The Mustang

(From Answers.com) The Ford Motor Company unveiled its new car, the Mustang, 45 years ago today, at the New York World's Fair. The first of the "pony cars," the Mustang was a runaway hit. Though the Ford company only expected to sell about 100,000 cars in the first year, six times that many were sold that model year and it had already made its movie debut in Goldfinger. Agents took orders for 22,000 cars on its premier day, with a ticket price of $2,368. The Mustang was the first car ever to win the Tiffany Gold Medal for Excellence in American Design; it went on to win many other awards and was named five times to the Car and Driver Ten Best list.

Mustang Trivia:

• The Mustang was meant to be a little coupe based on the Falcon chassis.
• The V8 models were based on the Fairlane.
• An easy way to find out if a Mustang came from the factory with an eight or a six was by number of wheel lugs. All early Mustangs with 4 lug wheels were sixes.
• The experimental 260 ci V8 in the orignal Mustang grew up into the 289, then 302 and 351 W. That engine would be used by Ford for decades to come.