Cars like the Ford Mustang

How did this car become ‘legendary’?

I just read that Ford have produced a RHD version for the UK, and that this ‘legendary’ muscle car will now be available at a price much lower than a roughly equivalent BMW.

Now, I realise that there were a couple of past models that might have competed with the likes of Corvette for looks, but really… these were just a fluke.

I was a kid in the 1970s and 80s, and remember the Mustang being this:

which, I’m sure you’ll agree is hardly much different in appearance to a Chrysler ‘K’ car. (If you don’t know that ‘K’ car, look it up for a laugh.)

So, is the Mustang really legendary? Or is this just current marketing jargon with a view to raising its status in British eyes?

Lots of people saw the classic in films and never drove one?

A K car for your viewing pleasure:

I think the version you remember was definitely a bit shit, but the Mustang has a fair bit of genuine racing history behind it. That’s where the “legend” tag comes from.

Plus, it hasn’t always looked like a Datsun Cherry:

They still on live axles and 50bhp/litre?

Yes, mostly from ‘Bullitt’ and the 90’s ‘Gone in 60 seconds’ I think, it’s just on of those cars, even if a lot of them over the years were pretty terrible.

As I understand it, it was the first ‘sort of’ sports car that 60’s college kids could afford to buy or rather their parents for them, as it wasn’t overly expensive. It became an instant massive hit. perpetuated by the Hertz rent-a-car Mustang and the myths around that ie renting for drag racing and renting and swapping engines etc, Shelby Mustang, Bullit car . Afaic it’s only the 65 1/2, 66 and 67 Mustangs that are still fawned over.
We owned a ’67 289 V8 convertible for about 10 years. It was a lovely car to drive by Classic American car standards (We owned a few), but by modern standards it was a bit carp to drive as you might expect. The brakes where hopeless once they got a bit hot.
Haven’t got any great photos of it unfortunately, from some angles it looked great ie as above front on, from other angles it looked just like a slightly smaller yank tank.

PS we traded in the salmon Pink ’56 Desoto for it.

The very embodiment of the phrase ‘all mouth and no trousers’.

i guess the same could be said for many cars of the 1980s…

1980

1975….

lets face it – the 80s was a pretty shit time for new cars- unless you were buying group B rally cars 😀 the 60s and 70s stuff was timeless..

The Flying Ox – Member

Plus, it hasn’t always looked like a Datsun Cherry:

…in fairness, a normal mustang also looks A LOT different to a Boss 429 too.

It was a blue collar sports car, in reach of the average working man. Or at least the originals were, don’t know where the modern ones stand nowadays. I still really like the look of those 60’s ones.

I think the went over to independent rear suspension a few years ago.

It’s still a cheap way to get a 5.0 V8. A fully loaded Mondeo would cost you more. If you heard one you might understand the appeal a little more. This sort of car is a dying breed in the world of strict C02 policies and high fuel prices and a lot people want to get a V8 out their system without forking out for a classic.

I do have a serious desire for a car with more than 4 cylinders.

But not that one, when there are BMW 330is all over the place!

Okay, I am still not entirely sold on the Mustang as deserving of ‘legendary’ status, although I accept the history that some of you have pointed out.

Whatever the case, though, I may have just got a little excited over this:

The ten-year-old boy in me may have just weed himself a little.

It’s still a cheap way to get a 5.0 V8. A fully loaded Mondeo would cost you more. If you heard one you might understand the appeal a little more.

As the classic line goes, it’s not how big but what you do with it…

As the classic line goes, it’s not how big but what you do with it…

yeah while big garish american muscle cars might look a bit knobbish in the uk – nothing marks you out as a king knob like a fast paced near miss overtake in a mondeo driven at the absolute limit.

Watch this:

Now, I realise that there were a couple of past models that might have competed with the likes of Corvette for looks, but really… these were just a fluke.

Nope, the original 1965 Mustang began the Muscle Car Boom at the end of the 60s…

other contenders (Pony Cars), which came about because of the mustang:

Chevrolet Camaro:

Dodge Charger:

Yup, that Dodge Charger:

Pontiac FireBird:

Yep, the older sibling of that Pontiac Firebird:

Plymouth Barracuda:

I could go on, but basically, they’re all dripping with raw sex juice and were called ‘Pony Cars’ because of the ‘Mustang’ (a Mustang being a small horse)

Its like Harley Davidsons. The power of lifestyle marketing to sell hilariously overpriced lumps of agricultural pig iron to idiots with too much money

They still on live axles and 50bhp/litre?

Independent rear suspension and 410-420bhp from an all-alloy quad-cam 5.0 V8 these days. The GT350R (that we don’t get) is north of 100bhp/litre from a normally aspirated V8.

As for their status in the minds of UK buyers, they’re one of the most recognisable/memorable US muscle cars over here, partly due to films like Gone in Sixty Seconds (both original and Cage ones) and Bullitt. Also the most likely one to be rented by tourists, even if they’ve usually been the weak little V6 cabrio ones in Florida.

I rented one in LA for a day. It was a lot of fun, but I suspect you’d have to really want one to buy one in the UK, even if it is a unique proposition in the market.

IMG_2865.JPG by kiteless[/url], on Flickr

IMG_2873.JPG by kiteless[/url], on Flickr

They still on live axles and 50bhp/litre?
Independent rear suspension and 410-420bhp from an all-alloy quad-cam 5.0 V8 these days. The GT350R (that we don’t get) is north of 100bhp/litre from a normally aspirated V8.

Indeed, they’ve gone flat plane crank, which doesn’t give the offbeat burble of a traditional muscle car, but is much better for breathing (the burble is caused by the pulses from 2 cylinder’s worth of exhaust shooting down the exhaust at around the same time – nice for sound but not so good for getting exhaust gases out.)

Its like Harley Davidsons. The power of lifestyle marketing to sell hilariously overpriced lumps of agricultural pig iron to idiots with too much money

That really applies to people in Britain. In the US a Mustang was a small and light car with a modest engine (all relative to the great barges of the time) and was seen in the sixties as we might see an MX-5 today.

Yep, GT350R is flat-plane (like a Ferrari V8), the regular ones are still cross-plane. And do all the burbling you’d expect.

they attract some right weapons though, an almost guaranteed cretin chariot.

Yep, GT350R is flat-plane (like a Ferrari V8), the regular ones are still cross-plane. And do all the burbling you’d expect.

I did not realise that. Makes sense though I suppose.

I always think Gran Tourismo missed a trick, all these classic american muscle cars are in the games so I now know all about them and how to “drive” them (flat out down the straight and gingerly around a bend ;).

But for the 80’s…

Then they stuck in a classic Golf GTi, Renault5 gt turbo, lotus carlton and a lone RS cosworth escort (which is classed as american) so there is none of the European 80’s hot hatch/car vibe that had me mad interested bitd.

I would love to have a rs500 or cossie sapphire vs the carlton, xr3i vs the golf/gt5/metro turbo/astra gte/MG maestro turbo etc etc

SaxonRider

How did this car become ‘legendary’?

Fifty years ago they sold 1.5 million of them. They were cheap, they looked cool, sounded cool and even the under powered variants still had as much or (sometimes a lot) more power than the average car of today.

They had huge success in motorsport and the hero/racing variants of the cars had impeccable heritage which contributed to the car’s status.

How did this car become ‘legendary’?

Somebody in my town owns a new one in black. It looks very nice in the flesh and nowhere near as big and unwieldy as I expected it to.

I’ve owned many many classic yanks and they all have a character about them that makes most modern cars seems a little sterile. The mustang was never considered the originator of the muscle car era. You can look at the early chrysler 300’s or the 64 goat for that. It was however cheap , good looking and available with so many options that anyone could drive it from a straight six up to a 289 originally. Later cars got bigger and heavier, as did most muscle cars in the race for horsepower, and most agree that it lost its way around 72. The fox platform in the late 80’s and early 90’s is when they came back again with the 5.0. Still cheap if you want bang for buck.

And yes I did live out my own bullit scene.

A few I’ve owned. Many years ago and I do miss them….

It makes me kind of sad to think they’ll sell nowhere near as many Mustang’s as they will Kuga’s in this country, credit to Ford for importing it knowing it won’t be a massive seller.

Never really a fan of the ‘stang, I used to buy Hot Rod and Custom magazine when I was at school, and I developed a real jones for the Dodge Charger, with the big 427 hemi, a passion that was reinforced by the car chase in Bullit.
It’s smaller sibling, the Challenger, rather took its place after I saw Vanishing Point, and I still rather prefer the Challenger, the modern version is a real muscle car, like the current Mustang and the Camaro, the Charger is a big saloon much used by the likes of NCIS.
The one car that I would dearly, dearly love, given significant sums to find a good one, is the Hemi ‘Cuda, it’s a beautiful car, the lines just flow from end to end.
There’s a lot of sophisticated stuff going on underneath the modern muscle cars, like magnetic fluid dampers, which you only usually find on top-end Porsche and the like.
I think someone took a Camaro around Laguna Seca Raceway, with sand blowing across the Tarmac, and was pulling .9G on the corners, pretty impressive with a big car.

A Hemi ‘Cuda for sunnier climes!
The Camaro has changed a bit since ’67…

I think the Chalkenger SRT Hellcat is a bit more understated, and better for it…

It’s my favourite car memory. Renting a mustang convertible in Denver, and driving up Pike’s Peak.

I loved that thing. It’s not a good car objectively. It felt cheaply-made, had a TERRIBLE auto slushbox and wasn’t especially quick. But it just looks so right to me, and I got so many compliments from other people – American love Mustangs it seems! And it loved drift-bouncing round the Pike’s Peak switchbacks. I would have one in a heartbeat (but I’ll have to wait for the prices to come down). Remember in the USA these things are way cheaper than an equivalent BMW or Audi.

P.S. I also got the worst sunburn ever on that trip. 60 miles of dead straight American road, scorching sun at altitude and roof-down wind-in-hair so you can’t feel it. It was kinda like phantom of the opera or something. Only the left side of my face was burnt. I was there to give a presentation the next day. I looked AMAZING. Good times.

Oh now, that T-top Trans Am is awesome. ^^

I really enjoy watching classic touring cars, no sixties TC race is complete without a knuckle back, or a jag mk1 or 2, mini, alfa…………

Ox’s black ‘Stang and the lime ‘Cuda win for me – never driven either but muscle is about the look for me. You want fast, or sophisticated, you’ll find better elsewhere. But proper old muscle cars look ace – I’d have a seventies Stingray on the drive if the lottery numbers come good.

the new camaro is based on the commodore.

and they do an estate version

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore/sportwagon-range/ss-v-redline%5D

they are good for getting to the trails quickly.

My pick-up ride.

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Like Holden in Oz Rich

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and simply once you have pulled your wheelspin trick, slithered round a wet corner and all that you still have a car that needs filling more often than the Tesla that was getting bagged for having a crap range 😉 (and thats probably if you drive it like your grandmother it will probably only go half as far with a heavy foot) https://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/models

That black boss 429 is nice.

I am guessing the L023 Dart was the quickest of the muscle cars.

I’m not sure what the stylists were on in the mid 60’s but it is strange how their work still looks great day and appeals to people 60 years later. Great looking cars, V8 or not.

We will be looking at an M3 or an RS4 in 40 years time thinking “oh yes this was the dogs b0ll0x lets restore one”?