associated with slow, non-sporty, boring cars. The designers of the mustang wanted to make it as appealing to the public as possible. What the public wanted was gas guzzling V8 engines not fuel efficient four cylinder engines.