Engineers were inspired by the P-51 Mustang’s aggressive image and decided to borrow the name for their new creation. The Mustang was a concept car, so more than anything it had to look the part. California custom car builder Troutman & Barnes was tapped to craft the hand-hammered aluminum body. It featured flip-up headlamps to streamline airflow and racy looks; an integrated roll-hoop also blended style and function. The Mustang I Concept was tiny, riding on a 90-inch wheelbase and weighing just 1148 pounds, giving it an excellent power-to-weight ratio with the street-spec 89hp, and eye-opening performance with the extra 20hp of the race configuration. At the car’s debut at Watkins Glen, American F1 ace Dan Gurney laid down demonstration laps fast enough to make the field of the sports car support race that weekend. This from a car that 100 days earlier was nothing more than a sketch on a designer’s pad!

The Mustang was an instant hit with the public—20,000 brochures were given away on the Watkins Glen weekend alone!—as well as with the automotive press. It made the cover of the December 1962 issue of Car and Driver among other publications, and it was universally lauded for its beauty and technical achievement. It accomplished exactly what Iacocca and the rest of the Ford brass intended—sparking renewed interest in Ford as a performance brand.