The Ford Mustang produced by the Ford Motor Company, is originally based on the Ford Falcon compact. The first production Mustang rolled off the assembly line on March 9, 1964, and was introduced to the public at the New York World's Fair on April 17, 1964. It was one of the most successful product launches in automotive history. The Mustang sold over one million units in its first 18 months on the market.
The Mustang created a new "pony car" class of cars by adapting the "long hood, short deck" look of sports cars to compact sedans.
The Mustang has remained in continuous production to present day after many decades and numerous revisions.
While the original concept for the Mustang did not foresee its evolution into a performance car, Ford has catered to individuals looking for more performance.
Early variants available direct from the factory included the Boss 302 Mustang and Mach 1. While high performance vehicles fell out of favor during the fuel crisis of the 1970s, the tradition was carried forward in later years with the Ford Mustang SVO and Ford Mustang SVT Cobra.
Over the years, third party vendors and independent car designers have utilized the Mustang as a starting point for their own designs. Designers such as Carroll Shelby and companies such as Roush Performance and Saleen have made a name for themselves by specializing in producing Mustang performance parts and building custom cars.
In the 1960s and into the mid-1970s Mustangs were prominently used in the Trans Am Series. Currently, Mustangs are used in a number of different racing series, including the KONI Challenge Series, where it won the manufacturers title in 2005. The Mustang remains a popular track and drag strip car at amateur and professional levels of competition.
Professional drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. of Ford Racing and Falken Tires, drifts a Ford Mustang in the Formula Drift and D1 Grand Prix series. He is currently the number one ranked American drifter in the world [10].
The Mustang has been on the Car and Driver Ten Best list five times: 1983, 1987, 1988, 2005, and 2006, and won Motor Trend Car of the Year award in both 1974 and 1994. Ford Division's entire car line won the Car(s) of the Year award in 1964, which was the Mustang's first year of production, but a few weeks before its actual introduction.
The 1965 Mustang also won the Tiffany Gold Medal for excellence in American design, which was the first automobile to ever do so. In 2005, the Mustang was nominated for the North American Car of the Year award and won the Canadian Car of the Year award.
