A new breed of Pony. When Ford introduced the 1965 Mustang, they not only created a new car, but started a craze. Before the introduction of the iconic Ford Mustang, the Big Three’s stylists’ idea of a powerful factory car, was a vehicle that in many ways, resembled a large metal boat with fins and then stuffed in, the biggest motor they made.
The Mustang changed all this. Lee Iacocca, at the time, Vice President of Ford had a vision of the future for a new sports car that seated 4 people, had bucket seats, a floor mounted shifter, and weighed less than 2,500 lbs.
Nicely styled, light and quick and priced at only $2,368 f.o.b. Detroit, the car was an instant hit. In fact, 22,000 of these little pony cars flew out of showroom doors the very first day. Not only did the buying public sit up and take notice, so did the competition and it didn’t take long for a swarm of other cars to compete against these soon to be called pony cars.