1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Mike Mueller

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       Mickey Thompson also promoted the Mach 1 brand one quarter-mile at a time in 1969 using two funny cars, one blue, the other red, both powered by 427 single-overhead-cam (SOHC) V-8s. Danny Ongais was all but unbeatable in the blue flopper; Pat Foster piloted its red running mate. (Photo Courtesy Bob McClurg)

      Thompson and co-driver Danny Ongais assaulted Bonneville’s test courses at various times during July, August, and September 1968, eventually setting 295 United States Auto Club Class B and C records for both speed and endurance. The United States Auto Club (USAC) B classification was for cars with engines displacing 305 to 488 ci; C was for displacements of 183 to 305 inches. Thompson’s two 427 Mustangs concentrated on top-end B runs beginning with both standing and flying starts. The yellow small-blocker went after those same straight-line speed standards plus various long-distance records, established on a rutted 10-mile oval. Kicking up sodium nonstop for 24 hours, it averaged 157.663 mph and piled up 3,783 miles, 405 miles farther, and 17 mph faster than the existing best 24-hour performance in Class C.

      USAC officials were amazed, Knudsen was pleased beyond measure, and Ford’s advertising guys back East were more than willing to spread the word in no time flat. “All these records make an undeniable statement about the new 1969 Mustang,” touted the resulting magazine ad, placed in all the right buff books in the fall of 1968. “Never before has any car combined the performance to go so fast and the durability to do it for so long. What this means to you: The 1969 Mustangs are winners; at the track or on the turnpikes.” Curiously, not once was the Mach 1 name mentioned in this black-and-white one-pager.

      Hot Rod, however, gave due credit, this after Thompson invited editor Ray Brock (and Sports Illustrated feature writer Bob Ottum) to turn some high-speed laps around the Bonneville oval during the team’s initial Salt Flats visit in July. Brock didn’t disappoint, putting the three purpose-built pony cars on his October 1968 cover, along with the main man behind the machines. “Mickey Thompson proves 1969 Mustang Mach 1 performance with Bonneville endurance runs,” read the accompanying blurb.

      Ford’s original Mach 1 also made the covers of Motor Trend (August 1968), via artistic conception, and Car and Driver (November 1968). Then came the aforementioned March 1969 Car Life issue, leading up front with “The First Great Mustang.”

      Hyperbole? You make the call.

       CHAPTER 1

       OUTSIDE THE BOX

       Formally renamed SportsRoof for 1969, Ford’s latest, lowered fastback Mustang was a perfect base for the Mach 1. Various standard GT features carried over into the Mach realm, explaining why early Ford paperwork referred to this new model as a Super GT.

      Engineers were still tinkering with the chassis for 1967’s bulked-up Mustang in the fall of 1965 when Dearborn’s advance design team began drawing up the breed’s next new skin, scheduled for 1969. That bigger, better foundation surely would carry on underneath. But it would be two years and gone for the outer hide that had critics a half-century back agreeing almost as well as today’s Democrats and Republicans.

      “Anyone who likes the old Mustang ought to go nuts for the 1967,” claimed a Car and Driver review. “It’s a much better looking car than photographs show, and we think the styling is tougher than last year’s. It’s heftier, and more substantial looking.”

      However, at Road & Track, staffers didn’t buy into that bigger-is-better proposition. In their minds, “The 1967 facelift has retained all the identifying characteristics of the first series but has fattened up the Mustang in all directions. It still has that chunky look about it and, frankly, looks a bit old-fashioned beside its new competitors.”

      Pooh-poohing purists furthermore pointed derisively to falling numbers, as Mustang production went from an all-time high of 607,568 in 1966, to 472,121 in 1967, then 317,404 in 1968. But there was no need to panic, no need to let fly with a “make Mustang great again” battle cry. Rolling 300,000 cars per year out the door still qualified as nothing to sneeze at, and Dearborn’s original pony car remained number one in its field, by far, throughout this decade. And well into the next.

       Designers began fattening Ford’s pony in 1967, making extra room for, among other things, the breed’s first big-block V-8. Interior space and cargo capacity increased marginally, too.

      Besides, blaming the 1967 upsized redesign alone for downsized sales was simply deplorable considering the market impact made by those new competitors, which, along with Plymouth’s critically acclaimed restyled Barracuda, included General Motors’ two pioneering ponies, Chevrolet’s Camaro and Pontiac’s Firebird. Hell, Mustang even had to learn to share the 1967 pie with a corporate cousin, Mercury’s Cougar. Then another slice was carved out by American Motors’ all-new Javelin in 1968.

      Putting a second fresh face on the Mustang proved to be particularly timely in 1969 after the Firebird and Camaro also were notably updated, with that new Chevy representing one of the 1960s most fondly remembered four-wheeled forms. Once again, Dearborn designers working in 1965 recognized the importance of retaining certain “identifying characteristics” but at the same time weren’t blind to the demands of progress. Hence the various significant updates seen in October that year on a clay mockup still plainly based on the original model. Most prominent were hidden headlamps up front.

      Design chief Gale Halderman’s group also explored all-new body styles, including a sporty targa-top and a radical fastback that looked an awful lot like a station wagon (a concept tried as well, more than once, by Camaro’s dream team at Chevrolet). Although the targa theme never made it off the drawing board, the “wagon” idea, sketched in July 1966, looked good enough to morph into a fiberglass model. But it progressed no further. Not forgotten, however, were its two large air scoops, located up high, one on each rear quarter panel.

      Similar scoops appeared on a notably shortened fastback conceived later in October. As Halderman explained to Automobile Quarterly Publications author Gary СКАЧАТЬ