The gleaming red hood stretching back to the distant windshield is the business end of a new U.S.-built sports car. But unlike most other sports cars, this one -- a Ford subspecies called the Mustang, which goes on sale this week -- is not offered as a rich man's toy. The manufacturers produced it on the theory that a lot of people who would like to own a sports car hold back because of the generally prohibitive cost of most models. In its basic model with stick shift and standard 6-cylinder engine -- but without frills -- the Mustang is made to sell for $2,368 (F.O.B. Detroit), which puts it in the price range of sporty compacts. There are, of course, lots of optional doo-dads that can run up the price. With the addition of a hotter engine and other equipment, the Mustang can be turned into a racer. An an electrical device can be installed to allow the optional girl, who fits naturally into a sports car, to put the top down with a languid finger.
-- From "Sports Car for the Masses" (Life magazine, April 17; story: @)
-- Photo of Mustang on display at New York World's Fair; from FordOnline
* "Today in History: 1964 Ford Mustang Debuts" (from Fordautostore.com): @
* "Ford Mustang Introduced by Lee Iacocca at the 1964 World's Fair" (from FordOnline): @
* Text of Iacocca's speech (April 13): @
* Commercial (shown before debut): @
* Press kit: @
* "Ford Galloping Out a Mustang" (Miami News, April 13): @
* "New Mustang Looks Like Lot Of Car" (Pittsburgh Press, April 13): @
* "The Mustang" (Ford video on early stages of car's development): @
* "1964 1/2 Ford Mustang" (Car and Driver magazine, May 1964): @
* Happy 50th, Ford Mustang!" (Hot Rod magazine, 2014): @
* "The Ford Mustang Wasn't The First Pony Car" (Automobile magazine, 2013): @
* Mustang: Fifty Years: Celebrating America's Only True Pony Car" (Donald Farr, 2013): @
* "Mustang 1964 1/2 -- 1973" (Mike Mueller, 2000): @
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