The Short Life and Happy Death of Mustang II
I was a mere slip of a lad when the Ford Motor Company introduced the original pony car, the Mustang, in 1964. It was a big hit in our suburban New York neighborhood.
I was impressed. Years later, when I bought my first car, it was a second-hand 1970 Mustang convertible. I drive a red Mustang ragtop today.
I bring this up because, as the presidential candidates race to come up with the dumbest idea for addressing the gas crisis, I’m reminded of the Mustang II.
For those who did not suffer through the Tony Manero, ayatollah, gas-lines years, the Mustang II was Ford’s instant answer to the energy crisis of the late 1970s. The original Mustang had gotten big and heavy as Ford larded on performance extras, so a redesign was inevitable. But the Mustang II was awful.
Unless, of course, you like a wussy compact car, on a Pinto frame, with a 4-cylinder 90-horsepower engine that went from 0 to 60 in about 12 minutes.
In pumpkin orange.
Ford tried to make amends, adding a bigger engine and, in later years, Cobra and King Cobra models, but wisely abandoned the experiment in 1978.
The next generation Mustang, introduced in 1979, represented a return to basics. And in 1983, after a ten-year hiatus, Ford brought the ragtop back. As the Mustang improved, over time, it met the freedom-lovin zeitgeist of the Reagan years—just as the Mustang II was a fitting symbol for the silly, sensitive Seventies.
“Buh-buh-buh Bennie and the Jets….”
So what does this have to do with our current straits?
I offer the saga of the Mustang II as a cautionary tale, before we start dumping oil on the sandy beaches of
In the story of this sad little automobile, we recognize that the first reaction of our corporate and political leaders to pending economic discomfort can, as likely as not, result in hideous blunders.
In pumpkin orange.
Tags: energy | nuclear power | fuel efficiency
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Mustang II
I have a 1977 mustang II Ghia with a 302 V8. It is a great car to drive, and it always turns heads. I had someone in a shelby cobra give me a "thumbs up". I think that they are good cars, and do not get the credit that they deserve. They saved the mustang name in 1974.
mustang II
back in '74 i had a co-worker who owned a red mustang II. i rode in it one time and found it to be stiff and uncomfortable. i can't comment on its performance but i did like the way the li'l thing looked. it did hark back to the earlier days of the 'stang, though smaller. i thought it looked more like a capri than anything else. i hardly see any IIs anymore, but there is a purple one in my town that is being used a planter-box for a body shop - it sits right on main street with flowers and bushes filling its engine compartment.
Mustang II
Its nice to see alot of people sticking up for the mustang II. This was said already but if it was not made we would not have mustangs today they would have dropped the line. This is a very important car in mustang history. I really think they went back to there roots with this car. People like this person who wrote the article make it sound like gm and mopar had such fast cars of that era they suffered also. There arent many mustang IIs around today even though they made tons of them. Most ended up being parts cars for street rods. I still have mine and I enjoy driving it. Every were I go with it I always get a positive reaction.
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