Lee Iacocca knew that Ford needed a youthful, affordable sporty car even before he became Ford Division vice president at the tender age of 36 in November 1960. “We approached the decade of the ’60s with a rather stodgy, non-youth image,” he said later. On the day CEO Henry Ford II told him of his big promotion, he added, “I walked out of Mr. Ford’s office thinking of that good-looking little youth car.”

Compelling Design, Tough Sell
Almost immediately, Iacocca set up a committee of highly creative people to look into it. Their marching orders were clear: it had to be small, light and inexpensive—no more than 180 inches, 2,500 lbs and $2,500—yet capable of carrying four people. Its styling would employ the sporty 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 V8 engine and 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.

Much design and research was done over the next 18 months before Iacocca became impatient. He felt the project wasn't moving fast enough toward a cohesive design, and it was having trouble finding support from the corporation's conservative, cost-conscious top management. He directed Ford Design Chief Gene Bordinat to prepare a half-dozen new clay models in barely two weeks, and Bordinat turned three studios loose in an all-out competition. The winner was a simple yet compelling design called “Cougar” by Dave Ash, assistant to Ford studio chief Joe Oros.

Iacocca, an engineer by education who had risen rapidly through the sales side of the organization, later said that winning approval for the Mustang was the toughest selling job of his life. Henry Ford II reportedly gave it his blessing just to get his annoyingly persistent Ford vice president “off his back.” The approval Iacocca received was modest: a 75,000-unit (annual) planning volume and a $40 million budget. Start of production at Ford’s Dearborn. Mich., plant was set for March 9, 1964—just 18 months away.

Read more about the Mustang in
Volume 45 Number 2