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A Muscle Car Revolution...Part 1
by David C. Atkin
The Ford Mustang was built to do battle against the Chevrolet Corvette and the Corvair Monza Spider. The Mustang came out in 1964, at first with a straight six, but by 1965 Ford decided that the car actually needed some kind of power.
A straight six could never produce the kind power Ford needed, so in 1965 the 225 HP 289 CID V8 was introduced to the Mustang, and this was a brilliant idea for Ford that skyrocketed the Mustangs sales, it was the introduction of the pony car. Basically the idea was to use a smaller mid sized car with a larger engine, thereby producing a much better power to weight ratio, and making the car more exciting to drive.
This would make the car a lot more interesting to the babe boomers, the younger people from the 1960's era, these were the kids that were in their late teens and early 20s, this would be so appealing to the younger people of that time era, that it would set sales records that it would hold for years to come.
It would sell 500,000 units its very first year, and this was an unbelievable feat for any car during those times, and had never been done before, and this had thought Ford a lesson, they learned that they could produce cars at this rate.
Ford would keep generating interest in the Mustang by adding grundles of new higher performance models, they created a large stable of these pony cars, during 1965 Ford would release the Mustang GT, yet more power, to make the motorheads go nuts.
The Mustang had already become a desirable commodity. Its standard equipment included, bucket seats. It had the immediately popular long hood , short deck look. At first it came as a sports coupe (two door hardtop), and a sporty looking convert able.
In the fall of 1964, the 2+2 Fastback was added to the lineup. From the outset, the option list was important in the making of the Mustang. Buyers could add appearance and convenience extras, plus some bolt on high performance hardware. However being based on a compact low priced Falcon, there was some room for improvement in the go fast department.
Combining available mechanical features with new visual pieces made the GT package a fairly thorough upgrade. First the buyer had to order an optional V-8 engine, which at the time included the 225 HP Challenger Special 289 at $157, or the high performance 271 HP 289 CID engine for $430.
The Mustang never did come up against the likes of an L88 Corvette or a ZL1 Camaro or Corvette, it would lose horribly, as the ZL1 Camaro was running in the 10s for the 1/4 mile with a 0-60 of 3.8 seconds, and the ZL1 Vette was even faster, and the L88 wasnt far behind these cars at all.
Now I know what you Mustang and Ford nuts are going to say, what about the GT350, what about the GT500, what about the Boss 429 mustang, and most of all what about the Cobra?? Well, even the almighty Cobra never beat the ZL1 Corvette down; this is always what you Ford nuts fall back on.
The 289 and 302 Mustangs never beat down the 302 DZ Camaros, and moreover, I have driven them all, except the Cobra.
It's true I am a Chevy lover, but I have owned or at least driven most of the Ford and Chevy modelS that were ever really considered to be the mean ones. So, I speak from knowledge, and not just as a Chevy or Ford lover.
Never did the Mustang or the Cobra even come close to doing battle with the L88 Corvette or the ZL1 Corvette, and still to this day hasn't done so.
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