New Book on Mustangs

Red Baron · **Posted:** Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:51 pm

Donald Farr, the editor of Mustang Monthly Magazine, has just written a new book to honor the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang. The new book is titled; Mustang: Fifty Years. This book is officially licensed by Ford Motor Company.

This new book arrived at bookstores in October and the 256 page book lists for $50. I ordered my copy from Amazon.com for $37. The book chronicles the 50 years of the Ford Mustang, from it's inception in the 1960's to the latest 2014 models. The book is divided into chapters covering all of the Mustang generations-1965-1973, Mustang II, Fox body, Fox-4, and the current S197 models. The book also includes Mustang Racing history, concepts and prototypes and community activity such as clubs, collectors, etc. The book also covers the Mustang in popular culture.

Farr used period correct images from the Ford Archives and the vast collection of photos from the Petersen Publishing archives, now maintained by Mustang Monthly's parent company, Source Interlink Media.

I'll review the book once it arrives and post my thoughts onto the forum. This sounds like it would be a great Christmas gift for any Mustang enthusiast! :btu:

Midnight Blue
MCOM Treasurer-Historian

Great White · **Posted:** Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:23 pm

looking forward to that Steve.

BruceWGT · **Posted:** Wed Oct 23, 2013 4:24 pm

Me too!

Red Baron · **Posted:** Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:40 am

My Mustang book arrived today so I only had a limited amount of time to look through the book. This is quite an impressive book. Donald Farr had access to the Ford Archives and quite frankly there are many photos in this book that I have never seen before!

There are also a lot of behind the scenes stories describing the environment of the auto industry in the 1950's and 1960's which led to the decision to build a youth oriented car. The book covers every era of the Mustang as would be expected but also spends time on Mustang Racing and Mustang specialty cars from Steve Saleen, Carroll Shelby and Jack Roush and the SVO Performance cars. All of the models are covered right up to the 2014 models. He also has chapters on Mustang Clubs, Mustang Culture, Mustang Anniversary Celebrations, Mustangs in the movies, Mustangs mentioned in pop music and everything that makes the Mustang such as special car.

I'll do more of a formal review after I have had a chance to read the book but so far I'm very impressed with what I have seen! :btu:

Midnight Blue
MCOM Treasurer-Historian

Red Baron · **Posted:** Tue Nov 05, 2013 11:12 pm

While I have just started to read this new book by Donald Farr I have been impressed with the historical background he has included in this story. The story includes the failure of the Edsel and how this personal and costly new car introduction affected any new vehicles being introduced by Ford. It details the key players at Ford and how Lee Iacocca became the youngest General Manager of the Ford Division at the age of 36!

Again I am impressed with the never before seen photos in this book and the coverage of the other manufacturers and their products such as the Corvair and Barracuda to reach the youth market. The secret meetings of a handful of young Ford Executives who believed in the concept of a youth car and the work done behind the scenes in order to gain the approval of Henry Ford II is enthralling.

Based on my leafing through the book and now my actually reading the book I would highly recommend this book to any true Mustang enthusiast! They go into much more detail than I ever expected just to come up with the name Mustang for the car. Originally the concept car that was chosen was named Cougar and everyone believed that the actual car would carry that name. However a lot of market research using animals to appeal to the younger buyers showed that the name Mustang was received better than Cougar. The name Mustang represented an untamed and wild equine image that conjured up cowboys and wild horses running freely through the open spaces of the wild west. This was the image that Ford wanted for their new sporty 4 seat car.

Lee Iacocca put his reputation and his career on the line for the Mustang but he wasn't worried as he knew in his gut that this car was a winner. Using the Falcon frame, power train and other Falcon parts saved Ford a ton of money and expedited the completion of the car in record time. It was also the convincing business case that Iacocca was able to use to convince Henry Ford II to approve the project. Initial production estimates were for 85,000 cars which would have been the break even point for Ford. Even before the car was introduced market research had indicated that Iacocca's estimate of the youth market was conservative so production was increased and another assembly plant in California was set up to feed the West Coast.

I'm only now at the part where the car is being introduced at the 1964 World's Fair in New York but getting to this part has been a blast!

Midnight Blue
MCOM Treasurer-Historian

Mustang Club of Maryland

New Book on Mustangs

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