When the Ford Mustang for sale
was introduced 43 years
ago and has earned its place as a true American legend. From its inception,
The Mustang
took the automotive world by storm, spawning fan clubs of enthusiastic baby
boomers that were just coming of driving age in the mid-1960s. It seemed
everyone wanted a Ford Mustang for sale and Ford was all too happy to
provide one.
In the first year,
Ford sold more than 600,000
Mustangs. Derivatives came quickly as customers wanted to
personalize their Mustang. There were numerous body styles, from
coupe to fastback to Mustang convertible,
and scores of powertrain and styling packages.
The original MACH1 Mustang was introduced
in 1968 as a concept car with a hatched fastback, aggressive hood and side
scoops and a unique paint scheme. In 1969, the Mustang Mach 1 was one of three new
Mustang models that made it into production. It featured the familiar
fastback body with simulated side scoops high on the quarter panel, an
aggressively raked air dam on the front and a spoiler on the rear,
“comfort-weave” leather seats and the now famous, “shaker hood scoop”
mounted directly onto the carburetor and fitting through an opening in the
hood.
Underneath,
the 1969 Mustang MACH1 offered a
250-horsepower 351 Windsor V-8 or a 335-hp 428 Cobra-Jet mill. Mach 1
and its stablemate, the Mustang Boss 302, reenergized the fastback, tripling sales of the body style in
1969. The much smaller Mustang II
model, introduced in 1974 as a response to the nation’s “energy crisis,” was
the weaker sibling to its older muscle car brothers. The 1974 Mach 1
featured a 2.8-liter V-6 with dual exhaust while the other Mustang
s of the period carried 2.3-liter I-4s as the base engine.