2007 Ford Mustang GT

Ford's new-generation Mustang is an amazing blend of the best of two different worlds. It looks very much like the late-'60s Mustangs that were so popular in their day, while it drives exactly like the fully contemporary performance coupe it is.

History
Lee Iacocca became Ford Division vice president in November 1960, and almost immediately set up a committee to look into a youthful, affordable sporty car. It had to be small, light and inexpensive, yet capable of carrying four people. Its styling would employ the long hood, short deck, low-profile look that had made the two-seat Thunderbird a modern classic, it would offer a choice of six-cylinder or V-8 engines, and it would be versatile enough to be adapted to a wide variety of tastes. In short, it would have the flair and performance of a Thunderbird at the price of a compact Falcon.

That first 1964-1/2 Mustang's most prominent styling features were a high, forward-thrusting mouth-like grille opening flanking slightly recessed headlamps, three-element taillamps and simulated side scoops. It was an unprecedented hit, selling a record 418,812 units in its first 12 months and its first million in less than two years. Since then, Mustang has survived because Ford has kept it close to Iacocca's original small, sporty, high-value formula.


For 2005 came the ultimate accolade to those much-loved first-generation Mustangs on a substantially superior platform. This latest generation Mustang looks so much like the '67-'70 Mustangs at first glance, that you have to look again to realize it's the current one.


"Our thought from the beginning was a car that was pure American muscle and would relate to those earlier Mustangs," explains Ford Performance Chief Designer Doug Gafka. "We took every major Mustang—Mach 1, Boss, Shelby—and did display boards with every major cue of what made that particular Mustang great—the side scoops, the hoods, the grille openings, the taillamps, all of the important elements that made it a Mustang—and picked and chose what we felt were the really strong ones to reinvent or modernize for this new Mustang."