Ford Mustang I

The Ford Mustang I is a small, mid-engined, open two-seater concept car with aluminium bodywork and a four-cylinder engine that Ford built in 1962. Although it shared few design elements with the final production vehicle, it lent its name to the Mustang line. It came from the Fairlane Group, a committee of Ford managers led by Lee Iacocca, which in summer 1962 laid out a low-cost sports car to fill the vacuum between go-karts and the Corvette and to compete in FIA category 9 and SCCA Class G. Designer Eugene Bordinat coordinated the styling, and Philip T. Clark had long worked on the low-slung Mustang shape; the working dimensions were a 90 inch wheelbase, and a one-piece body skin was riveted to a space frame with the seats part of the body so the pedals and steering column adjusted to the driver. The one working car made its formal debut at the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York, on 7 October 1962, when Dan Gurney lapped the track in it, and the two Mustang Is toured car shows and colleges for two years until the four-seat Mustang II concept replaced them. The operational car was donated to The Henry Ford Museum in 1974.