Twenty Things you Probably did not Know About Mustangs

So, you love the Ford Mustang, but just how much do you know about them? These 20 little pieces of trivia contain some fun and informative tidbits that you may not have known about this great American classic. Who knows, you just might learn something.

1.   The Ford Mustang was originally named for the P-51 Mustang, a popular fighter plane. During the development of the car, there were allusions made comparing the car to the horse and the running horse motif became the well-known emblem for the Mustang.

2.   On the first day the Mustang was available for sale; it racked up more than 22,000 sales. In its first two years, more than one million Mustangs were sold.

3.   The running horse emblem on the grill is running in the opposite direction of that of real racehorses on an American racetrack.

4.   In 1966, there was a Shelby that was specially prepared for Hertz Rent A Car that was for rental for weekend drag racers. It was known as the Shelby GT-350H.

5.  When the Ford Mustang made its debut, it sported the super affordable price tag of $2,320.96. This was about half the price of the Chevrolet Corvette.

6.  In 1964, the Mustang finished first and second in class in the international rally race, the Tour de France.

7.  The first motion picture in which a Ford Mustang appeared was a white convertible in the James Bond classic, “Goldfinger.”

8.  At the 1964, 1979, and 1994 Indianapolis 500 races, the Mustang was the official pace car.

9.   In Dearborn, Michigan in 1966, the one millionth Mustang rolled off of the production line.

10.  In 1974, Motor Trend’s Car of the Year was the Mustang II.

11.  There have been 6.9 million Mustangs sold in the United States in the past three and a half decades.

12.  The only year that Ford did not offer a V8 engine in the Mustang was 1974. It was the first year of the Mustang II and there were massive consumer complaints about the missing V8. It was offered again in 1975.

13.  The 1979 to 1993 Mustangs are known as “Fox Bodies” because they were built on the Fox platform.

14.  Racer Tommy Kendall was undefeated for an entire season with his Mustang in SCCA Trans Am.

15.  Ford Motorsport SVO was the original name for Ford Racing Performance Parts.

16.  In 1993, there were only 107 Mustang Cobra Rs produced.

17.  The computer that is in the kick panel of all of the fuel injected 5.0 Mustangs is called the EEC IV.

18.  There were fewer than 500 1995 Mustang Cobras that were built with the removable hardtop option.

19.  The 1966 Cobra ranks second as the fastest American made car. It is a four speed with a 427 V8 and 425-horse power.

20.  Touted the greatest car chase scene of all time, the car chase in the 1968 movie, Bullitt, featured a 1968 Ford Mustang GT and it was driven by Steve McQueen.