1964 Mustangs Writing A English Paper On The History Of Mustangs Need Some Imput!
Hi guys,
I don't have any mustangs but my dad has two of them. A 64 and a 69. I haven't had the time to put in the effort to study or fix them up or anything like that yet, but I'm still dreaming. Either way, one day, it'll be done. And, I decided to do research on it to help me fix it up while doing my school work at the same time. Read the following.
I am writing an English Paper on the history of mustangs and need some first hand sources. A forum or thread like this counts as a new source. I am not too familar with cars yet but I learned a lot through my research. If any of you could provide helpful information regarding the development of the 1964 mustangs and different generations, it would be helpful. If you any of you are experts, that is even better. Here are some questions:
1. What made this car so popular compared to others when it was introduced to the public?
2. How much has Ford contributed to the muscle car development?
3. Was this the first pony car or was the AMC version of the muscle car the first pony car?
4. Was this car made for a specific generation or genre of buyers? Meaning: old, young, people. Men, female. Etc.
5. How has the mustang changed through time? Why are the newer models reverting back to styles of the earlier periods?
6. Which are more powerful: a refurbished classic or newer models?
7. If you have any additional info that might be helpful, feel free to let me know. And, thank you for helping me on my English Paper. So far, it seems it will be worth while reading. Thanks.
Hello.
1) At the time the mustang was introduced there wasn't really anything comparable. Plymouth had introduced the barracuda at the begining of the regular 64 model year, but it was only available in one body style, which was the fastback. Other than that, you had the great big old fogey cars, like the galaxie or something, or you had compact cars, like the falcon or the valiant. Go look at a 65 Fairlane or a Pontiac Lemans. Those were mid-sized cars.The mustang was a car that young people would, and could, buy. A 65 coupe with a six cylinder, three speed manual transmission and no-nothing for options had an MSRP of $2372. And you could dress them up all the way to a 65 Shelby GT-350 for the wopping sum of about $5500.
2) Quite a bit. Their 427s were the big dogs of racing until the 426 Hemi came out.
3) Why do you suppose they call that class of cars 'pony' cars?
4)It was intended to be sold primarily to younger buyers.Iococca understood that you could sell an old man a young man's car but you couldn't sell a young man an old man's car. There ad campaign was, overall, pretty much gender neutral. They had ads aimed at young men and ads aimed at young women, and others just aimed at young folks.
5)The car has gone throuhg an amazing level of change over the decades.They are reverting back to the original styling for primarily two reasons. One, the 65/ 65 mustang was far and away one of the prettiest cars ever built anywhere in the world and two, Ford desperately needs to sell some cars.
6)The newer cars are, with similar displacements, more efficient than the older cars, which shouldn't really surprise anyone.They have figured out a couple of things in the last half century. However, you don't see the fire-breather dragons like the dual quad 426 hemi or the 427 SOHC motor, which, will less effecient, are still cranking out more plain old grunt horse power than anything available to the non-NASCAR public. They used to have to sell a certain number of a car with the same engine to the public to be able to run it in NASCAR. That's when it actually was the the National Association of Stock Car Racing.
Hope that helps, and good luck on your paper.
1. What made this car so popular compared to others when it was introduced to the public?
2. How much has Ford contributed to the muscle car development?
3. Was this the first pony car or was the AMC version of the muscle car the first pony car?
4. Was this car made for a specific generation or genre of buyers? Meaning: old, young, people. Men, female. Etc.
5. How has the mustang changed through time? Why are the newer models reverting back to styles of the earlier periods?
6. Which are more powerful: a refurbished classic or newer models?
7. If you have any additional info that might be helpful, feel free to let me know. And, thank you for helping me on my English Paper. So far, it seems it will be worth while reading. Thanks.
1. The fact that the car was released in the middle of the '64 year (April 7th i believe) means that it had very little competition, and the fact that it was a entirely new kind of car, an affordable, sporty, luxury car was very appealing to the "baby boomers"
2. With engines like the 429CJ and the shelbys and the boss's ford played a big part in getting there muscle on. But honestly they did not do anything that wasn't already done in the muscle world. at least not with the mustang.
3. As far as i am concerned the mustang was the first true "pony car"
4. as i stated in my answer to Q 1, ford was aiming for the "Baby Boomers" who were at the age to buy their first cars.
5. Through-out time there were many body changes and engine changes. i dont know a lot about post '60's stangs but i have been told that by 1979 ford was "Selling the name mustang, more than the car." as far as reverting back to older styles, the classics look good. and history is bound to repeat itself.
6. that depends on which classics you are talking about. Technically speaking, the new 2007 shelby gt500's have the highest stock horsepower of any past mustang. but they used to lower HP ratings to make insurance affordable for the average person.
7. Hope that helps. If anybody catches a mistake i made feel free to correct me, i have been wrong before.
Sore
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1964 1/2 Mustang (Teal Green), Ford 302, Bored .030 over, 3/4 cam, Edelbrock Performer 289 Intake Manifold, Edelbrock 650 CFM Carb, Hooker Headers/Collectors, 2 1/2" Exhaust Pipes, H-Pipe, Summit Glasspacks, 15" Magnum 500's, Cooper Cobra 215/65 front - 235/65 back, Summit 3 1/8" Tach w/ Shift light, 105,000 Original Miles On Body, 2500 Miles On Engine, Interior and All Chrome/Decals are Original and in Great Shape!
1964 1/2 Mustang (Teal Green), Ford 302, Bored .030 over, 3/4 cam, Edelbrock Performer 289 Intake Manifold, Edelbrock 650 CFM Carb, Hooker Headers/Collectors, 2 1/2" Exhaust Pipes, H-Pipe, Summit Glasspacks, 15" Magnum 500's, Cooper Cobra 215/65 front - 235/65 back, Summit 3 1/8" Tach w/ Shift light, 105,000 Original Miles On Body, 2500 Miles On Engine, Interior and All Chrome/Decals are Original and in Great Shape!
Hi again. Ford started selling mustangs on april 17th of 64.They had built about 25,000 cars to hold them over until the begining of the regular 65 model year. They miscalculated. They sold those 25,000 cars and took orders for about 15,000 more on the first day. That was the same week that the top five songs in the country were five different Beatles songs. Two things that hadn't been done before or since.
1964 Mustangs Writing A English Paper On The History Of Mustangs Need Some Imput! 
